Movie Review -- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

This is an interesting movie to review, because it is rather hard to divorce this movie from the real-life events that preceded it -- namely the sudden death of Black Panther/T'Challa's actor Chadwick Boseman from end-stage cancer. There were a lot of murmurings about how the slated Black Panther sequel movie was going to be handled, and after a brief juggling of Marvel's Phase Four movies, Wakanda Forever was eventually produced. 

And... it is probably the most solid movie out of Marvel's very awkward fourth phase? It does speak to the rather staunch criticism leveled against the rest of the movies produced in this phase, all of which have had their own degrees of criticism. I would admit that Multiverse of Madness felt rather rushed; No Way Home relied almost exclusively on continuity callbacks and Love and Thunder was tonally messy. 

So it is genuinely interesting to see how this movie, whose plans were undoubtedly screwed up by Chadwick's passing, ends up holding up... and how it manages to be easily the most engaging movie in phase four of the MCU. 

I still do think that this movie is doing a bit too much, personally, struggling with the 'juggling too many characters' problems that plagues Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Thor: Love and Thunder. But unlike those movies, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever honestly does a pretty good job at telling the audience that the main character are Shuri and Namor, and that everyone else will just have to take turns to play supporting cast to the two of them. It does help that a lot of the Wakandan characters have had Black Panther and the rest of the Phase III movies to get themselves well-defined. 

The movie starts off with an undisclosed amount of time between Endgame and Wakanda Forever, with Shuri panicking in her laboratory as she struggles to create a synthetic version of the heart-shaped herb in order to help cure her brother, who is dying from an unspecified illness. Unfortunately, she fails, leading to an amazingly touching sequence of T'Challa's death and funeral.

All throughout this, I absolutely appreciate that all we see of T'Challa are just archival footage, so as not to disrespect the actor by using one of the cinematographic universe's often distasteful usage of deceased actors' faces done by CGI. T'Challa's loss is honestly the driving factor of so much of this movie's plotline, and with the spotlight being shone onto his little sister Shuri, there definitely is a huge feeling of moving on with grief and accepting her brother's death that basically becomes her movie-long plotline. It's one that is delivered amazingly well (especially for someone who didn't really care for Shuri as anything more than a background character prior to this movie) and I absolutely appreciate that there were so many moments in this movie where Shuri makes it clear how much T'Challa's death (and Ramonda's later on in the movie) has shaken her to her core. She starts off this movie basically tossing herself into her work at trying to create replacements for the Black Panther, viewing Wakanda's reliance on the Black Panther (but also projecting her own insecurities) as a relic of the past. 

Of course, as people online have pointed out, a lot of this is very similar to T'Challa's very first character arc in the MCU, where he was facing off against his father's killer, Baron Zemo, in Captain America: Civil War. The parallel isn't quite made as obvious as every other callback to the first Black Panther movie (and honestly there are a lot) but it's definitely cute when you realize it. 

I also like that T'Challa's death ends up having repercussions to Wakanda as a nation itself, something that triggers the plot of the movie even if it's not really necessarily followed up upon in the movie itself too much. With Queen Ramonda as the new ruler of Wakanda, she has to face off with the rest of the world wanting to claim Wakanda's Vibranium resources for their own, with a very badass sequence of a group of Dora Milaje being hidden among scientists of a Wakandan lab and taking out some French soldiers -- who Ramonda drops like a boss in front of the UN. 

However, a brand-new player has entered the game. When a group of USA soldiers use a Vibranium tracking device in the Atlantic Ocean, we are treated to an amazingly well-done horror sequence as the divers are slowly picked off one by one by assailants from the murky abyssal depths of the ocean. And not to mention the absolutely horrifying sequence as some sort of sonic whistle starts making the humans jump and kill themselves by drowning. What the fuck! The survivors of that raid try to escape via helicopter, but then Namor makes his debut as a shadowy flying figure, in all the glory of his ankle-wings (which are stupid but I absolutely adore the MCU for translating them faithfully) who fly up and destroy the helicopter with no survivors. 

