'Black Panther' Lives Up To Its Hype And Then Some - Wakanda Forever!

ORIGINAL POST DATE: FEBRUARY 16, 2018. Reposting now for all who saw ‘Black Panther’ this weekend by request of the EIC.

***There will be NO SPOILERS until the very end of this blog, at which point there will be a heavy spoiler warning***

Hello and welcome to the Monday Friday Morning Movie Review! I usually hold off on my weekly blog about the weekend’s biggest release for a few days, giving everybody time to see it, but judging by ‘Black Panther’ pre-sale (biggest of any movie in history outside of the Star Wars franchise), you’ll all seen it already! So let’s talk about it!

After the death of his father, T’Challa returns home to the African nation of Wakanda to take his rightful place as king. When a powerful enemy suddenly reappears, T’Challa’s mettle as king — and as Black Panther — gets tested when he’s drawn into a conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Faced with treachery and danger, the young king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people.

‘Black Panther’ had a huuuge hype train behind it these past few weeks. Months, even. It was actually starting to get so much buzz and great press – way more than your average Marvel movie – that I was starting to worry it wouldn’t be able to live up to its own hype, almost no matter how good it was. It began to seem too good to be true in a way, so I went into the theater last night with a bit of nervous energy. Excited that the time had finally come for me to see this movie, surrounded by people feeling the same way, and rooting so hard for it to live up to mine and the rest of the world’s expectations. Now folks, I’m here to tell ya how silly that thought was. Did I really think for a second that a Ryan Coogler written and directed film about the Black Panther of Wakanda featuring Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Martin Freeman, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis would be anything less than extraordinary? Ha!

This movie kicks off in Coogler’s hometown of Oakland, California in 1992 to provide us a little prologue that obviously comes into play later on, then jumps to present day, right after the events of ‘Captain America: Civil War’ like some of the other Phase 3 flicks in the collection. T’Challa is balancing mourning his father dealing with the responsibility of becoming Wakanda’s new king, and you could tell pretty much instantly that Chadwick Boseman was going to kill this role. I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of the way the character was used in ‘Civil War’, possibly my favorite Marvel movie, but one simple conversation and action sequence with Danai Gurira as Okoye and I was ready to die for my new king if need be. Said action sequence is very Batman-esque in shadowy movements lit only by the flares of machine guns, but definitely sets itself apart from the Caped Crusader when you see how powerful Black Panther truly is. As T’Challa and Okoye move back into the hidden-in-plain-sight country they emanate from, some of their Vibranium tech is shown off, and it was SO cool that you could hear audible “ooos” and “ahhs” from the crowd. In a world where you thought you’d seen everything there is to see in a movie thanks to CGI, the technology of Wakanda still blows you away – as it should.

After all of that nonsense, we’re introduced to my favorite relationship in the movie: T’Challa’s with his little sister Shuri. She’s teasing him and picking on him right away, something that carries through the rest of the story, and they have such chemistry in their brother-sister dynamic it’s hard to believe they’re not ACTUALLY related. Letitia Wright’s portrayal of Shuri is so damn charming that after Leia, she might be my favorite Disney Princess. She was funny, she was smart (especially smart), she had some of the more emotionally impactful scenes, she had some badass scenes…just a fantastic character overall. In any other movie, that’s my #1 takeaway.

Unfortunately for her, this isn’t any other movie, and Michael B Jordan plays the Killmonger in this one, so step aside, lil sis. Probably the main dig at the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from detractors and fans, is that they’ve got a lot of room to grow in the villains department. With most of the films that take place in this shared universe, if I asked, “Who was the villain in ______?”, you’d have to think about it for a second. You may not even know the name of the baddie when you remember what they looked like. ‘Black Panther’ will never have that issue. Ever. Michael B Jordan steals the show entirely here, and instantly becomes one of the coolest, most threatening, most hatable, and most importantly, justified and sympathetic characters in the MCU. As much as you’ll hate his motherfucking guts at multiple instances throughout the flick (and trust me, you will), you’ll always understand why he’s doing what he’s doing, and he’s a villain that makes such good points you start to question our hero of the story. Andy Serkis also plays a bad guy in this movie by the name of Ulysses Klaue (Klaw in the comic books) and reminds you that he’s not just a motion capture actor. No, no. He’s the real deal.

