Well, I will say that the synopsis for the 2023 action thriller "Imani" sounded interesting enough to get my attention. And I had not heard about this movie prior to sitting down to watch it, so I didn't know what I was in for, nor did I know what to expect.
Writers Amaleka McCall and Tu-Shonda Whitaker put together a very bland, monotonous and uneventful script and storyline. And running at 117 minutes, sitting through "Imani" was quite an ordeal, because nothing much of anything really happened as the monotonous narrative slowly unfurled on the screen. So I have to say that it felt like director Mike Ho didn't really live up to the premise set by the synopsis.
The acting performances in the movie were sort of bland. I wasn't impressed with what I saw, and most of the performances were one-dimensional, lacking emotion, commitment and drive. And that also made the characters come off as being even more bland than the writers had penned them out to be. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and that is usually something I enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. However, I found little enjoyment here.
Visually then "Imani" wasn't impressive. Truth be told, it wasn't a movie that relied heavily on special effects or CGI, so it wasn't like the stage was set for a grand spectacle of special effects and CGI to blow the audience away.
I found "Imani" to be a boring disappointment, and it was such a dull narrative that I ended up turning off the movie just shy of one hour into the ordeal. But I have to admit by then I was simply bored to tears and didn't care one ounce about neither storyline nor characters. So there simply wasn't any point in prolonging the suffering of sitting through another hour of the ordeal that is "Imani".
This is definitely not a movie that I will recommend you waste your time, money or effort on. Some of us did, to lesser or greater extend, so you don't have to.
My rating of "Imani" lands on a very generous two out of ten stars, and that is based mostly on the production value.
