After 30 (2025) || Growth in Reverse?

You know that feeling when you’re just done seeing a film, and so you rush online to see if people share similar reviews as you do, or people can relate to what you saw? I had a rush of emotions with this, and I just knew I need to talk about it with someone. Fast. But, I guess I can just do it with my people here instead.

After 30 (2025)

It’s supposedly ten years since the last production of the series, “Before 30.” Our four women, Temi, Nkem, Aisha and Ama, are ten years older and now in their thirties. Each of them seem to have grown in diverse ways. Nkem has gotten her life in order and is now a successful investment banker, but now with a baby fever that doesn’t look like one of her fleeting impulsions. Temi has risen in ranks as a lawyer, but is visibly nauseated at the mention of anything remotely related to love...that’s until Kunle, the billionaire’s son shows up.

Aisha is now happier, what with her husband, Sherif, now stepping fully into his role as a father, until he brings up the issue of having another child, and finally, Ama. Things seem to be going a lot better for her, especially with her godmother leaving a small fortune for her, but then a beautiful Chef steps into her life, that causes Ama to question everything. Especially herself. What is in store for our women?

My Thoughts and Rating

SPOILER ALERT!

I don’t know, guys. There’s anger. There’s laughter and happiness. There’s sadness, and a host of other emotions you feel after seeing a movie, but you see irritation? Irritation that borders on hate? It’s just a hard pill to swallow. Because someone should tell me, what I just watched. I blame my roommate for being needlessly psyched about this film till I had to get it myself.

The first part was Before 30, and it was released in 2015. So, as our characters are now in their 30’s, we, the audience, have also aged ten years. We should have seen an evolution. But it looks like the script writer was bent on making them grow backwards. Because how are you worse, and making even more foolish decisions in your thirties than in your twenties?

I’ll quickly tell you the things I loved about this movie, though. The wardrobe. The outfits of these women were beyond amazing. Like, whoever was in charge of that ate and left no crumbs. I guess they invested too much in that, that they forgot what was more important which is the STORY itself. But anyway, let’s continue. The set pieces and the lighting were so on point, and even though ten years had passed, the women had become a lot prettier. It was exciting to see. I also loved the tribute to the late Karibi Fubara. It was delivered with respect and grace, and that pleased me a lot.

Yeah, that was about it. We can simply call this movie, “The Film of a Thousand Missed Opportunities.” Because why? Kunle and Temi’s love story was a chance to explore office romance. That in itself could have been a full movie on its own, and a beautiful one at that, but it was thrown away. Like, the other vital pieces of this film. And I guess they wanted to explore LGBTQ+ and religion as a theme. But they botched even that. I didn’t understand the Church scene at all. If you’re going to delve into LGBTQ+, you could at least have the decency to do it with your full chest, rather than all that awful meandering that was going on.

I hated all their roles. How was Nkem still sleeping around indiscriminately as a trauma response? How was Ama still so naive and acting like a teenager who had just been given her first taste of freedom? How could Temi so easily self-sabotage over some misplaced definition of what soulmates meant and that too for the same person she almost ruined her life for a decade back?

Again, tell me how a successful lawyer will be cowering in her seat cause the police accosted her for wearing something "skimpy," and BOOM! A man swoops in to save the day. As how??? And Aisha, why was she still so uncommunicative? Why did she keep taking matters into her own hands, fighting alone, and then going ahead to tell the last person she should have told of her terrible decisions? Just why?

You know the only thing this film succeeded in doing?

It succeeded in making female friendships look bad, for one. Why would you show up at your friend’s most important event and cause such a scene? What degree of selfishness is that? You friend made a mistake, granted, but all I kept hearing in response when said friend was talking about her terrible decisions was, “How could you do that to your husband?” What about your friend? Didn’t she count? What was all the judgement for?

And it succeeded in making it look like women are only good for being unserious, indecisive, insecure and confused. I can understand men being the focal point of your being in your 20’s, but having only conversations that revolve around men and relationships in your 30’s is just wild to me.

For a so-called female centred story, not once did this women show sign of evolving or standing tall? Just bad character, male-centredness and vibes. Aisha’s mom said that the most important tool a Nigerian woman should have (after a dramatically long pause that made me think that she was about to drop an invaluable pearl of wisdom) is to beg. Lmao. Pathetic.

Then, that ending. That disastrous ending. Oh, God, if they were going for cliff-hangers that would introduce a third part? They sorely failed at it. I feel sad for whoever saw this film and thought it good. But it’s fine. I will stop now. Cause I’m already getting irritated again. It’s a 3.5/10 from me. I see such amazing productions from Bollywood that make me believe that we’re truly stepping up in film production, but alas, the bad eggs are ever present.

Jhymi🖤

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Posted using CineTV