One of the best parts of ‘Black Panther’ are the visuals, which I teased before when talking about the Wakandan technology featured, but even when that’s all stripped away this movie stuns with its rich colors and unbelievable production design. The “Challenge Day”, for example, what you’ve seen in the trailers as T’Challa is fighting off foes in knee-deep water with only a wooden shield and spear – no suit. Those scenes are beautiful top to bottom, with tribe members spanning a massive cliff all in their finest colorful attire as their new King defends his throne against any on comers over the edge of a waterfall. Or, and this is the biggest standout, the Wakandan afterlife. I’ll show and not tell this one:

The film clocks in at about 2 hours and 15 minutes, and feels that long, I won’t lie, but its third act and payoff prove to be worth the wait. There’s depth and consequence to everything that’s going on, and a perfect balance of a fun, slightly comedic arc, a massive ‘War and Peace’ type battle, and a personal, incredibly gripping fight at the same time (all of which reminded me of one movie in particular, scroll down to the spoiler section of the blog for a weird comparison) and by the time “All the Stars” hits and the credits roll, you’ve been on a journey. It’s intense, it’s funny, it’s heavy, it’s light, and it’s everything you’d want it to be. Superhero fan or not, get out and go see this one in theaters because it defies the genre and is just a legitimately great film made to be experienced on the big screen. Make sure you stay for TWO post-credit scenes at the end of the movie as per usual with the MCU.

Wakanda forever.

***SPOILERS BELOW***

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***SPOILERS BELOW***

-This is probably going to sound batshit crazy, but the third act of this film mirrors the third act of ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’ so much I was stunned. That’s not a dig, because it’s like they took what worked in that movie, applied it to this one, and just made it all better, but I literally turned to my friend (Jeff D Lowe of ‘Light, Camera, Podcast’ as the train was holding T’Challa and Erik apart while they paced back and forth and said “Oh my god this is JUST like ‘The Phantom Menace’. We’ve got Ross piloting a ship he shouldn’t really know how to fly and becoming the unlikely hero by blowing some other ships up (Young Annie destroying the trade federation ship), a MASSIVE battle sequence featuring thousands of troops on both sides of a grassy field, fighting for political beliefs (Gungans vs Battle Droids), and visually, Black Panther vs Killmonger just seemed like it took so many queues from the environment of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon vs Darth Maul in that Vibranium cave. Just me? Idk. My brain is just wired to spot Star Wars comparisons to everything ever.

-While I’m a little bummed we won’t be seeing any more Klaue OR Killmonger, I hope they realize the emotional significance of the Killmonger death and never bring him back like they did Agent Coulson. His final line, “Bury me in the ocean. With my ancestors who jumped from the ships. They knew it was better to die than live in bondage.”, before offing himself, was so powerfully delivered we should just give him an Oscar now. I dig that we’re keeping with the trend of Black Panther’s enemies dying on cliffs as well, this one following Helmut Zemo in ‘Civil War’. But also fuck Killmonger. Homeboy killed Forest Whitaker.

-One gripe I had with this movie was too many cuts to the guy with the big ass lip gauge. I feel like every two seconds we were like “Let’s check out what kind of blank stare he has on his face now!” I also get canker sores on the reg so seeing a hole that big in somebody’s mouth just gave me the heebie-jeebies.

-Those challenges where T’Challa was getting cut the fuck up were hard to watch. I was wincing with every slice. On the edge of the cliff in the first one too? That Ryan Coogler knows how to make this boy SWEAT!

-There was a little while in the theater where I was thinking, “That prologue in Oakland sure was an excuse for Coogler to film in his hometown, wasn’t it?” and just when I thought I had all the answers, he changed the questions. That was soooooooooooooo worth the payoff.

-“One more word and I will feed you to my children…………….just kidding, we are vegetarians!” had me in tears. Fucking loved that dude. Glad we’ll be seeing more of him. Reminded me of a fun loving Francis Ngannou.

-A little disappointed at the non-use of some of the soundtrack’s strongest tracks to be honest! They only featured “Opps” which I don’t love and “Pray For Me” which IS my second favorite song on the album to be fair, so I guess it evens out, but with the promotion of it I thought it’d play a bigger role. Oh well.

-I think I would’ve walked out if Killmonger actually killed Shuri at the end there. Black Panther jumping in and saving her got the loudest pop of the night in my theater. She’s the fucking best and I hope she’s a big part of ‘Infinity War’.

-Speaking of ‘Infinity War’, BUCCCCKKKKKYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! That was great. I wonder if they can give him some kinda new arm similar to the one Klaue had for ‘Infinity War’. Also, where dafuq is that last Infinity Stone? Under the flowerbed?

That’s all I can think of for now as far as spoiler-y shit I wanted to talk about goes. Hit me up on Twitter and we’ll discuss though, try to keep in mind a ton of people still haven’t seen this so if you want to talk about something very consequential to the plot, just shoot me a DM about it as to not ruin it for others. Thanks guys!