Urban World

Invictus

Invictus tells the story of recently released Nelson Mandela. Having been incarcerated for 27 years, he becomes president of South Africa, and employs unusual tactics to unite the races of his country due to the after affects of apartheid.

Enter the South African Rugby Team, the Springboks. Mandela finds a great opportunity to use the Rugby world cup to bring everyone together.

Knowing nothing about rugby I felt a bit hesitant at the prospect of a film where the sport would feature so prominently. However my fears were dashed once the ‘on field' footage began. The camera work was amazing and captured every tackle with painful precision. It's a shame that this was unable to maintain my positive opinions of the film.

The film seemed to lack the deep emotions associated with biopics of this nature. I didn't feel a real sense of the division between white and black South Africans. The script and some scenes were questionable, as they were full of clichés with some scenes just used to fluff out the film to its 134 minute running time.

Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon are great in their roles. Matt Damon plays the legendary Francois Pienaar, the Rugby team captain. He builds a partnership with Mandela, which is mostly told to us and not actually seen.

The director, script writer and music coordinator are to blame for the failings of this movie. Having put all their effort in attempting to make an award winning film, they succeeded in missing the true emotion of what could have been an amazing story.

Rating: 3/5

By Patrice Weekes and Sherrice Weekes

Invictus is released in UK cinemas on Friday 5th February 2010