Movie Review: ‘No Time To Die’, Directed By Femi Adebile
Reviewed by Ajibare Abioye
“No Time to Die” is an instructive production on village evangelism, particularly for youths. More than that, it highlights the need for all believers to die daily to the flesh, so that they would not open their lives up to evil spirits.
It was nice to hear a few lines of dialogue being spoken in Igbo language in the movie. I would also like to commend Peace Adelakun for nailing the character of the mysterious Chinyere. She was made up to look the part and her delivery of lines aided this too.
With great advancements in movie production in the present world, the onus rests on gospel filmmakers to always deliver their best anytime God gives them the opportunity to. The least to be done (and I’m not saying this should be the target) is to get the basics right. The first scene of “No Time to Die” features a troupe dancing out of sync to drum beats most likely placed during post-production; that is not the first impression of your movie you want to create in the minds of the audience. In the long run, that prelude was inconsequential and its insertion is debatable.
Italics are a style of typeface used for special purposes such as to emphasize or distinguish certain words or phrases in a text. Their designation in subtitling is for internal thoughts, emphasis, foreign words, and titles of books or movies. In recent productions from PREM, they are being used for every line of dialogue and description. This is inappropriate and standard subtitling practice should be adopted for subsequent productions.
The role of music in filmmaking cannot be overemphasized. While the score for “No Time to Die” was melodious, its repetition in most scenes is baffling; it made me feel I’d been watching the film for long period of time. It was even used underneath a place where the characters were already singing songs of their own; the result was discordance. The movie was interesting but could have been more with intentional use of music (and this includes silence). Since the song was produced for the film, I believe the editor could have had access to its different components on request, and even if those were the pieces alternated, the end product would have been much better than this.
One key element of screenwriting is structure – the opportunity to build a string of connected characters and events. It is advisable that feature-filmmakers use twenty-five percent of their story to meaningfully set its foundation, which includes character development. While watching “No Time to Die”, I kept wondering who David (the protagonist in my view) was, which shouldn’t be. I’m in no way saying Nigerian gospel movies need to use more time (On the contrary, I opine that if a good number of them have better screenplays, we’d have shorter, more enjoyable films), but attention should be given to constructing a solid Act 1 of their stories.
The movie is right to caution believers about lifestyles that foster the activities of demons in their lives, but I feel its execution could be misconstrued. Covenants kick-started with a complimentary thought? Words consummating a marriage union? These beggar belief, though there might be an element of verity in them.
Furthermore, I must confess that as someone who loves movies, it’s painful to watch how the film medium is evolving into something different in a number of gospel movies. This is a chiefly visual medium we’re talking about here, and I wonder why a film would still need a sermon to tie it together. Similarly, exposition in gospel films ought to be used delicately; else, it usually just becomes a belabouring of the (maybe) obvious.
Conclusively, “No Time to Die” shows us the importance of sensitivity in the spirit and to God’s word per time. We need this so much because there are many things we will never know otherwise.
The link to the movie is https://youtu.be/FPNeRlBaXmc
Till the next article, stay blessed!
Film Credits
NO TIME TO DIE (May 7, 2023)
81 minutes
PREM Film Productions International
Cast
Femi Akindayo as David
Femi Adebile as Timothy
Peace Adelakun as Chinyere
Kayode Owojori as David’s dad
Afolabi Dipeolu as Pastor
Crew
Writer
Femi Adebile
Cinematographer
–
Editor
Adewole Segun
Director
Femi Adebile
