Black Panther is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the eighteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Ryan Coogler from a screenplay by him and Joe Robert Cole, and stars Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther, alongside Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis. In Black Panther, T'Challa returns home as king of Wakanda but finds his sovereignty challenged by a long-time adversary in a conflict that has global consequences.
Wesley Snipes first mentioned his intention to work on a Black Panther film in 1992, with that project going through multiple iterations over the next decade but never coming to fruition. A Black Panther film was announced as one of the ten films based on Marvel characters that would be developed by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures in September 2005, with Mark Bailey hired to write a script in January 2011. Black Panther was officially announced in October 2014, with Boseman first appearing in Captain America: Civil War. By the end of 2015, Cole and Coogler had both joined, and additional cast members came on board beginning in May 2016, making the film Marvel's first with a predominantly black cast. Principal photography for the film took place from January to April 2017, at EUE/Screen Gems Studios in the Atlanta metropolitan area, and Busan, South Korea.
Cast:
Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther:
The king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, who gains enhanced strength by ingesting the Heart-Shaped Herb. After the events of Captain America: Civil War, and the death of his father T'Chaka, T'Challa is in mourning while ascending to the throne. The character appears more comfortable in this film compared to Civil War, now that he is back in his "natural environment". Boseman, who called T'Challa an anti-hero, said that he is "very much aware of the responsibility" and as the leader of Wakanda. Black Panther's suit that forms around his body was inspired by a similar design seen in Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Panther comic book run. Boseman worked with the same dialect coach he had during Message from the King, and worked with Marrese Crump to stay in shape between Civil War and Black Panther. He signed a five-film contract with Marvel. Ashton Tyler plays a young T'Challa.
Michael B. Jordan as N'Jadaka / Erik "Killmonger" Stevens:
The son of N'Jobu and an American woman, who becomes a U.S. black-ops soldier and seeks to overthrow T'Challa. Executive producer Nate Moore said Killmonger "has his own opinion on how Wakanda has been run and should [be] run". Jordan, who had "been wanting to play a villain for a while," likened Killmonger and T'Challa's relationship to the X-Men characters Magneto and Professor X. He added that Killmonger is "very strategic, thoughtful. He's very patient. Very well skilled, trained to a T." Killmonger's bumpy, ritualistic tribal markings on his chest and torso resemble the scar tattoos of the Mursi and Surma tribes, and consisted of 90 individually sculpted silicone molds that took two-and-a-half hours to apply. His dreadlocks hairstyle was a modern take on the character's long hair in the comics. Corey Calliet served as Jordan's trainer on the film, after also doing so on Creed. Seth Carr plays a young Killmonger.
Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia:
T'Challa's former lover and a War Dog, an undercover spy for Wakanda placed in other countries to complete missions. She is from the River Tribe. Nyong'o called Nakia a "departure" from her comic counterpart. She begins the film fighting for enslaved women in Nigeria; Nyong'o learned to speak Hausa for certain scenes in the film. She also trained in judo, jujitsu, silat and Filipino martial arts.
Danai Gurira as Okoye:
An "extremely proud" Wakandan and traditionalist from the Border Tribe, who is the head of the Dora Milaje, the all-female special forces of Wakanda who serve as T'Challa's bodyguards. When looking to cast Gurira, director Ryan Coogler had not seen The Walking Dead, in which Gurira portrays the popular character Michonne, and instead wanted her for the part because of her performance in Mother of George. Gurira said that the fighting skills she learned playing Michonne complemented the skills of Okoye, but that "there's a lot of ways that they're extremely different ... Okoye is a whole 'nother thing." Gurira described the Dora Milaje as a secret service that is "also very much about intel. It's not just military," with Okoye the head of intel. Regarding Okoye's stoic demeanor, Gurira said, "She can be serious, but she also has an unexpected sense of humor. She has a heart, but for her country and for her people."
Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross:
A member of the CIA and former liaison of its Joint Counter Terrorism Task Force. Freeman said that Ross "has an uneasy peace with T'Challa", and that he "goes on a strange journey, an enlightening journey to Wakanda." Unlike his comic book counterpart, who mainly served as comic relief, the filmmakers sought to turn this version of Ross into a more capable agent in terms of diplomacy and combat.