Shuri herself is still struggling with moving on with her brother's passing, and at the anniversary of T'Challa's death, Ramonda tries to get Shuri to go and burn their funerary clothes as a ritual of moving on and feeling T'Challa all around them. Shuri argues with her mother and dismisses this as sentimental, non-scientific, overly-emotional claptrap... but they're interrupted when Namor finally appears before them. Again, glorious focus on his silly-ass ankle wings! Namor blames Wakanda for the world fighting over Vibranium, and offers Wakanda an ultimatum -- deliver the scientist that created the Vibranium-detecting device, or he will make Wakanda his enemy. 

And then we get to Shuri and Okoye going around to the United States to look for the inventor, and... I really like the pair! Okoye is one of my favourite supporting characters, and they really allowed Danai Gurira to show off a bit more of her comedic moments as she and Shuri interact both with Everett Ross and later on Riri "Ironheart" Williams, the young woman who invented the Vibranium detecting machine. 

Ross, meanwhile... well, they kinda have him in the movie because he was in Black Panther, but I really do feel like his plot point could've bene easily exorcised from this movie with minimal loss to the movie itself. We do get the revelation that he's actually tied to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine -- who is actually very happy for the USA to monopolize Vibranium. It's just setup for the future movie, but it does feel kinda odd that they had this shoe and it didn't drop this movie, so to speak. 

Meanwhile, Riri Williams... well, each of the more recent Phase IV movies have really tried to introduce a young character that ends up being kind of a plot device. A bit more obvious with America Chavez, but... I like Riri a lot better than America, I guess, mostly because she's probably written a bit better? She's all right, I guess, and brings in a lot of energy to the role even if she's not the type of character I tend to care for. The comedy moment between her, Okoye and Shuri are fun. 

They end up being chased down by the FBI, but then get interrupted by a pretty cool fight in the bridge where Namor's two lieutenants Attuma and Namora show up and fight them in a very cool scene. Shuri and Riri get kidnapped and brought underwater, which leads to an amazingly acted sequence where poor Okoye is stripped of her ranks and her responsibilities while she's crying and sobbing. Amazing acting both by Angela Bassett and Danai Gurira -- and it's really kind of sad that Okoye never really got to reconcile with Queen Ramonda. 

Namor befriends Shuri and we get Namor's backstory, which is updated amazingly well to both tie him into the Black Panther storyline, but also introducing himself as a mutant (the mutation caused by his mother ingesting Vibranium-based plants while being pregnant), updating his name (appropriated from niño sin amor, a far better reason than 'roman spelled backwards') and giving an origin to the Talokanians (renamed versions of the Atlanteans from the comics). We get to see the majesty of Talokan and really appreciate what Namor is trying to protect. And even without really focusing too much on it, seeing just how much thought was clearly put into Talokan -- like that fake sun, or their snake-mouth gesture greeting (which is a real thing in Mayan carvings) all really manage to sell the idea that this is a living, thriving culture deep beneath the ocean. Even without spelling it out too much, Namor really is trying to point out what both Wakanda and Talokan stands to lose if the rest of the world gets their hands on Vibranium -- with both their countries having suffered under the hands of colonizers. 

Again, a great motivation for Namor, and it sure as hell makes him a lot more well rounded-out. The only thing, of course, that pushes Namor into the edge of supervillainy at this point is his demand for Riri to be killed.

While all of this is going on, Ramonda goes off to talk to Nakia, who's been hiding in Haiti since Infinity War, and Nakia's rescue mission to get Shuri back ends up in the death of one of Namor's unnamed attendants. Which leads to war, and an amazing speech from Namor to his people about how he's not going to compromise with outsiders.

