Big fight scenes are everywhere in the Aquaman star’s drama about the real-life 18th-century warrior that united Hawaii’s four kingdoms. But so too is a lot of heavy backstory. It’s dense stuff
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here is, probably literally, only one man who could have done it. Whatever claims Hollywood likes to make for itself regarding meritocracy and diversity, only Jason Momoa has the Hawaiian heritage and the commercial clout needed (via such roles as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones and various outings as Aquaman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) to get an endeavour like Chief of War on to our screens.
Momoa co-created with Thomas Pa’a Sibbitt the nine-part historical drama, co-wrote every episode, executive produces and stars as the protagonist Ka’iana, a Native Hawaiian warrior who would become instrumental in the fight to unify the four Hawaiian kingdoms at the turn of the 18th century. It opens with lingering shots of O‘ahu, Maui, Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i, each island so spectacularly beautiful, so inviting, so intriguingly different from anywhere else and so lovingly captured by director Justin Chon that it all begins to take on a vaguely hallucinatory quality.
Fortunately, Momoa’s buttocks soon make an appearance and, though hardly less impressive than a volcanic island, their familiarity helpfully grounds us. Chief of War may be a passion project, but it still needs someone helming it who knows his assets and is willing to deploy them in the service of bringing lesser known historical events to the masses. Thus our introduction to the phenomenon of Ka’iana is him diving off a boat to wrestle a shark before killing it, after the appropriate rituals, for his people to eat.