Daniel Kaluuya as W'Kabi: A confidant to T'Challa and his best friend, who is the head of security for the Border Tribe, serving as the first line of defense for Wakanda.
Letitia Wright as Shuri:
T'Challa's 16-year-old sister and the princess of Wakanda who designs new technology for the country. Wright described her as "an innovative spirit and an innovative mind" who "wants to take Wakanda to a new place... [and] has a great fashion sense". Wright also felt Shuri was a good role model for young black girls. Moore called Shuri the smartest person in the world, even more so than Tony Stark.
Winston Duke as M'Baku:
A powerful, ruthless warrior who is the leader of Wakanda's mountain tribe, the Jabari, who are in protest to T'Challa being the new king. Duke describe the Jabari as people who "strongly believe that to move forward, you have to have a strong adherence and respect for the past. So they have a deep moral conscience". Character elements from Christopher Priest's 1998-2003 Black Panther series were adapted for the film. M'Baku is not referred to in the film by his comics alter ego "Man-Ape", since Marvel felt there were "a lot of racial implications that don't sit well" in having a black character dress up as an ape. This aspect of the character was instead reworked to have the Jabari tribe that M'Baku is the leader of worship the gorilla gods, with M'Baku still wearing elements of fur on his arms and legs and a chest-plate that hints at the gorilla. Moore continued, "Man-Ape is a problematic character for a lot of reasons, but the idea behind Man-Ape we thought was really fascinating ... It's a line I think we're walking, and hopefully walking successfully." To further differentiate the Jabari, Duke spoke a version of the Nigerian Igbo language rather than the Xhosa language spoken by other Wakandans.
Angela Bassett as Ramonda:
T'Challa's mother and Queen Mother of Wakanda. Boseman noted that Ramonda "is one of the advisors that [T'Challa] would look to... for some of the answers of what his father might want or might do. She may not be exactly right all the time, but she definitely has insights." Bassett wore a silver, waist-length wig for the role that was made from 120 pieces of hair hand-rolled into dreadlocks. Calliet also served as Bassett's trainer, working with her before she began filming and while she was on set by creating high-intensity interval training circuits and helping to craft her diet.
Forest Whitaker as Zuri:
An elder statesman in Wakanda, and the keeper of the Heart-Shaped Herb. Coogler called Zuri a religious and spiritual figure, and a way to reference the spirituality within Wakanda from the comics. He also added that Zuri "is a major tie back" to T'Chaka for T'Challa, and is "Black Panther's version of Obi-Wan Kenobi." Denzel Whitaker, who is not related to Forest, plays a young Zuri.
Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue:
A South African black-market arms dealer, smuggler and gangster, who is allied with Killmonger. He uses a piece of advanced Wakandan mining equipment as a sonic disruptor arm-cannon. Boseman described Klaue as a threat to Wakanda, as one of the few outsiders to enter the country and someone with access to vibranium, comparing him to Osama bin Laden. Serkis added that in addition to his desire for vibranium, Klaue is motivated by a "personal" vendetta against T'Challa, and "to expose what he thinks is the hypocrisy of Wakanda."
Additionally, Florence Kasumba and John Kani reprise their respective roles of Ayo and T'Chaka from Captain America: Civil War, with Kani's son Atandwa portraying a young T'Chaka. Sterling K. Brown plays N'Jobu, T'Chaka's brother and a War Dog sent to America. Wakandan elders in the film include Isaach de Bankolé for the River Tribe, Connie Chiume for the Mining Tribe, Dorothy Steel for the Merchant Tribe, and Danny Sapani for the Border Tribe. Sydelle Noel appears as Xoliswa, a member of the Dora Milaje, with other members played by Marija Abney, Janeshia Adams-Ginyard, Maria Hippolyte, Marie Mouroum, Jénel Stevens, Zola Williams, Christine Hollingsworth, and Shaunette Renée Wilson. Nabiyah Be initially announced that she was playing criminal Tilda Johnson, but her character was simply named Linda in the final film due to Gabrielle Dennis portraying Johnson in the second season of Luke Cage. Black Panther co-creator Stan Lee has a cameo in the film as a patron in the South Korean casino, and Sebastian Stan has an uncredited cameo reprising his role as Bucky Barnes in a post-credits scene.