This leads to the harrowing flooding of Wakanda, with the Talokans showing up with their water bombs and their creepy jump-into-the-water whistles. We get characters like Nakia, Okoye and the glorious M'Baku jump around and rescue people and fight Atlanteans, and Namor himself manages to show what a terror he is in the daylight -- one-shotting M'Baku and slicing apart Wakandan ships with ease, and this is probably where his ankle wings look the coolest with how he's making sharp turns mid-air and zipping in and out of the water. Queen Ramonda dies in Namor's onslaught, dying to get Riri out of the flooded royal chambers, leading to the second funeral Shuri ends up being in, while Namor promises vengeance with his whole army in a week. 

Bitter and focused, we get a wonderful exchange between Shuri and M'Baku, the latter of whom tries to be a mentor and caution Shuri against acting too rashly in the desire for vengeance, citing a promise he made with T'Challa. Amazing character development for M'Baku, and you just see Shuri being so hyperfocused at recreating the heart-shaped herb while Riri and Nakia watch. 

Shuri goes into the Ancestral Plane, but instead of seeing T'Challa, Ramonda or T'Chaka, she sees her cousin Erik Killmonger in a very unexpected but welcome cameo. Killmonger represents the other extreme, where he urges Shuri to seek revenge, and boy oh boy, Shuri and Killmonger's conversation is another one in a lot of great scenes exchanged by characters in this sequence. 

After bitching about her vision, Shuri punches a Black Panther suit and sends it flying across the room, realizing that she actually did succeed in getting the herb to work, leading to her landing to stop the rest of the Wakandan elders from bickering in a brand-new black and gold Black Panther suit. With a loud cry of 'the Black Panther liiiiiives!' from M'Baku and beating the Jabari chieftain in an arm-wrestling contest... the moment of triumph is cut short by Shuri and M'Baku having another conversation about loss and vengeance. M'Baku, despite being all too eager to fight the 'fish man' before, talks about how Namor isn't a mere king to his people, but a deified god -- K'uk'ulkan, the Feather-Serpent God. Killing him will cause eternal war. Something that, while to Shuri, is worth it for vengeance over her mother, is not a price M'Baku thinks Wakanda will be willing to pay. 

Wakanda prepares for war against Talokan, leading to certain other upgrades like Okoye getting a brand-new (ugly, according to her) armour called the Midnight Angel, as well as Riri Williams making her Ironheart suit. Two minor characters, Ayo (the one from Falcon and Winter Soldier) and Aneka (the one with daggers) also get some scenes, but to be honest I really barely realize Ayo and Aneka are in this movie until Aneka dons the second Midnight Angel armour. 

The fight between the Talokans and Wakandans are... it's all right. It's a bit too chaotic compared to other 'many people in a climax' movie like Infinity War, Endgame and No Way Home for sure. We do get to see a whole bunch of fancy new suits in action, and there are a lot of cool moments with the Talokans weaponizing whales, and Namora blowing up the countermeasure that the Wakanda warship have. Seeing Shuri as the Black Pantehr in action is pretty neat, too, and it's clear that the movie is both trying to show her off as being cool while also noting how scary she is when vengeance has consumed her.

(Among the secondary characters, Okoye's rematch with Attuma leads to her victory; while Riri beats Namora with her new armour.)

The fight on the beach is pretty well done, too, with the 'nerfing' of Namor via burning and dehydrating him being belivable, and Namor even gets to impale Shuri for a bit and get the upper hand despite it all. There is a genuinely surprising moment when Shuri sets off the engines of her ship to seemingly burn Namor alive. But ultimately Shuri has Namor dead to rights and forces him to yield...

...something that, admittedly, is a bit hard to swallow for Namor to do with what we've seen him done. Especially when the Talokans literally have like twenty Wakandans herded into a corner. I wonder if the scene might've worked better if Namor was to also see his people in trouble? We do get a scene later on that does feel a bit tacked on, where Namor explains to Namora how he's basically forcing Wakanda into an alliance with Talokan in the future, since Wakanda is being blamed for all the chaos that had gone on all this while, but... I don't know. I'm not the biggest fan of the talk-no-jutsu ending, I guess. But Namor lives another day, and he's way too much fun of an antagonist to give up so quickly, so yay. 

