Marvel’s Phase 4 ends with the sequel to one of their most successful movies in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The tragic loss of Chadwick Boseman has certainly impacted this movie in countless ways. He was such a welcome part of the universe and brought incredible talent and his loss will now sadly be felt. His presence is felt in this movie’s most emotional moments.
In this movie, the nation of Wakanda is reeling after the loss of their protector and king, T’Challa. Shuri (Letitia Wright) isn’t ready to properly mourn her brother, while her mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) deals with outside pressures from other nations that are seeking the same global power that Vibranium brings.
Meanwhile, an undiscovered nation appears with its god-like leader, Namor (Tenoch Huerta). With their own abilities, they seem to be the biggest threat to the survival of Wakanda.
Director Ryan Coogler returns for this sequel. I’m sure he had an uphill battle with the script for the originally planned sequel reportedly in the can and realizing it all needed to start from scratch. Though, where he helped create a new and interesting world in the first stand-alone movie, he gets lost trying to play into Disney’s hands and make this movie a launch pad for countless other MCU projects.
In so many ways, it seems as if Coogler directed the tributes to Boseman, but was sleepwalking through the majority of the movie. He definitely fell asleep in the editing room as nothing is cut that could have been. Wakanda Forever is a grueling 2 hour 41 minute experience. Hidden somewhere within is a really dynamic movie if they could cut a full hour of pointless subplots that go nowhere. With the gratuitous runtime, this feels more suited to a Disney+ episodic show. It still wouldn’t be a good show, but it wouldn’t try the audience’s patience as much.
The standout in the cast is Angela Bassett. Being the grieving mother and headstrong queen of this nation, she gets so much to do in her role. To be honest, it was a missed opportunity to not give her the mantle of The Black Panther. She brings class and emotion in every scene she’s in. Also Lupita Nyong’o continues to be such an amazing presence in this franchise and is a breath of fresh air.
Outside of them, the cast is relegated to the standard Marvel format dialogue that doesn’t land. There is far too much exposition and scientific hand-waving, with the occasional attempts at humor. None of it makes an impact. Neither Letitia Wright nor Tenoch Huerta have the presence to carry the heavy roles the movies asks of them. This could all come down to the way they were directed, but none of their scenes together had any real emotional weight.
For those audiences looking for a near three-hour action movie, look elsewhere. Given the massive budget here, you’d think they’d double the sequences from the first movie. However, most of the action scenes are implied or just poorly edited. There is a final action set piece at the end that is so poorly planned, it’s laughable.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is sadly just another bad Phase 4 movie. I loved a few of the actors and the bookend tributes to Chadwick Boseman are quite touching. Even with the real world tragedy that affected it, there was a beautiful world and mythology that deserved to be explored. Instead what we got was a new episode of the MCU that helps to set up 4-5 other Disney+ projects. D+
Post Review Credits – Don’t stick around after the mid credits sequence. There is nothing after the credits.
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