Plot: (FULL Spoilers)
Centuries ago, five African tribes went to war over a meteorite of the alien metal vibranium. A warrior ingested a "heart-shaped herb", that was mutagenically affected by the metal, and gained superhuman abilities. He became the first "Black Panther", and united the tribes to form the nation of Wakanda, though the Jabari Tribe chose not to follow the Black Panther's rule, choosing to stay in the frigid mountains. Over time, the Wakandans used the vibranium to develop highly-advanced technology and chose to isolate themselves from the rest of the world by posing as a Third World country.
In 1992, while on an undercover assignment in Oakland, California, Prince N'Jobu became convinced that Wakanda's isolationist policies had done more harm than good, and vowed to share its technology with people of African descent around the world in order to help them conquer their oppressors. N'Jobu enlisted black market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue to infiltrate Wakanda and steal a cache of vibranium. His older brother, King T'Chaka, learned of this from another undercover agent, N'Jobu's partner Zuri, and confronted N'Jobu. When N'Jobu attacked Zuri, T'Chaka reluctantly killed him, and ordered Zuri to lie that N'Jobu had disappeared. They left behind his American son, Erik Stevens, in order to maintain the lie.
In the present day, following T'Chaka's death at the hands of Helmut Zemo, his son T'Challa returns to Wakanda to assume the throne. He and Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje fighting force, extract his ex-lover Nakia from an undercover assignment so she can attend his coronation ceremony, along with his mother Ramonda and younger sister Shuri. At the ceremony, the Jabari Tribe's leader M'Baku challenges T'Challa for the crown, but T'Challa defeats M'Baku in ritual combat, becoming the new king. He allows M'Baku to live.
When Klaue resurfaces to sell a stolen Wakandan Vibranium artifact to a buyer in Busan, South Korea, T'Challa's closest friend W'Kabi—who lost his parents as a result of Klaue's actions—urges him to bring Klaue to justice. T'Challa, Okoye, and Nakia go to the underground casino where the deal is taking place, to find that the buyer is CIA agent Everett K. Ross, who takes Klaue into custody against T'Challa's will. Klaue tells Ross that Wakanda's international image is just a front for a technologically advanced civilization, before being broken out by Erik, now an ex-U.S. black ops soldier who goes by the name "Killmonger". Ross is seriously injured during the attack, and T'Challa decides to take him to Wakanda where their technology can save him rather than pursue Klaue. Shuri heals Ross with vibranium, while T'Challa confronts Zuri about N'Jobu- which strains the friendship between them. Killmonger kills Klaue and takes his body to Wakanda as a token, revealing his identity to the tribal elders and challenging T'Challa for the throne. Killmonger kills Zuri and then triumphs in ritual combat. He hurls the defeated T'Challa over a waterfall. After ingesting the heart-shaped herb to gain the powers of the Black Panther, he orders the grove of Herbs be burned. Killmonger enacts his father's plan and prepares shipments of Wakandan weapons to be distributed to operatives around the world, supported by W'Kabi and his army. Nakia, Shuri, Ramonda, and Ross flee to seek the aid of the Jabari.
At the home of the Jabari Tribe, the group find a comatose T'Challa, rescued by the Jabari in repayment for him sparing M'Baku's life. Healed by a heart-shaped herb brought by Nakia, T'Challa returns to Wakanda to complete his combat with Killmonger, who is now wearing a Black Panther armor of his own. Shuri, Nakia, and Okoye join the Dora Milaje and Jabari in battling W'Kabi and his army, while Ross remote pilots a jet to shoot down the planes carrying the weapons before they can leave the country. Within Wakanda's vibranium mine, T'Challa uses sonic mining technology to disrupt Killmonger's suit and fatally stabs him. Killmonger declines an offer to be healed and imprisoned, choosing instead to die free.
