La Ron S. Readus
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The Complacency of King Akeem (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2021-04-02 20:01:01 +0000 UTCYes, I was one of those people who were afraid they were gonna make another “If they mamma named ‘em X, Imma call ‘em X” joke. (Pauses) Still trying to decide if what we got as a replacement was...better.
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Readers, I’ll be the first to admit that the original Coming to America wasn’t the film that initially let me know of Eddie Murphy’s star power when I was younger. It also doesn’t help that the movie is damn near as old as I am, either.
But in retrospect, I’m kinda GLAD I was introduced to Coming to America as an adult instead of a child. Because while I was pretty mature for my age, I doubt I would’ve appreciated it in the same light as I do now.
/Especially now that we have Coming 2 America, the sequel that in a way makes those who took the original for granted appreciate it all the more, while also exploring some very interesting points that you don’t necessarily have to be a royal to relate to./
I say that it made people appreciate the original more, because in a way, one critique a lot of people had about it was how the movie banked on the nostalgia factor when it came to bringing back jokes and bits from the original.
Some to the point where people were so concerned that the story was gonna focus too much on the movie before it, that the sequel wouldn’t have enough room to stretch out its legs and be its own thing. And there were moments where I definitely caught that.
/Then there’s the people who -- because of that worry -- were afraid that there’d be attempts at the jokes that may have been acceptable in the late 80’s that aren't acceptable nowadays. While, of course, there were others that were pretty much the exact opposite/
And while I’m of the mind that Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall did do a lot of recollection in this movie for the sake of nostalgia, thankfully that doesn’t take away from the theme within the movie and the natural comedy spawned from the new scenario it presents itself.
/Specifically regarding Eddie Murphy’s Prince Akeem -- now KING Akeem -- and how through the grooming process of his illegitimate son Lavelle due to Zamunda law requiring his heir be a man instead of his eldest daughter Meeka, we see how the once rebellious prince of Zamunda has changed -- and struggled with said change -- once he became king. And it's done in a way that a lot of us who paid attention to the movie, can pretty much relate to at one point in our lives./
Y’see, one of the themes I was preparing myself for whenever I decided to watch Coming 2 America was the implementation of Zamunda law when it came to a woman ruling the kingdom.
Not only was that the fixed point in all of the marketing material, but also how Akeem would handle the divide in his family due to it.
I was prepared for there to be animosity between Meeka and Lavelle because of this, and was curious how the story would play out that would allow Akeem to be the figurehead for change in the nation in the same way his spirit guided him to challenge the status quo 32 years prior.
So you could imagine my surprise when I saw that wasn’t immediately the case...
And it wasn’t like I was immediately EXPECTING Akeem to challenge the ways of the land once he became king.
/But at the very least, I was expecting to see the same character from the original movie with the same spirit of challenging the lay of the land in ways that can promote positive change like it did when he had his happiness and well-being in mind./
Like, maybe Akeem still had that mindset within him, but there’s a form of bureaucracy he has to deal with that’s keeping things the way that they are.
/Which, by the way, I thought was the point of Wesley Snipes’ character when I first saw the trailer for the movie when it launched. I had NO idea he was gonna be the brother of the chick Akeem left at the altar./
And while I will admit, knowing that there’s a possible future in which you’re assassinated by the leader of a warring nation if you can’t warrant peace as quickly as possible is, in fact, a pretty decent motivator...
/I was a little bit disappointed that Akeem was so quick to fall back into the fold of the traditional Zamundan ways he opposed once upon a time; especially when it was affecting his immediate family./
/Then THIS scene with him and Lisa happened, and I immediately knew WHY they made him this way./ (What happened to you Akeem? ...I must be strong)
You see, this is still the same Akeem we know from the first Coming to America, But by the time this movie takes place, he’s fallen into the same trap that a lot of us have and currently are in.
Yes, we saw something as unfair. Yes, we challenged the status quo. Yes, we sought to make things better once we proved prosperity can be gained with open-mindness. Even if that open-mindedness is as simple as wanting to be an artist in a family of doctors, for example.
But the more we experience life, its struggles and the responsibilities bestowed upon us -- especially after we gained what we initially wanted FROM challenging the status quo -- we get so comfortable in the situation we’ve established for ourselves that we fail to share that same enthusiasm and desire for change to others now that we’re in a proper place, position, and point to try and make it happen for them.
/Akeem was one of those individuals. It took a reminder of what he had to do -- what he had to CHALLENGE -- in order to obtain the best ideal life for himself, by the people responsible for allowing him to live such a life in the first place, to realize that his comfortability has caused the complacency of his continuous conventionalities./
Regardless of what caused these decisions to be made, Akeem -- like most of us -- allowed the current systems and norms that we once challenged take hold of us after we received what we initially wanted, and has, in one way or another, cut us off from our desires to want to make sure the world is a better one for others than it was when we initially sought change.
And, also like Akeem, we have to find that spark again, ignite it, and do the work to show the world that we constantly have our eyes on the future. Not just for our selfish benefits, but for those of us that’ll pick the torch up after we’re gone.
If you can look past all of the callbacks, the cameos, all of Eddie and Arsenio’s returning characters and everything the movie does to try and relive the feel of the original, Coming 2 America is a very well done tale of what happens to us when we lose sight of what’s important.
When we set a course to challenge systems and traditions, only to fall victim to those same systems and traditions ourselves when we’re at a point in our lives where doing so just doesn’t affect us, but the people we care about.
Because while Akeem’s plight is definitely exaggerated, the truth in his shift as it was presented from the first movie to the second is true to a LOT of people in real life.
And in a lot more ways than just having to conform to the system before us in order to survive in the world.
So even if it’s something small -- even if you can’t dedicate 100% of your time and energy to it because you still have to put food on the table or you have other responsibilities -- you owe it to both yourself and others, to put in an effort to be a play on the ideal you initially set for yourself back when you first looked the norm in the eyes and said “not me.”
/Because you don’t have to be the king, the royal family, or even the royal EXTENDED family of Zamunda...to let your soul glow./
