Black Panther feels more of a political film when compared to the other superhero films in the Marvel cinematic universe. The way it demolishes the sexism and racism by taking culture along with it is quite a wonderful site. Marvel has managed to restructure the superhero franchise that has been facing the burn out issue with its last few films and this one is also a variety addition to their way of keeping this genre pretty much alive. With its central conflict also having a contemporary relevance, Black Panther might be short on the entertainment side, but it is solid on its statements.
After the events in Civil War were we saw King T’Chaka getting killed, his son T’Challa has become the new king. He is assigned to this new responsibility and the first mission for him was to find Ulysses Klaue, the arms dealer. T’Challa’s failure to complete that mission leads to an inner conflict between the Wakandans and an unexpected outsider with a valid argument about the oppression faced by people of African origin puts the King in a difficult situation. How he fights back from this is what Black Panther all about.
The mould of Black Panther might be pretty simple. Or I think I should say it’s more Shakespearian with all the inner conflicts over power putting people in emotionally challenging situations. But where director Ryan Coogler manages to make this Black Panther movie progressive is by adding layers of culture, equality etc. in to the narrative. The person who sat next to me was constantly mocking the dialect and the looks of certain characters and I must say this movie was apparently the simplest tool to identify a racist. The writing here has female characters thriving and the visual of a king being aided by powerful women is indeed a need of the hour. Even the reason behind why the antagonist wanted to conquer Wakanda had a valid political backdrop.
Ryan Coogler who made a fabulous Creed, has definitely given us a movie that doesn’t try to follow the pattern. I won’t say it has broken the mould. But it has definitely tweaked the mould in a progressive direction. The equality that black people deserve gets represented in this film and it respects its cultural diversity. There are moments were the usual dominance of USA and UK are mocked with perfect information about their way of functioning. I loved the way the general says she will speak in English when she wants to. A lot of such subtle breaking of stereo types is happening in this movie and I believe Black Panther becomes a path breaking attempt in that sense. The cinematography is fabulous and the visuals are stunning as usual. The background score uses the culture perfectly.
Unlike the Black Panther we saw in Civil War, T’Challa is a bit confused here. We get to see his soft side. He is yet to become that strong leader with clarity and Chadwick Boseman manages to present that version of Black Panther convincingly. Michael B Jordan who earlier collaborated with Coogler in Creed is the antagonist Killmonger here and the guy was the perfect choice to play the bad guy with confidence and clarity about the mission he had. Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira and Letitia Wright play the roles of the significant female characters in this movie. Martin Freeman is there, the ever so brilliant Andy Serkis and Mr. Forest Whitaker is also there in this movie.
Black Panther manages to achieve more than its aim of introducing us to the world of Wakanda. The political significance of its content is praiseworthy and Marvel manages to come up with something that isn’t going to get labelled as run-of-the-mill.
Rating: 4/5
The political significance of Black Panther's content is praiseworthy and Marvel manages to come up with something that isn’t going to get labelled as run-of-the-mill.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
Thank you for the review .Usually I agree with your reviews and most of the time check your site before watching a movie . But got to say , last Thor movie was a disappointment. I just didn’t like the way that movie was . Humour and character arch mainly .
This was a movie I got excited about after the last Captain America movie. Will be watching it tomorrow hopefully.
Thanks man for the review again 🙂
I watched this movie trying to find every flaw in it, like what I do in every movie. And I gotta say, though there are flaws to this movie, like some of the CGI and it couldve used a bit more action, I still walked out of the theather happy and looking forward to more of Black Panther. Now, since Civil War I was so excited for Black Panther, and when Im excited I set the bar high, and this movie did not disappoint me… Ok, there was one part that disappointed me, not gonna say it ’cause its a big spoiler, but I literally yelled “What the fuck???!!!” When it happened, I think you know what I mean. I loved the cast, I think they all did a great job. I do disagree with people saying the last fight sucked, I was entertained with it, so it was fine for me, but I disagree because for a character like Black Panther, I didnt and dont expect the action to be as big as say characters like Thor, Hulk other more powerful Avengers, I came into this movie wanting a good story and emotional moments, and this movie delivered that for me. But one of my favorite parts of the movie was no doubt the villain, especially since its an MCU movie, Michael B Jordans character really had good backstory and motives for his actions, and how the movie ended really fulfilled his character for me and I even teared up a bit, knowing that he just wanted justice for what happened to his father and that he just wants to help people, specifically African Americans, whose rights are being violated and wants to give them the weapons to defend their families and fight back. Overall, One of my favorites in the MCU, yeah you read that right, fight me. I’d give it a B+