Half of a yellow sun movie receives below average reviews from international movie critics.

The movie adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie's award winning novel ‘Half of a Yellow Sun' has received more knocks than praise from international movie critics-at best it managed to get some ‘pity praises.’

To most Nigerians here in Nollywood land,Half of a Yellow Sun movie would seem as a huge step from mediocrity and an improvement on everything Nollywood has ever offered. But to international/Hollywood movie reviewers, the ‘Half of a yellow sun’ movie is at best a low budget B-movie, suitable only for television and not the big screens.

Here's what Xan Brooks, associate editor of the Guardian UK had to say,

“Hopes were high for this adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's acclaimed novel about the Biafran war, starring Bafta-winning Chiwetel Ejiofor as the feckless father of a flawed emergent nation. But the road to mediocrity is paved with good intentions and Biyi Bandele's awkward arrangement of domestic squalls, milling extras and antique newsreel footage never truly hangs together. Still, Ejiofor and Thandie Newton turn in dogged, heartfelt performances as the Nigerian academics at the mercy of history and mired in conflict. Their house must find space for both toxic mother-in-law and illegitimate child. Meanwhile, the Hausa tribes to the north are targeting the Igbo majority in the south. Undeterred, our unhappy couple plough on through the years, eventually taking their places for the bloodiest wedding ceremony since Game of Thrones. It's another trumpeting metaphor for the world on their doorstep.”

Xan Brooks assessment was quite fair and balanced but Peter Bradshaw also of the Guardian took a sterner (yet balanced) position on the movie. According to Mr Bradshaw,

“The film is well intentioned and certainly very well cast: Thandie Newton is the elegant intellectual Olanna and Chiwetel Ejiofor her husband, the conceited, bullish academic Odenigbo. Their tempestuous private lives are made even more tumultuous by the history being made around them. Unfortunately, the film is often stately and sluggish with some very daytime-soapy moments of emotional revelation. At other times, it looks more like a filmed theatrical piece. But there is a heartfelt quality, and it is valuable for being a reminder of a piece of history that once, almost like Suez, dominated every dinner-table discussion among London's political classes, and showed how Britain's post-imperial legacy was pretty toxic.”

Nigeria Brand Police believes that the secret to Nollywood's initial success was that we were deaf to criticisms as we forged ahead producing unbelievably mediocre movies that still managed to win the heart of millions. But that time has passed, it is now time for Nigerian movie practitioners to take criticisms very seriously and effect necessary change and improvements on future Nigerian movie productions.