Anyway, Shuri ends up basically moving on from his mother and brother's death, finding a road that's a little bit different from T'Challa. It's a pretty all right conclusion, I suppose, and the movie does a great job at really highlighting how much Shuri's vengeance is consuming her. That final scene as Shuri burns her funerary robes and thinks about Ramonda and T'Challa is amazingly done, too. 

We get a bit of a rapid-fire epilogue with the aforementioned Namor scene, but also Riri going back to the US with a reconstructed car, M'Baku taking over as political leader with Shuri's blessing, and Okoye rescuing Everett Ross from CIA arrest, and Shuri learning that Nakia and T'Challa have a secret child together. 

And ultimately... it's an entertaining movie. Especially considering the real-life changes that the producers had to do with making it a movie that stands well on its own while also being a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. I do admit that the actors for Shuri, Namor, Ramonda, M'Baku, Riri, Nakia and Okoye really carried this movie, but everything else... well, it was a movie that did a lot and tried to cram a lot of characterization, I would say, and definitely the characterization for Ayo, Aneka, Everrett Ross, Attuma and Namora really faltered a lot. But shifting the characterization of the Black Panther mantle to Shuri definitely was the right choice. I don't really find her the most interesting character in the Black Panther franchise before, but her closeness to T'Challa and the story she received in this movie definitely does a lot to really bring her into being the protagonist of this movie pretty well. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Post-Credits Scene:
• 
  Nakia reveals to Shuri that she and T'Challa fathered a child, Toussaint, whose Wakandan name is T'Challa. 
• Past Movies Continuity:
• The events of Black Panther (especially Killmonger's takeover of the country, the burning of the heart-shaped herb garden and Okoye's role in it) as well as the Blip in Infinity War/Endgame (in particular Nakia's absence in those movies) are all brought up multiple times in the movie. 
• "Show them who you are", Ramonda's iconic line from Black Panther during the challenge, is alluded to twice -- Ramonda addressing the rest of the nations, as well as later her vision-self telling Shuri to show Namor who she is.
• Shuri calls back M'Baku's insult to her in the beginning of the Black Panther movie -- a 'child that scoffs at tradition'. 
• Riri passing out thanks to a lack of oxygen -- and indeed the whole 'fly up to a high altitude' scene -- recalls a similar scene in Iron Man, though there the limiting factor was Iron Man's Mark II joints freezing up. 
• At the end of the movie, Shuri and Riri do the funky secret handshake that Shuri once shared with T'Challa.
• Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was last seen The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Black Widow, recruiting USAgent in the former and sending Yelena after Clint in the latter. This is the first movie where she's explicitly antagonistic to the heroes.
• Movie Superhero Codenames: Shuri claiming the mantle 'Black Panther' in the third act of the movie is literally the main plot of the movie. Namor (who in the comics is just a made-up word from Atlantis) is an interesting variation since the movie actually gives us the origin of the name Namor (el niño sin amor). Okoye and Aneka's armours are called 'Midnight Angels' by Shuri, but Okoye reacts in exasperation at it -- an interesting variation since the Midnight Angel isn't a superhero codename but rather a sub-group. Attuma and Namora are their literal names. Riri Williams never calls herself Ironheart.
• Favourite Action Scene: Mine is actually Namor's assault on Wakanda with all the flooding going on and all the Wakandan characters trying their best to rescue the civilians. 
• Funniest Line: "What, just because we live in the mountains you think we have no access to books?"
  
• Shuri was actually the Black Panther in the comics for a while.
• Namor flooding Wakanda is based on a similar event in the comics, during the Avengers vs. X-Men crossover event. 
• Namor says his comic book counterpart's catchphrase, 'Imperius Rex', albeit in Mayan. 
• The alliance that Namor proposes between Talokan and Wakanda seems to be based on the Atlantis/Latveria alliance in the comics, although in a twist, Namor's country ends up being the more villainous one in the movie instead of the one that the audience is supposed to root for.