The year of constant comic book flicks begins with Marvel’s Black Panther. If this genre is your cup of tea saucer of milk, then you’ll be happy that it’s just one of nine super flicks headed to cinemas in 2018 alone.
Black Panther takes place soon after the events of Captain America: Civil War. After the death of T’Challa’s (Chadwick Boseman) father, he must accept the mantle of king and protector of Wakanda, a tech wonderland in the middle of Africa. As he realizes the responsibility it takes to be king, some mistakes from the past have come back to disrupt his new reign.
Chadwick Boseman is joined by an impressive cast including Angela Bassett, Forrest Whitaker, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya and Michael B. Jordan. While this isn’t the first movie of its kind, as everyone on the internet is touting, it’s an impressive step in Marvel’s 18 movie filmography. Soon, they hope to have a female-led super flick…
The cast is the single best thing about Black Panther. Everyone here dives into their characters and helps make this peculiar world feel a bit more real. Boseman plays T’Challa as a hero without the need to be quirky. He is simply a noble man who values tradition and integrity over all else. On the opposite side of the charisma spectrum is Michael B. Jordan, who plays the villainous Killmonger (because comic book names). Every time he enters the movie, he stands out like a sore thumb, but it also allows you to wake up and take notice. He and director Ryan Coogler have worked together on Fruitvale Station and Creed, and they continue to work well together even with him having a limited role. His villainous role is one of the better antagonists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s just unfortunate he eventually puts on a yellow cat suit.
That brings us to the effects. Black Panther is so grounded in a family story, that adding flashy effects feels false to the narrative. This is also my biggest complaint about the movie because the effects and overall CG are quite poor. Anytime the actual Panther suit(s) are on screen, the movie becomes a poorly rendered cartoon that feels insincere. Add to that, some pretty silly deus ex machina tech, super rhinos and African spaceships. The quality of the actors’ performances disappears once the CG begins and so does any ability to use your brain. I truly wish Coogler relied more on hand-to-hand combat that works so well in a few scenes instead of neon sonic booms ad nauseam.
Black Panther somehow feels like a Phase One Marvel flick because it follows a different format to the slapstick glucose-induced experiences we’ve seen from them as of late. The jokes are minimal. There is no need to punctuate every scene with a quirky one-liner. Hallelujah! It’s a good thing too, because none of the jokes that were told, actually landed. I’m really not sure how a “WHAT ARE THOSE!?!?” joke passed the cutting room floor. Perhaps it was to hit a joke quota.
Credit to Coogler and crew for introducing me to a character I knew very little about and making me care more for him than possibly any of the other heroes he’ll fight alongside in the Avengers. If they can capitalize on the potential sparked here, the sequel could be better than average.
I walked out of Black Panther disappointed by many things. It was 30 minutes too long and that wasn’t helped by a lackluster ending. The CG was so omnipresent by the end, that I forgot I actually liked these characters. However, it’s a fine movie and I can’t find anything that actually ruined the experience. Being a “fine” experience puts it at a spot where it’s better than most Marvel movies, but not as good as some. Thinking about it since seeing it makes me want to like it more, but the actual viewing experience was average. C
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