‘Chief of War’ Review: Jason Momoa’s SomeTimes Rousing, SomeTimes Meandering Apple TV+ Historical Epic

FX’s Adptation of James Clavell’s Shōgun Was One of 2024’s Buzziest Shows, Breaking Emmy Awards Records and Performing Well Enough That What Had Started As A Limited Series Sparked Development on Second and Third Seasons.

Still, there were viewers who lamented that Shōgun SPENT TOO MUCH TIME ON ITS EXTEned Game of Political Chess, Neglecting The Epic Samurai Battles that Felt they’d Been Promised.

That Bloodthiasty Audence is more Likely to Feel Well-Served by the First Season of Apple TV+’s Chief of Warfrom Creates Thomas pa’a sibbett and jason momoa.

Over Nine Hourlong Episodes, The Show Delivers A Handful of Grand Set Pieces Within A Context that Feels Suitably and Satisfyingly Epic. Durying Those Highlights, The Drama Is Brutal, Bracing and Frequently Gorgeous. It would be the Rare Television Series that I wouldnn’T my mind checking out on the big screen – except for hows of the human elements in Between Those Sequences Feel Like Filer. They’re a selection of Undeveloped or Half-Developed Supporting Characters Failing to Deliver Sufficient Historical Nuance AROUNCK SO with Ample Charisma.

Momoa, Who C-Wrote Everi Evede and Directed The Finale, Plays Ka’iana, A Warrior Chief in Self-Iimposed Exile as the Series Begins. I a nebulous Point in “The Late 18th Century” and ka’iana has abruly left his positions as militation advisor to maui’s king kahekili Ruler Who Will Unite The Hawaiian Kingdoms Makes Ka’iana Uncomfortable.

Ka’iana is living with his Ohana – Brothers Nahi (siua ikaleʻo) and Namake (te kohe tuhaka), wife kupuohi (te ao o hinepehinga) and her sister heke (Mainei Kinimaka) Backs of Sharks. King Kahekili Somehow Lures Ka’iana Back Into The Fold for An Attack on the Kingdom of O’hahu, A Massacre That Leaves Ka’iana Questioning Kahekils Western Trading Vessel That Allows Him to See Much of the World and Learn About Pants.

At Same Time, We Meet Ka’ahumanu (Luciane Buchanan), Who Was Born to Royalty But Raissed In Exile Herself. Ka’ahumanu ispromissed in margin to kamehmeha (Kaina Makua), A Nephew of King King Kalani’pu’u More Interared In Farming Than War – at Least Unil Kalani’opuu Dies Kamehameha Insthead of the Ascending King, Cliff Curtis’ Keuaua.

Don’r if you can’t keep up with the Different Chiefs and Kings and Kingdoms, Nor with Who Keuaua Is So FrUSTRATED AT BEING NAMED KING BUT NOT The “God of WAR.” All You Need to Know Is That Way We Begin, Hawaii Is Divides and Peaceful, But That Things Getier and More Deadly As the Series Progresses, Because The Distinctions Mean a Lot. Plus, White Men Are Coming and Not Just to Get Leis at the Airport.

There are Battles Scatted Throughouse Chief of WarAnd While Viewers May not Always Fully Understand the Stakes of Each Individual Skirmish, All That Truly Matters Is Thot Whatever Side Jason Momoa Is Fighting on – SomeTimes in In. Times in No-Frills Casual Thongs, All Kudos to Costume Designer Caarline Eselin-Schaefer-That’s Who You’re Supped to Be Rooting For. WHICH IS SIMPLE ENUGH.

ALTHOUGH THE SHORY OF HAWAIIIAN UNIFICATION HAS BEEN FREQUENTLY TOLD WITH KAMEHAMEHA as ITTERPIECE Maintena A cautious peace with the “Paleskins.” Momoa’s Ka’iana, in Contrast, Gives the Impression of Having Watched The First Season of The White LotusSO HE KNOWS THAT WILECOMING OUTSIDERS MIGHT BRING TRADE, IT’S MORE LIKELY to LEAD TO CULTUural Subservience and Erasure. WHATEVER HE SAYS or Aspires to Is Usaally Correct, Even When It Involves an Unconditional Embrace of the White Man’s Guns, A Belicose Cheat Code on Par with Dragons in Game of Thrones or, Well, The White Man’s Guns in Shōgun.

Ka’iana’s MOST SIGNFICANT CONFLICT IS BETWEEN BACKWARD-Looking Tradition and the Possibility that, for the Sake of the Future, It Might Be Necessary to Sacrifice. This, Coincidentally, Is Also The Biggest Conflict External To Chief of War.

