The Prince of Zamunda Is Back: ‘Coming 2 America’ Movie Review

It has been 33 years since Coming to America was displayed on the big screen. Now Eddie Murphy is back as the King of Zamunda in the sequel Coming 2 America which is being displayed on Amazon Prime Video and in theaters.

Coming 2 America shows the story of Akeem’s current life after he went to America to find love. He married Lisa McDowell and now has three beautiful daughters. After the death of his father, King Jaffe Joffer, he is now the King of Zamunda, and since he and his wife did not bear a son there is nobody to take the throne after him. However, it is revealed to him that he has a son in America named Lavelle Junson who was conceived after he was drugged during his first visit to Queens, NY. Now Akeem needs to travel back to America to retrieve his son and bring him back to Zamunda so he can train to be a Prince. If not, Zamunda could face a hostile takeover by Zamunda’s militaristic neighbor nation Nexdoria, whose dictator, General Izzi has been pushing Akeem’s eldest daughter Meeka into marrying his son. Akeem has not been to America ever since he found love and married Lisa. Therefore, there are a lot of questions and suspicions that come with going to America to find his son. Will Akeem find his son and convince him to come back to Zamunda with him, train him to be a Prince and soon to be King?

Just like Coming to America, Coming 2 America shows the problems that women face today. For example, a woman not being able to be the ruler of a country without a man by her side. The film also addresses arranged marriages and the woman’s presumed role to simply be whatever the man wants her to be. However, Coming 2 America tried to break that stigma by having the women become more independent throughout the movie.

Fans were excited that there was a sequel to Coming to America to finally see what happened after Akeem and Lisa got married in Zamunda at the end of the movie. Coming 2 America did a good job at giving the fans closure of their love story and their development after the first movie. The sequel did a good job of connecting the characters from the first movie to the second movie. Then the sequel also provided a couple of flashbacks throughout the movie for fans to remember what occurred in the first movie which was helpful to the audience.

The film was executed well by making sure the characters stayed the same as the first, with the same culture, dance breaks and concepts as the first movie. Most importantly, Coming 2 America had the same theme as the first Coming to America which is following your heart and being your own person and not who someone tells you to be.