Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Review
161 Minutes, Rated PG-13
Written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole
Directed by Ryan Coogler
**NOTE: this post will be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below and read Ryan’s review HERE. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
The people of Wakanda fight to protect their home from intervening world powers as they mourn the death of King T’Challa. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia and Everett Ross and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.
Well, it’s here. After the runaway success of Black Panther, we finally get the sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. This was not a sure thing, as you know. After the untimely passing of Chadwick Boseman, Wakanda seemed lost. Chadwick was the perfect actor–and man–to embody a character of such importance on the big screen, and his loss was a gut-punch to fans everywhere. Studio conversations and rewrites–plus Covid delays–made fans’ return to that African kingdom uncertain at best.
Much debated news that T’Challa would NOT be re-cast was announced, with persuasive arguments made by both sides about whether it was more important to honor Chadwick’s legacy or T’Challa’s.
With that decision, Marvel locked themselves into (and out of) certain possibilities moving forward.
How those possibilities are received is now out of Marvel’s hands and in that of the fans. So now that it’s here, let’s talk about it.
Let’s give this one the Clint Eastwood treatment; let’s look at the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (and there will be overlap).
Buckle up; this one’s going to be different (and lengthy). Read to the end.
Like most people, I’d been looking forward to this one since they green-lit it (which was up in the air early on), so audience enthusiasm (including mine) is HIGH; we are predisposed to liking this film.
Ryan Coogler returned to shepherd this difficult production following the death of Chadwick Boseman and the complete upending of the Wakandan kingdom (both on and off screen).
From the cold open in which T’Challa’s death and funeral are presented to us, through the opening MARVEL Logo animation, the studio paid great visual and thematic tribute to T’Challa. This is his character, his movie; that is never unclear. T’Challa looms large over everything in Wakanda.
It is clear that everyone associated with the film is here out of love: love for Chadwick as well as the property. Their Grief is real, and Letitia Wright and Angela Bassett channel that pain wonderfully into their performances as mother and sister.
The themes of Grief and Vengeance loom large through the entire film. Grief is 100% appropriate under the circumstances, while Vengeance (surely a powerful thematic device) follows only as a result of that Grief.
There is a nice (worldwide) story development of nations searching for vibranium outside of Wakanda’s borders, now that it’s potential is known, thanks to T’Challa’s pervious pledge to share their knowledge with the world. This search drives not one but TWO subsequent storylines in the film.
Unsurprisingly, Wakanda finds this idea laughable. I’m sure that attitude isn’t going to come back to haunt them in ways they’ll never see coming.
The creator of the “vibranium detector” is wanted by Namor (N’amor? Na’mor?) because his heretofore unknown underwater kingdom is also powered and protected by vibranium, and the search is risking the exposure of his kingdom to the surface world.
Can’t have that, so let’s force Wakanda to find and/or kill the scientist who built the detector, ending the threat. Wakanda is already under suspicion for destroying the first search vessel, so…
Namor/N’amor/Na’mor/K’uk’ulkan. This is the elephant in the room for people. It’s not the comics-accurate Namor. Same ears, same winged feet, but now of Aztek/Mayan/Olmec descent. Now we have a Meso-American-dervied civilization that has only existed since the 1600s but rivals/exceeds Wakanda on every level. Instead of Atlantis, it’s Talocan. To be honest, the character origin and the design of Talocan is pretty impressive, if not somewhat reminiscent of both Wakanda and DC’s Atlantis.
**Fun fact, the first thought I had when the blue Talocan warriors emerged was to be reminded of Avatar, since for some reason they screened that old first teaser footage from Avatar: The Way of Water before rolling Wakanda Forever.**
Had Marvel simply gone with the mythology they invented and completely stripped the few bits of the canonical Namor that remain, they had a decent villain/foil for Wakanda moving forward, as they were to be bound by vibranium, not randomly choosing Namor to fill that role. But by pushing the idea of IP rights to the limit (since they don’t own the film rights to Namor, Universal does), they load down poor Tenoch Huerta with unnecessary, fan-antagonistic baggage, which has already hamstrung reception to his otherwise pretty-darn-good villainous performance.