Rejecting Wakanda's isolationism, T'Challa establishes an outreach center in Oakland where Erik grew up, to be run by Nakia and Shuri. In a mid-credits scene, T'Challa appears before the United Nations to reveal Wakanda's true nature to the world and plans to help the world progress. In a post-credits scene, Shuri continues to help Bucky Barnes with his recuperation.
The Verdict:
I'm going to be honest here, I went to the Thursday night premiere with an open mind, hoping that this film would live up to the hype. Sue me, I had a shitty day at work and I wanted this to be the icing on the cake that would have made all of that worth it. Overall, I was satisfied with the film, but if you're going to get butt-hurt that I have a few gripes with the film then stop reading now. I've kept up with the news and various controversies surrounding this film over the course of the past year, along with reading several early reviews of the film, calling it "Marvel's best film to date" and "simply flawless". I dunno about either of those statements, but we'll get to that later, shall we?
Casting
(Applauds) Mad props to Marvel Studios pulling this off with a majority black/African-American cast. Coming from Captain America: Civil War, we all knew what to expect from Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther. He continued to impress me with his performance in this role as this character while coming into his own with the character as he showed more evolution in his performance than what he was given to work with in his previous appearance. While Florence Kasumba and John Kani reprise their respective roles of Ayo and T'Chaka, it felt a little underwhelming to an extent in their performances. There were times where I felt like T'Chaka/John Kani wasn't even in the same room as Boseman for their scenes together but I guess they were going for The Lion King-style Mufasa/Simba spirit guide dynamic here during those sequences. To say that Florence Kasumba/Ayo had that epic confrontation/stand-off with Black Widow/Scarlett Johannsen that was one of many highlights in Civil War, I was surprised that she was not featured prominently in this film. That was a little confusing to me in that aspect, but I guess the creative minds behind this film thought that any member of the Dora Milaje were interchangeable for the same effect. While I didn't care for the changes made to Shuri's character compared to her comic book counterpart, I can't knock Letitia Wright's performance here. She provided a lot of comedy relief in this film, but sue me, I'm spoiled to her more "bad ass" counterpart in comics and other media, especially in the short-lived BET animated series based on Marvel's Marvel Knights run of Black Panther comics. It makes me wonder with her casting that Marvel Studios hasn't thought about the character's future as a pseudo-replacement to T'Challa when he was injured in the comics continuity. (Shrugs) Who knows at this point...
Danai Gurira (AKA The Walking Dead's Michonne) impressed as Okoye, leader of the Dora Milaje, but it irked me a little that the film didn't spent any time explaining their importance to Wakanda's society and to the king's throne. Her experience from playing Michonne definitely paid off here as Okoye came off as just as much (if not more so) as a bad ass as that character does on-screen. I'm definitely looking forward to her to reprise the role later this year in Avengers: Infinity War. At this point, I feel like Forest Whitaker is phoning it in for these various roles he has lined up back to back lately as I couldn't tell whether he was Saw Guerra (Star Wars Rebels or Star Wars: Rogue One... take your pick) or Zuri here. Not to take anything away from his acting chops, I saw him and instantly went "yep he's going to be dead by the time this is over..." Angela Bassett is Angela Bassett, what can I say? It's either you love her or hate her, given her tenure in Hollywood after all of these years. I'm sure there's a lot of people who raved for seeing her with white hair. I saw that as pseudo fan service from Marvel as she was one of several prominent black actresses who were in line for getting the part of Storm when the first musings of doing a live-action X-Men film was in the works. Lupita Nyong'o is relatively new to me as I haven't seen much of her work, but I thought she portrayed Nakia well. Marvel Studios seems to be setting her up to the key love interest for the time being but I see that changing once the X-Men are properly introduced into this continuity. Let's be honest here - if the FOX buyout happened prior to the time they finished filming this movie, you can bet your ass that they would have squeezed in a Storm cameo in there in some fashion at the last second, even if they had to do some reshoots. I would have been petty about it and have her there in Wakanda in the background, but don't admit that it's her. Cartoons like Rick and Morty do stuff like that all of the time and get away with it to avoid licensing issues.
