Black Panther

Director: Ryan Coogler

Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Letitia Wright Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker

Genre: Action

Year: 2018

The newest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, 'Black Panther' delves into T'Challa's life after the death of his father. His world is changed by becoming both King of Wakanda and the legendary Black Panther.




In 'Captain America: Civil War', viewers were introduced to a new member of the MCU, Black Panther, making his debut opinion here, with fantastic results. Here, the titular, vibranium-clad hero earns his own independent film.
After the death of his father, T'Challa (Boseman) must assume position as King over Wakanda as well as becoming the titular character himself. Through this, he must also concern himself with many political issues, facing the world and the security of Wakanda, a city hidden in plain sight. The film initially focuses on the elusive Klaw, a dangerous criminal, eager to earn money from selling some stolen vibranium. However, a bigger challenge confronts T'Challa which results in Wakanda and its people being subject to a sinister and unnerving villain.

The film begins with an alternate approach to exposition by portraying the birth of Wakanda in a short animated montage, accompanied by a monologue between young T'Challa and his father. It then abruptly transitions to an urban location that depicts a conflict which occurs outside of Wakanda a couple of decades prior to the present day. This scene is supposed to set the plot into motion; however, it feels somewhat confusing since the film does not provide much context to the situation, until later on. Additionally, this creates a tone which quickly shifts to a stereotypical superhero fight sequence to depict the Black Panther in action. This becomes a recurring issue with the film for a number of reasons. Firstly, many things feel like they lack context or demand elaboration upon but never receive it, so the audience is left stranded trying to piece together what little information they have while the film is happy to pursue the central plot line instead. Secondly, the tone shifts regularly throughout this film, frequently without time to recover from a previous tone set. At one point it could a fight sequence, the next a solemn ritual. Tones clash throughout the film which makes it disconcerting to watch and appreciate.

At the beginning of the film also, a couple of villains are established - Andy Serkis' thieving criminal Klaw and Michael B. Jordan's nonchalant character Killmonger. The latter does not get much screen time for the first half of the film, appearing briefly in an introductory scene to his character and not seen again for while; instead the film favours Wakanda's conflict with the sadly underdeveloped Klaw whose motivations need further clarity, despite the fact that his character has a strong potential to be interesting, with a peculiar, yet lethal arm, constructed from Wakanda's advanced technology. The technological side of Wakanda is embellished quite a bit within the film and it is quite enjoyable to see such an advanced civilisation and how Coogler decided to portray this. This provides the culture of Wakanda with the interest it demands, but doesn't always receive.

As a whole the plot feels relatively slow paced, a common trait of stand alone Marvel films, at least the first in the series (*cough* Iron Man *cough* Captain America: The First Avenger *cough* Thor *cough*), and the film tries to compensate for this with relatively standard action scenes, which fail to reach very high on the wow-factor. The fight scenes don't offer anything unique to Marvel films, and although they are exciting to watch, again feel so layered with a fairly underdeveloped culture from Wakanda, that the audience can't fully appreciate what is happening. Nevertheless, the fight scenes are enticing to watch, most noticeably the finale, which releases all the tension built up between characters in an all-out war. The choreography here, and throughout the film, is very well executed, taking obvious inspiration from tribal fighting techniques and they also utilise their weaponry and suits (in terms of the Black Panther suit) impressively.  This fight scene, while being fun to watch, isn't anything Marvel haven't attempted to accomplish before, and arguably have done better.

On a positive note, Micheal B. Jordan's Killmonger, when he eventually reclaims his screen presence, is nothing short of spectacular, easily stealing the show. He is one of the best crafted Marvel villains in the MCU - his motivations are clear and reasonable to some extent. He wants Wakanda to play a more aggressive and key role in the outside world, instead of remaining in the shadows, staying hidden from the rest of the world. While his interpretation of this is slightly more macabre, his reasoning is justifiable and means that he contrasts many other villains portrayed in previous Marvel films. Whenever he is on-screen, his performance is magnificent, and contradicts the stereotypical antagonist.
In addition to him, a lot of the other cast give strong performances and all the protagonists are very likable. There is a lovable, sibling bond between T'Challa and sister Shuri (Wright), and when emotion is due, the film delivers well on this point. Unfortunately, a lot of the other cast members feel underdeveloped and not hugely memorable, despite still performing well within the film.

Ultimately, this film feels far too over-hyped when it really is simply another Marvel film. It doesn't offer anything particularly new, other than the Wakandan culture, and follows a fairly stereotypical format. The action is great, as to be expected from a Marvel film, and there is good emotion evoked from the characters. There is room for more development, but with the success of the film, it will be more than likely that a follow up film is to be expected.

Verdict: 7/10