Movie Review: Black Panther

Black Panther [2017]

Black Panther, Marvel's first black superhero introduced into live-action form back in Civil War, finally gets his own solo movie as Marvel's 18th movie and it's... it's a massive success. It's not the first black-led superhero movie, of course, with other movies like Blade, Spawn and TV shows like Luke Cage and Black Lightning all preceding Black Panther by a huge margin, but it's one that's undoubtedly one of the most successful. What's there to talk about Black Panther that hasn't already been said? It's a great movie. It's got the same flaws that most Marvel movies have, but it's still one of the better ones that Marvel's pumped out, and that means something. I know that I'm not qualified, really, to talk about any of the more race-centric bits of this movie, but while I think they didn't quite delve deeply into the racial stuff, there's enough in it that it informs the motivations of the main villain. 

But best of all is the world-building in Black Panther. Wakanda is gorgeous, the scenes between King T'Challa and his subjects felt genuinely built on a pre-existing history, and it's something that some of the other Marvel movies set in space didn't quite manage to do. They manage to meld in exposition with scenes that didn't feel like they're awkwardly talking to exposit to us other than the opening backstory (told in literal story from a father to a child), and the sheer beauty of Wakanda's aesthetics, which is simultaneously technologically advanced yet still very much respectful of its roots... something that could really be said about the themes of this entire movie. To look to the future while still respecting your roots. 

I'm not going to go into too deep of a breakdown because I'm too tired and the two drafts I did for reviewing this movie ended up being way too rambly, so I'll just keep things relatively quick. It's a movie that follows the plot threads of past movies -- most prominent being T'Challa's character arc in Civil War as well as to a lesser extend Ulysses Klaue being a Vibranium trafficker, but otherwise the movie stands on its own, with the big beats from T'Challa's story arc in Civil War being revisited in a brief flashback. 

It's a very fun movie that tones down the comedic beats from the two preceeding Marvel movies before it -- Thor - Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy 2. There are some fun moments, mostly delivered through the adorably energetic Shuri, the scenery-chewing Klaue and the boisterous chieftain M'Baku, but most of the comedy here is delivered through snarky comebacks. And that's fine. It's not entirely joyless, and I like it. Action-wise... it's okay. There are some points where the CGI felt a bit wonky, but giving Black Panther the additional ability to store kinetic energy and unleash it in a blast is an unapologetically comic-book/video-game-y gimmick and I love it. 

The movie itself is flashy, and I really love how it blends in the fantastical bits of Wakanda like the nanotechnology that allows T'Challa to suit up via his necklace (!) or the underground vibranium mine-trains or the super-technological beads and, best of all, the goddamn armoured rhinos which, I won't lie, got me cheering due to how fucking awesome they are, but at the same time the motivations of the main characters felt absolutely human. T'Challa is struggling with the responsibilities of a leader and a ruler. Does he keep Wakanda hidden like all the previous kings, or does he dare to forge  a path into opening Wakanda up to the world, at the risk of destroying his own country? Throw in some extra bits of mind-fraying failure as he failed to bring down Ulysses Klaue, and the revelation that his father hid a particularly grisly bit of his past from everyone, and T'Challa ends up going on a story of self-discovery throughout the story even while he's doing backflips on car chases. It helps that Chadwick Boseman is a very likable actor, and while T'Challa is a serious no-nonsense king most of the time, Boseman ends up portraying the few moments T'Challa is allowed to emote -- via trippy mind-journeys to meet the spirit of his father -- really, really work, most impressively the "YOU ARE ALL WRONG!" heart-rending scream after confronting his father for having abandoned N'Jadaka.

Meanwhile, the villain Erik "Killmonger" Stevens, is a boy not from Oakland, but from the outside world. He was born in Wakanda, but grew up in the slums of Oakland, America, where he saw the world from the eyes of an oppressed people, and saw the Wakandan culture, not entirely unfairly, as a bunch of outdated reclusive selfish bastards that did nothing while their people are oppressed all around the world. Erik (or Prince N'Jadaka) ends up calling himself Killmonger, killing and hacking his way through the world to find his way into the secretive nation of Wakanda. There's definitely a huge layer of complexity in Killmonger's character, where he simultaneously wants to experience the culture of his people and see the beautiful sunsets of Wakanda, but he's also perverting it for his own selfish ambitions by burning part of Wakanda's culture and scoffing at the idea of even having successors, and in the heat of battle against T'Challa, screams about how he doesn't care about the Wakandan people. It's interesting, as Killmonger could easily be described as a hypocrite (with a few underlying bits of sentiment) that's trying to wage revenge on a people he saw as abandoned him, or a well-intentioned extremist whose motivations ended up being tainted by a zeal and a bloodlust that instead of wanting to free the subjugated, leads him to wanting to be the subjugator. Killmonger's most telling moment is perhaps the moment he spends with his girlfriend. The love there is genuine, but when push comes to shove, Erik shoots her in the head without a second thought and sheds no tears. Killmonger's characterization and motivation, and Michael B. Jordan's performance, might just be the best thing about this movie, really, and it's already a movie with a lot of good stuff. 