We haven't seen Andy Serkis/Ulysses Klaue since Avengers: Age of Ultron and Martin Freeman/Everett K. Ross since Civil War, but their inclusions didn't hurt this film not one bit. I was relieved that Ross wasn't just there for comedy relief and given a genuine purpose to be around all of the action in Wakanda. Freeman has more substance here than he did in the star-packed Civil War, so we were granted with more of his acting ability here. From video games to feature films, we know that Serkis is going to give us a show. My biggest regret is that Klaue doesn't have a much more powerful presence here past the first act of this film.
Last but not least, we have Michael B. Jordan portraying Erik Killmonger in this film as a bit of "redemption" after the flop that was FOX's Fantastic Four recent reboot. Oh the irony where both him and Chris Evans got redemption or a rebirth of sorts playing characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even though most of the ladies were foaming at the mouth on his inclusion since the casting news (obviously seeing him as "man candy"...), I thought he did a great job as this film's primary antagonist, even though his motivations were a bit muddy and blurred at times - then again, that's more the script's fault than his own. (Laughs) Makes me wonder if people (especially the ladies...) would feel the same about him if Killmonger looked like Flavor Flav instead...
Narrative
(Whistles) Let's tackle this bad boy, shall we?
I'll split this discussion up into about three parts: The Klaue Clusterfuck, Overthrowing the Throne, and Reclaiming the Throne.
The Klaue Clusterfuck is what I'm going to refer to as the first act. I loved the throwback in this flashback of one of the old school designs for T'Chaka wearing the Black Panther costume, but I'm still sad that it wasn't the one with the cape. Hey, it's better than nothing. I guess I'll cave for that Wal-Mart exclusive Marvel Legends figure instead to savor that memory. After the events of Civil War, the viewers are informed that T'Challa is on the trail to pick up his ex-girlfriend and undercover Wakanda spy Nakia on their way back home at the start of the film. This goes well and all, effectively leading to the ceremony where T'Challa has to defend his right to the throne of Wakanda. M'Baku (I kept constantly reminding myself he's supposed to be Man-Ape over the course of the film) was cool in his own right, but good Lord how awesome was that cinematography on this sequence though? Seeing all of the onlookers watching from a safe distance while the Dora Milaje and M'Baku's followers encircle around them in a man-made closed off arena. It was shots like this that really added to the tension of this fight scene, even though most of the fights in this film were FAR too blurry for my taste. I thought Hollywood learned not to repeat that mistake from the criticisms of the fight scenes in the early portion of Christophe Nolan's Batman trilogy. I know that I got off-topic there for a second, but T'Challa's claim of the throne promptly led to his first "mission" out in the field as Wakandan king as he wished to do what his father was unable to do and bring in Ulysses Klaue for his crimes of stealing and auctioning off their precious vibranium. This is sounds great on paper and even looked great in the movie from the scenes that followed it that saw Nakia and Okoye join T'Challa undercover as he intercepted a sale (with CIA agent Ross) for the illegally acquired vibranium. That very same vibranium that Klaue stole with the help of his partner, Erik Killmonger, in a heist that seemed straight out of The Dark Knight. You know, being too elaborate for it's own good at the detriment to the narrative. T'Challa captures Klaue but agrees to take him into the custody of the CIA, whereas Killmonger comes to his aid to break him out of imprisonment. Here's the thing that gets me after this. Killmonger demands Klaue take him to Wakanda and when he refuses he ends up slaughtering Klaue anyway, using his corpse as a "gift" to gain entry into Wakanda.
