Movie Review: Why “The Set Up 2” Wasn’t as Excellent as the First Part

In this piece, Aderonke Adelabu shares an in-depth review of the movie, The Set Up 2 on Kemi Filani News. Enjoy the review below.

If you saw first instalment of the movie, The Set UP, you’d naturally be inclined to have high expectations of the sequel. This would perhaps be due to factors like how the story was told to the effort that the actors put into bringing their characters to life to how the movie was directed, ‘The Set Up’ was a banger.

The question then becomes, is The Set Up 2′ as good as the first part? Guess we’d find out.

The Set Up Part 2 revolves around Chike (Adesua Etomi), Grace (Kehinde Bankole) and Usi (Nancy Isime). The film opens with Grace happily married to her then Pastor boyfriend, and they have a child now. Usi comes in with her girls and kidnaps Grace’s daughter so Grace can get across to Chike. She needed Chike to do something for her, knowing Grace was her weak point. At this time, just like it ended in Part 1, Chike was already working as an agent for an International Organization.

As expected, Grace met up with Usi and did her biddings which seemed to be a turnaround as it was against her organization’s policy. However, to redeem herself, she gets into bigger troubles, and Grace dies in the course. Angry at the death of Grace, she swears to kill Usi, who seems more experienced and better than her at the game.

Did she kill Usi? Was she able to get her revenge, or did she get into even more trouble? All of that make up the suspense in the movie.

Just like the problem of many other Nigerian movies, the 2nd part wasn’t as good as the first. It felt like the writer and director were more interested in aesthetics than actually telling a story. For one, the story lacked depth, and there were so many unanswered questions. This second part should not have been more than an hour because no story was told there. To make it worse, it has a part 3, and it seems like they want to keep Nigerians coming back. However, the problem isn’t particularly the movie having a part 3; it is that this part 2 wasn’t telling an actual story. They only came to show us how much they’ve learnt how to fight. In short, The Set Up 2 is an action movie.

Niyi Akinmolayan is a good director, and he has established that time and time again. Aside from a few unrealistic scenes like the prison scene where Chike was to sneak Madam out of prison. I am still wondering how that long conversation, shooting and fight happened right inside the prison with no one raising an eyebrow or other wardens coming to find out what happened. That did not make sense at all. Also, how did Chike fight those numbers of men with her wig still intact? We understand that she’s a guru, but that was super unrealistic. Aside from those few errors, ‘The Set Up 2’ was well directed. The fight scenes were beautiful to watch, and they didn’t get boring and annoying because the directing was good.

As much as I feel Adesua Etomi wasn’t so brutal to have taken up Chike’s character, she put her absolute best into delivering that character and has to get credit for that.

Nancy Isime made her role feel so easy and seamless. She killed that role for real. Once again, Kehinde Bankole is an exceptional actress, and we should see more of her on our screen.

Her emotions and acting prowess are applaudable. Tina Mba, Jim Iyke, Kate Henshaw, Stan Nze, Uzor Arukwe, Blossom Chukujekwu and Lota Chukwu also delivered their roles beyond satisfaction.

In short, the acting in The SET UP 2 is a 10/10. Every single actor in that movie put their best into interpreting their characters.

Finally, the set, make-up and costume were good. They deserve some accolades too. In all, asides from the lack of depth in the movie. The Set up 2 was a good one, and it will get a 7/10.

This review was originally published by Aderonke Adelabu on Kemi Filani News.