Nice job, Marvel. Way to shoot yourself in the foot. Why not collaborate with Universal as you do with Hulk? Maybe get to use him in all his glory in non-solo movies and in turn help Universal build its Monster-verse, since they’re apparently incapable of that on their own.
Win-win.
You figure Sony could vouch for that arrangement (**coughcough** Spider-Man *couchcough**).
RiRi Williams/Ironheart… even though we don’t hear her called that by anyone. Jammed into this movie as a 19-year old genius MIT student who can build a Stark-like suit (but so could Justin Hammer), who sells her skills to fix other students’ homework, and who, obviously, is the scientist behind the vibranium detector out of scraps (much like tony Stark built his first suit), which she built on a dare from her metallurgy professor, who told her wouldn’t be able to do it.
Of course, she’s the only one who can build another detector, which is why Namor/N’amor/Na’mor/K’uk’ulkan wants her dead. Shuri cannot allow this, so War it is!
Everett Ross is back, and he has an ex-wife, who happens to be his superior at the CIA. I won’t tell you who she is but let me know if your eyes roll as hard as mine did when she hit the screen.
There are some dodgy CGI bits here and there, but overall, it’s fine. Not great, but fine.
Ironheart has a terrible design. The prototype is horrible, and the final version RiRi builds in Wakanda prior to the final battle is horrible. It looks like a cross between MegaMan and Metroid.
We finally get to have a new Black Panther, and it’s who you think it is. Obviously.
To finish, let me just sum up some of problems with the film:
Slo-mo fights should be outlawed moving forward. Good God, man. Enough.
This film is too long. Far too long. With this story, it shouldn’t have run longer than 130 minutes, meaning at least a full half-hour could have been cut, and pacing would have improved immensely.
There are exactly zero surprises here. Nothing is unexpected, and there is nothing which doesn’t end the way you expect it to.
This film may, in fact be “the best film of phase 4” as so many earlier-than-me critics are saying, but that’s not really saying a lot. As much as I liked Doctor Strange 2, it’s not without its problems, and I can’t commit to saying Wakanda Forever is actually better than that.
The clunky and ridiculous introduction of Ironheart in this film is the perfect example of Disney’s problem of late. No, I don’t mean the “M-She-U” as the online hate industry likes to call it. It’s Disney’s propensity to (not just with Marvel, but Star Wars, as well) always be “setting up the next X” without actually doing anything in the NOW. Disney is always preparing/laying the groundwork/introducing the “next” thing without the “now” thing actually meaning anything.
The Marvel series on D+ have all been light on the front end and rushed in the last 1-2 episodes, mostly to serve as an enticement to come back for season 2 or the “next” cinematic tie-in. What the hell, man?
Ironheart is plugged in here solely to remind people she has a series on D+ coming. You know: the NEXT THING. And honestly, I found her scenes to be grating at best and pointless at worst.
Always “setting the stage.” Setting the stage for what? If people don’t care enough about what you are DOING, they’re certainly not going to care about what you are GOING TO DO.
Even the credit scene, which you will 100% see coming, is simply setting up… next. And pointlessly so, BTW.
Ugh.
In the end, “Phase 4” of the MCU will be remembered a blip in the up-till-now rock-solid connected universe. Hopefully, Phase 5 can get the time-stream back on course.
And remember, I want to rave about this. i wanted to LOVE it. But it’s just this thing that exists.
Watch Black Panther: Wakanda Forever for the opening sequence that honors T’Challa/Chadwick Boseman, stay for Letitia and Angela’s performances, but other than that…
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters on November 11 and stars Angela Bassett, Tenoch Huerta, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Lake Bell, Martin Freeman, Florence Kasumba, Winston Duke, and Dominquie Thorne.
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