I know everyone watching this casually will merely brush that fact underneath the rug, but how stupid is that? Wouldn't it made more sense just to kill Klaue right off the bat if the end game was getting to Wakanda and using his corpse as a gift to gain entry. Before anyone throws in that argument about Klaue worked with Killmonger's dad before so he saw him as an ally, that's point is moot too as Killmonger could have used that relationship to kill him off the bat. Secondly, how did Killmonger know where Wakanda was after they have kept themselves hidden for so long? He asked Klaue to take him there like he didn't even know where it was himself. One could assume that he learned that information from his father's notes, but once again, that points out more stupidity on why didn't he kill Klaue sooner if that was his plan all along.
Killmonger's arrival into Wakanda bleed into the film's second act, that I'm dubbing "Overthrowing the Throne". Killmonger's past as T'Challa's cousin is revealed after a flashback detailing that T'Chaka killed his own brother after Zuri exposed that he was selling their secrets to Klaue. See, this is where the plot gets a little muddled in my opinion. On one hand, I can understand why all of this is kept secret as they want to keep Wakanda's advancements in technology and medicine secret from the rest of the world. That's been the dynamic that has been constant in the comics for decades now. On the other hand, it paints a bad picture on T'Chaka as a king who was quick to pouch on the situation and kill his own brother without a second thought. That revelation made T'Chaka seem more like the villain here than Killmonger, even though Killmonger's methods were a bit extreme. T'Challa defends the throne as well as his father's principles in a challenge against Killmonger, who seems to kill T'Challa after dumping him off the waterfall. One thing I wanted them to explain was that why wouldn't anyone just attack the king while he's getting his powers turned off or we're going with the bullshit excuse that not everyone in Wakanda have developed some type of powers/mutations from their exposure to the long-term effects of vibranium to the environment. It's not like Killmonger was one of them in a proper sense and it was clear that he had no respect for their customs. After securing the throne, Killmonger's argument is sound though. Wakanda SHOULD be doing more for their people outside of their borders. I found it ironic too as it's the EXACT same argument that was brought up in the Inhumans mini-series by Maximus to Black Bolt. The Royal Family sits back and does nothing while their kind around the globe are suffering to the hostilities and oppression of the rest of mankind. The thing that made Killmonger the villain here was the same thing that regarded Maximus as a "traitor" to the Royal Family was taking militaristic action and staging a coup that pushed out most of the old regime loyal to T'Challa, led mostly by W'Kabi.
The film's final act, which I have dubbed "Reclaiming the Throne" follows Nakia, Shuri, Ramonda, and Ross all travel to M'Baku's domain within the mountains with the last Heart-shaped Herb (the rest were burned by order of Killmonger... Seriously, so they aren't going to have anymore Black Panther's after T'Challa? Then what are they going to do if someone else challenges the throne? He loses his powers and never gets them back? See, people aren't thinking this shit through, man...) in hope of giving it to him to overthrow Killmonger. In the comics continuity, M'Baku had powers already from his own tribe's set of mutations, so I thought this would have been the case here, but he refused the Herb to repay the debt to the comatose T'Challa that spared him in their duel (from the opening of this film). After taking the Herb again, T'Challa confronts his father for his actions and has his own "Not this time, Uncle Ben!" moment (I swear I laughed my ass off at that moment in the theater during Spider-Man 2) to his father and his ancestors, refusing to hold up their old ideology that Wakanda should remain closed off to the rest of the world. T'Challa (wearing the Black Pantehr armor that Shuri managed to take from her lab before they escaped) faces off against W'Kabi's forces and Killmonger, claiming that the fight for the throne of Wakanda is not over as he's not dead as they originally thought. Some friend W'Kabi ended up being to say that he barely knew Killmonger but pledged loyalty to him the second he brought Klaue's corpse on a platter. At least Okoye showed some character depth here - she was faithful to the throne, but the second T'Challa showed back up, her and the rest of the Dora Milaje were right there to back him up. I found it funny that not once the film mentions Killmonger by the name "Golden Jaguar" but that's clearly what armor he is wearing when him and T'Challa face off during the finale. Can Marvel quit with these solo origin stories where the titular hero almost always faces their evil doppelganger (Ironman in both of his first two films, Incredible Hulk, most Spider-Man films, Ant-Man, etc.)? It's getting VERY old at this point and almost every other superhero film follows that motif. It was pretty cool that Marvel included another pseudo-Easter Egg here as both T'Challa and Killmonger's armor had a weakness to sonic vibrations to say that it would become active like either the Venom/Carnage symbiotes from the Spider-Man continuity. We already seen Tony Stark take this technology further with what looked like the Bleeding Edge armor in the Avengers: Infinity War trailers.
