Black Is King

As a black man, this whole film reeked of racism. The title alone is enough to turn you away and the hour and half long film appears to be a desperate attempt at some sort of award. No thanks.

Black is King is one of the worst "movies" I ever watched, I don't get what the message should be. Cinematography is less than mediocre, the director(s) is clearly lacking professional knowledge and talent, the "acting" is really bad and the claim to be art is just ridiculous. It seems to be a overproduced vanity peace for silly costumes, nonsense quotes and a protagonist who is so out of touch and unable to realize what's really going on in the world right now. Very weird time to release a vanity piece like "Black is King". In my opion, Beyonce is overrated and has been for years.

The audio and imagery of this film are breathtaking. And yes, I said "film". Non-narrative films exist. Knowing that this is a visual album with a loose-thematic basis in The Lion King, I don't know how you could be disappointed. Mixing imagery, cultures, and languages from every corner of Africa gives Black is King a very pan-African feel that mostly works well. Black is King is first and foremost a celebration of blackness and it is beautiful, although not as subversive or deep as Lemonade. It's not a perfect film, but it is great and definitely worth the watch! Also: There is nothing political or "anti-white" about this film; neither is there any connection to BLM or anti-state-violence activism within this film as previous reviewers have erroneously implied (not that there is anything wrong with being political or critiquing state violence in a film, most films are political, grow up about it). If you didn't make it past the title, please refrain from leaving a review.

85 minutes of the most visually arresting, mind-blowingly opulent and strikingly powerful visuals ever put to film. It's truly that good.

I come from a country where we actually do have a thing such as a king and a queen, where royalty is viewed as something extremely special and representing of *our* culture and history. For that reason, and what the title of this 1 hour and half long "artsy" music video implies (that a race in and of itself can be linked to something superior), I am indeed offended by this choice. I think it's disrespectful to the meaning of my culture and several others, and a hypocritical nonsensical message, and as you've noticed by now, adds nothing but division after there are so many of us from every race supporting the whole Black Lives Matter movement with passion, and will strive to continue to do so. To remove all the humanity and make it about being supreme and "royal" is beyond me.

Of course, I think it's great to strengthen the bonds and the history and the culture and roots of people of color, especially with someone high profile like Beyoncé doing it thereby having everybody seeing it. But this is simply not it. There is nothing educational, barely anything artistic except for extremely glamourous shots and vibing music that ends up just being the background, as does the actual Lion King aspect which fades out quickly.

To the ones who keep defending Black Is King by saying that it's *Beyonce*, the "film" has no ill intentions, and we all don't have a right to feel offended or disrespected here (funny how that goes), you don't even have to watch the movie to get it. Just go straight to the trailer and they literally have the *only* noticeably white (male) in the whole thing stand as a servant in the background to a table full of fancy-dressed women of colour having a party. People have tried to furiously defend this but, quit beating around the bush. It's obvious that it's not there by coincidence, it's obvious that it's supposed to be some reversed sh* of what black people went through back when they were forced to be slaves and back when they weren't allowed bigger roles in films and tv and had to represent something like that there. But with its message in today's society, 2020 folks, reversed racism (well, racism), *really*? It's not alright. Not for the movement, not for the people, not for the cultures.

I actually happen to be a big fan of Beyoncé's music and art style (well, the previous), having loved and supported her since I was a kid when I first heard her, so to see her put out something like this... I can't even describe what I feel but it's such a letdown she would go this route.

She could've saved it all focussing on the beauty of the actual African culture and the roots and what it looks like in different places in Africa today, all the different people there, and cut that nonsense offensive title, maybe boost up her music so it doesn't feel like background as much and boost up the Lion King story, and it would've been so good. But that didn't happen.

It's like she finally took all the praise about her being a goddess with beauty and music out-of-this-world to her head and dropped it in one "film" and decided to promote it as African culture supporting all the people of color out there, giving their race a title of royalty and add in a few vain messages about strength and beauty and empowerment and that's it.

Beyoncé's status does not make her free from criticism, and this time she messed up. She deserves to know that and acknowledge she's really forced this whole movement two steps backwards in terms of adding to the discussion, and a lot of supporters of her and of the movement and in different cultures feel offended by what she put out. Please don't just hold her to another standard and let all the people offended by this slide by while you are trying to tell us none of what we think and feel is legit to this situation. We don't move forward by moving backwards.

EDIT/note: After making this review and gaining the huge likes/dislikes, someone has gone out of their way to dislike *all* my other reviews (50+). I know that for a fact since there are so many of them and several of them are just years old with previously 0 votes or some that has seen no votes for a while and are about lesser known pieces, etc.. To see this is unbelievable. I've also come across threads on Twitter dedicated to hanging out reviewers on this site, where you can actually see the usernames, speaking hateful about what is initially someone's bare experience and opinions on this film and what's surrounding it, and suggesting ways to downvote and change the rating etc. Is this the level of mob mentality and hatefulness we have gone to? As a reviewer on this site, too, I have no way of speaking back either to claim respect or do anything about it. Had to share this since it has gotten way too personal, not just for me, and you should never get consequences like this for speaking up your view and experience. I respect every single dislike and every single like on this review but I have to ask for you to be fair. That's all. Wishing good out there, and please ignore this segment while determining whether to like/dislike the actual review I have here. Thank you.