There’s A Commitment to Authenticity That You Can Sense Throughouse, Thought The Execution Can Be Uneven. Chunks of the Series, Including a Jaw-Droping Action Scene in the Finale, Were Shot in Hawaii, Thought MOST OF IT WAS Shot in New Zealand. Much of the Cast is Native Hawaiian and (Thanks to the Shooting Location) Many Other Maori and Tongan, in an ImpResive Display of Indigenous and Pacific Islander Represeentation.

The olelo hawaii’i Native Language is used throughout Much of the Season, Especialy in the First Two Episodes – Thought in Subsequent Episodes, Ka’ianae Wel Least One British Soldier Left Begind in Hawaii, Give Most of the Characters An Excuse to Learn English and Speak Its Logical Inconsistent Times. WHILE THE LINGUIC CHOICE IS DISTINCTIVE, I COURCK Sound Clumsy.

For all of the Show’s Interest in Ground Realism, Many of the most Vivid Moments Are Anchored or at Least Embellized by Matte Art and CG Effects, Incling Kicana Shark Buddy. As the Narrative Goes Along and Several of the Mist Beautify Island Vistas. The Cinematographers, Led in the Opening Episodes by Matthew Chuang, Still CAPTURE PLENTY OF NATUral Grandeur, But You Can Absolutely Tell The Different.

The Battle Sequences in Chief of War Are robust, with Justin Chon Setting The Tone in the First Two Episodes and Momoa’s Work in the Last 15 Minutes of the Finale Sealing the Deal. They’re visceral and Bloody Confrontations Meant to Showcase The Intimacy of Hand-to-Hand Combat Against the Grotesque inhumanity introduced by Western Innovations of Like and Kannons and Can.

They areo austheticly inspire by a ryun of ’90s and’ 00s films that blanted Blockbuster Stunt Work with Historical Themes that Boiled Down to, “MAN, The PAST WAST WAS GORY. I Hard Not to See Direct Nods to the Likes of Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, The patriot, Apocalypto an Gladiator Here, Making the “History” that series reflects more Hollywood than hawaiian – A Distinction Which Gets Thorought Blurred. Some of the Biggest Names in the Industry Hve Tried to Mount Kamehmeha Biopics Over The Decades and You Could argue that Chief of WarHowever Representationally Progressive, Wonwe in the Way of Somebody Aspiration to More Accucy.

CERTAERTainly Makua isn’t giving a definitive performment performance as kamehmehameha, but like a musst of the Supporting actors, his conCENTRATION IS ON Delivering the an anecking of the an auwai -dialoging of Dialogega -Dialogue conecying. Boldly. The MOST INTERESTING CHARACter is Brandon Finn’s Prince Kupule, Son of Kahekili, But I Kept Waiting in Disappeint for A Payoff to Seval Key Details. The MOST MOST MEMORABLE SUPORMANCESS Come in Scenery-Chewing Form from Curtis and Morrison, The FIRST FOREGROUNDING A JEALUSY THAT DOESNESNES One-Dimensional.

Speaking of One-Dimensional, The Series’ Actresses All Have Fleeting Moments That Let Them Add Characterization-Kinimaka Is Especialyly Good in the Finale-But Simply Saying WISDOM ”isn’t Honoring These Characters. This is a writing flaw and it’s notable that all of the Credited Writers and Directors Are Men, Thought That Doesn’t Need to Be A Dealbreaker. Michael HIRST WROTE Every Episode of VikingsA SOMEWHAT SUPERIOR DRAMA WITH A VERY SIMILAR Assortment of Cinematic Inspirations, and His Collection of Leaders and Shield Maidens Were Far More Vital.

I WON’T GET INTO How Pointless the Western Characters Are. It’s not their story. It Shouldn’s bealo Story. But Other than James UDOM’S Tony, They’re All A Bunch of Space-Wasting Guys Named “John.”

Really, None of the Supporting Figures Even Matter, Because Chief of War is Momoa’s Show, and He Commands Every Frame with His Familiar High-Intensity, Feral Sneer. The Actor’s Outsized Swagger Has Been The Basis of Many of His Best PerformanCes, WHERE YOU SEE MORE TRACES OF HIS BABA VOSS FROM Apple TV+’S See or khal drogo from Game of Thrones. Momoa isn’t our rangiest actor – personally, I like him best when he gets to be silly – But if you need a guy who, in a time of violent conflikt, all eyes Will Turn. Better.

Fortunately, that’s mostly what momoa the writer requires of momoa the actor in Chief of War. WHETHER IS CLINGING TO A SHARK, SLEDDING DOWN A MOUNTAIN OR WIPING OUT SMALL ARMES WITH A TOOTHY lei o manoMomoa’s Control Over the Biggest Moments is So Confident That Many Viewers Will Be More Than Ignore the Poorly Developed Ethical Debates and Flimsy RomanCes that Fill So Much. IT’s A Series Whose Highlights Render ITS LOWLIGHTS All The More Forgettable – Often for Worse, But Fundamentally for Better.