That being said, the finale was fun for a lot of reasons. We got to see Nakia in full blown Dora Milaje armor, even though she clearly points out that she was opposed to wearing it at first until Shuri's encouragement. Shuri got some action with her own panther-styled blasters, but why did she have similar facepaint like Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok? Ross even managed to hold his own against the Wakandan fighters in Shuri's remote piloting device. Okoye kicked even more ass with the rest of the Dora Milaje against Killmonger and W'Kabi's forces. They found themselves overwhelmed until they got some unexpected help from M'Baku's tribe. I thought it was pretty cool that W'Kabi's forces were using their capes as shields in the same fashion as the soldiers in 300 did. W'Kabi already killed a large portion of the Dora Milaje but Okoye spares him his life? Geez, didn't think she had THAT much compassion in that bad ass exterior, even for the man she loves. Speaking of which, I guess the Dora Milaje aren't groomed to be T'Challa's possible wives in this continuity and merely function as the bodyguards to the king.
In the climax of their battle, T'Challa manages to fatally wound Killmonger but doesn't finish him off. T'Challa shows him compassion and shows him a Wakandan sunset after hearing Killmonger's words from his father promising to show it to him someday. After watching it together, T'Challa offers to heal his wounds, but Killmonger removes the spear from his chest and dies. This scene showed me that despite the fact that Killmonger was his adversary, T'Challa was merely completing his challenge to the throne. He offered Killmonger the means to survive and gave him mercy, much like he did to M'Baku to his benefit, but Killmonger rather die like his father and other estranged people. With Killmonger's demise, T'Challa wasn't going to allow any other of their estranged people feel detached from their homeland. In this scenario, I really didn't see Killmonger as a villain but more of a martyr to show that Wakanda's ways needed to change with the times. For T'Challa, this point hit home rather hard as he already lost his own father to the cruelty of the outside world and didn't want that to happen again if he had the means to prevent it, even if it means sharing Wakanda's resources with the rest of the world. In aspect, I applaud Marvel Studios for that twist on this iteration of Killmonger, despite some of his actions coming off pretty rocky at the start of the film. He may have wanted revenge but ultimately ends up being a martyr for change in Wakanda for the better and more importantly, the world as a whole (especially in the black community for the MCU).
The film ends full circle right where it began right back in Oakland, where T'Challa brought Shuri to be the head of an outreach center (with Nakia) in the very neighborhood where Erik grew up. I thought that was a great way to end this narrative, making me think back to The Lion King's "circle of life" mantra.
Closing Thoughts
Despite the shortcomings I have mentioned above, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. For the people who complain that I ALWAYS shit on people's parades, get over it. It's not my fault that you can't handle criticism over the stuff that you love. I'm not going to praise this film for being the "first" black superhero film when it's not, but it is the first one with a predominately African-American/black cast of actors and that's something to applaud Marvel Studios for without a shadow of a doubt. This film also deserves praise for positive representation of Africa as a whole without the negative connotation of it consisting of merely "uneducated, savages" when some of the most brilliant minds of the world are part of this society - even more talented than Tony Stark himself. Establishing Wakanda this late into the game within the ten year life span of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a telling sign, especially with this being the last film before Avengers: Infinity War. We know from the trailers that most of the fighting will take place in this futuristic marvel (no pun intended) of a locale. Often there are times where I get frustrated with black representation in mainstream media being ripe and full of tropes and heavy with stereotypes, many of which people seem to continue to encourage to this day, but with this film, I was relieved that there wasn't a single moment where I was rolling my eyes with disgust at the stereotypes of presented by black culture. If I wanted that, I would watch any of Vince McMahon's programming... I was already confident that Marvel Studios wouldn't have to resort to that, especially with their handling with Falcon/Sam Wilson and James Rhodes/War Machine thus far, so I wasn't worried in that aspect. Maybe the success of this film will show Hollywood that you don't have to resort to those methods to convey a narrative with the black community as your target audience.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I haven't been that disappointed at the end of a Marvel film since the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy in terms of a post-credits teaser. We already knew Bucky was coming back and still in Wakanda. It seemed a little sloppy on the writing that T'Challa didn't get any slack or hostility at all for bringing outsiders to Wakanda (first Bucky and then Ross after he shielded Nakia from a bullet). Too bad we didn't get anything in terms of Thanos and the Black Order on the move, but from the looks of things Avengers: Infinity War is going to be their show. Considering how Ryan Coogler stated in a recent interview about why Bucky Barnes was omitted from the film, I guess they wanted to leave that can of worms unopened.