The supporting cast is also very much great. Killmonger's the main villain, but the movie wouldn't feel the same without Andy Serkis's Klaue, and the man really is having the time of his life just hamming it up and chewing the scenery, blasting people with his arm-cannon. And besides, Klaue's whole vibranium-smuggler deal gives T'Challa an excuse to get out of his country, and for Killmonger to get in. The women of Wakanda also get a really large amount of screentime. My favourite of these new characters is definitely T'Challa's energetic little sister Shuri, acting as the support-character-in-a-chair. Not all of Shuri's comedy beats hit, but her "sneakers" bit and her brother's "delete that footage!" exchange are definitely well-appreciated, and she even gets to fight with the big girls at the climax with the aid of a pair of sonic-boom glove things. Shuri's awesome, and her chemistry with T'Challa really makes me believe that the two are siblings. 

Nakia and Okoye, played by Star Wars' Lupita Nyong'o and Walking Dead's Danai Gurira, end up being the two big ones in the movie, with Nakia being a Wakandan War Dog who's a lot more sympathetic towards helping other Africans outside of Wakanda, and ends up being T'Challa's love interest. Okoye's part of the Dora Milaje, an army of private bodyguards to the current king of Wakanda, and Danai Gurira ends up delivering one of perhaps the most heartfelt scenes in the movie as she, in tears, tells Nakia that, no, despite clearly being good friends with T'Challa, her duty is to the rightful king of Wakanda at that moment. Okoye's also got an awesome moment in the climax where she confronts her husband, W'Kabi, who has thrown in the Border Tribe's lot with Killmonger, and that confrontation is pretty awesome. Equally awesome is stopping their pet war rhino with a single glare. 

Rounding up the supporting cast is Martin Freeman's Watson Everett Ross, returning from Civil War. He's... he's great because Freeman's great, but other than the badass moment where he gets to pilot Shuri's remote-controlled ship, Ross doesn't get to do much other than be cool and a neat supporting character. Forest Whitaker plays Zuri, the shaman of the Wakandan people who is closely tied into the backstory of T'Chaka and how he ended up killing his brother N'Jobu (Killmonger's father) in self-defense... and while it's a bit cliche at this point that the older mentor character dies, Zuri's actually allowed to go through a fair amount of character development in his screen time, clearly regretting keeping T'Chaka's secret throughout all of this. M'Baku's role as a challenger from the exiled Jabari Tribe is a bit less nuanced, but it's still a lot of great fun and ends up leading to a pretty badass fight with a depowered T'Challa, and some really fun gags with both T'Challa and Ross. Oh, and M'Baku arriving with the hoo-hoo chants mimicking gorillas at the climax is pretty awesome too. 

Overall, the story is pretty solid, with T'Challa and especially Killmonger's journey being engaging in both a narrative and emotional level. Wakanda itself is pretty gorgeous and the action scenes, while not particularly innovative, are thrilling enough. It falters into a generic climax in the third act after all the deceptions are revealed to us and T'Challa's character arc comes to a conclusion, but the movie itself is done pretty well regardless. It's not a perfect movie, but it's a pretty good one and definitely one of the stronger ones that Marvel has to offer.

Marvel (Cinematic Universe) Easter Eggs:

• Civil War and the events that happened there is referenced multiple times in here. T'Challa meets Ross for the first time there, and T'Chaka also dies there. Klaue's role in being a vibranium smuggler and his ties to Wakanda is established in Age of Ultron. 
• In addition to Bucky showing up in the post-credits scene (and apparently now called "White Wolf"?), Shuri sarcastically notes about  "another broken white boy" to heal when T'Challa brings Ross about.
• Stan Lee makes a cameo yet again, as is customary in these Marvel movies.