A charitable view sees this as a Marvel super-hero tale, ignoring the “inspired by true events” prologue, for there is not a believable action or bit of dialogue in the entire film. The battles are bloody and one-sided and the moral message is simplistic: “palm oil good, slavery bad.” A mature Viola Davis is rather a stretch as the Kirk Douglas/Chris Hemsworth figure, but two of her lieutenants are more appealing, and John Boyega does what he can in this orgy of Black woman triumphalism.

A celebration, I guess, of an oddball teenager who makes a series of bad decisions in service to his love of cartooning. Amusing, not funny. You don’t want to feel sorry for people, but overall the picture here is fairly sad.

If I didn’t know “Malik” is Arabic for “king,” I would have thought it meant “Godfather,” so much does this two-hour, forty-minute Indian epic borrow from the Coppola classics, not only characters and plot, but several scenes that are direct lifts. (Then again, maybe in the Malayalam language that’s what it means.) Unfortunately, Fahadh Faasil, who plays the godfather, lacks the presence, or maybe the acting skills, of DeNiro and Pacino. The scenes of criminal activity are beyond belief, but more important and credible are the personal relationships. Although the lightning-fast subtitles and unfamiliar culture made the non-linear story hard to follow, my attention and interest never flagged. [Amazon Prime]