I better clear the air on somethings too. I repeat - I may have some gripes with the film, but in no way, shape or form did I think it was a bad film. Everyone raved about Thor: Ragnarok being Marvel's best film to date a few months ago and I was pretty indifferent about that too. This was a bit of the same creature, but just had a lot of hype to live up to. Given to the reactions over the past weekend, I'm positive that the casuals were pleased as they aren't savvy to this character while others are just happy that the African-American people are well represented here period. Sue me, I may be overly critical for my own good at times, but at the end of the day, I applaud Marvel Studios for their efforts here. Not bad for a first outing with this character, but the minor gripes that I had with the film can be remedied easily within future sequels/outings with this cast of characters.
If I can be perfectly honest, my main issue with a lot of the praise of this film is that people act like this film has remedied and erased all of Marvel's problems to this date with the MCU just because that it's not as "uniform" and adding to the never-ending world-building to the next Avengers film like almost every other film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe tends to be that has people wondering how it fits in the puzzle to set up the next Avengers. Comments like that frustrate me as people (namely those coming from the mainstream side of things who don't know shit about this source material but constantly tell people like myself who grew up on this stuff on how it should be interpreted and presented when they have only became interested in said media because it's "trendy" nowadays...) forget where this stuff originated from. It's supposed to be an ongoing story. That's what comic books have survived and marketed off of for decades on end. I'm glad that we got what felt like a solo narrative without any ties to the other things going on within the MCU, but in no shape or form that this film is free from the issues that plague the MCU. We have another villain for a solo MCU film where the titular hero faces his evil doppelganger in the film's climax like previously mentioned, then the whole "world in peril" bit that seems to be tacked on every MCU film (and television show for that matter) with little thought or reasoning behind it outside of most Avengers films. Black Panther could have been a closed-off affair as simply a civil war. The whole bit to invade the rest of the world wasn't necessary in the least and could have been saved for a sequel if they wanted to go that route. That's all I'm really saying here.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
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| Black Twitter has already decreed that this is the universal new "dap" going forward. |
Definitely watch this film - there's no question about it. Comedian D.L. Hughley made the joke on the radio the other day stating the following, "Black people are going to see Black Panther to enjoy and rediscover the roots of their culture and ancestors. Everyone else is going to see this as research." (Laughs) I swear that dude is something else on his own... In all seriousness though, this is a film that definitely needs to be experienced. Marvel Comics' first black superhero finally gets his own feature live-action film and it's done right - despite a few very minor hiccups that I'm sure most are going to brush underneath the rug anyway.
I thank Ryan Coogler for bringing this character and his homeland to life in ways people could have never dreamed of, especially with the representation of African culture to its fullest - without even uttering the "N" (or any negative connotation of blacks period...) at any point of the film. I also don't want to downplay the contributions of the late Jack Kirby himself who (with collaboration with Stan Lee) brought this character to life, while artists/writers like the late Dwayne McDuffie made strides with black superheroes in popular media to make this film a reality in the first place. Too bad that they aren't alive today to see the fruits of their labors in life.
I just have to wonder how long people will be crossing their arms, bouncing their shoulders, and shouting, "Wakanda Forever!" over the next few weeks and months...
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