With me reminding myself that nearly a month passed since Chadwick Boseman's death, I think it's time that I decide to review not only one of the most acclaimed MCU films, but my personal favourite of the franchise. With his father's recent death, T'Challa steps up as the king of Wakanda alongside his title as Black Panther. However, his recent reign has already been given plenty of challenges as he not only has to hunt down a long-evaded terrorist as well as the debate of opening up borders and helping others in need, but is also being confronted by Killmonger, the cousin of T'Challa and true heir to the throne. The story is by far one of the most riveting the MCU has to offer and that's due to the very strong writing. There are some minor issues such as the entire deal with vibranium and its functions and quantity and some odd moments for sure, but there's no real problem with the story or character decisions. Unlike many other films in the same franchise that contains plenty of plot holes and issues that are results from a contrived script, the story and characters all progress naturally and that's in thanks to the tone of the film. The MCU has only two different types of tones in their films. These include light-hearted comedies with less stakes and drama, or more serious stories with more stakes and drama while having less comedy. Not only does the film take the latter choice, but it works mainly to its advantage. From the themes explored that includes the motivations of the hero and villain as well as the debate regarding Wakanda's secrecy, to the overall epic feel to the movie as a whole, the tone is almost perfect and makes it as one of the more accessible films in the franchise. However, there's still the comedy to be concerned about. While there is an occasionally good laugh here and there, the issue is that a lot of the jokes tend to fall flat and feel forced in an otherwise mature film. It doesn't help that even a loveable character like Shuri can spew jokes about dated memes.
Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa is iconic to say the least. From the smooth charisma, the intellect and reservedness of the character, the badass moments that shows his capability as a superhero, to the African accent that works so well that hearing Boseman speak normally will be jarring every time, it's quite clear why people don't want the role recasted and how Boseman solidified the character. There's really not much to say about Boseman's performance other than that it's fantastic. In fact, the only actor that can ironically rival his performance is Micheal B. Jordan as Killmonger. Jordan mirrors the dark reflection of T'Challa from the same type of charisma, intellect, personality, and combat, but also has one of the best villain motivations with his plan to unite African-Americans across the world to fight oppression with Wakandan technology. Jordan and Boseman's on-screen rivalry offers one of the best hero and villain dynamics on top of their excellent performances. The main leads themselves are supported by a great cast of side characters. From Letita Wright's Shuri, the witty teenage sister of T'Challa who is a genius inventor, Danai Gurira's Okoye, T'Challa's bodyguard who is a master of spear-fighting, Winston Duke's M'Baku, a rival of T'Challa from the mountain tribe who eventually teams up with him, Angela Bassett's Romanda, the enduring mother of T'Challa, Forest Whitaker's Zuri, a former spy for T'Challa's father, and Andy Serkis's Klaue, the crazy terrorist who's armed with a vibranium arm cannon. While there are a good handful of enjoyable side characters, there are some that I simply can't warm up to. While I love Lupita Nyong'o as an actress, her role as Nakia, the love interest for T'Challa, is very undercooked as all of their chemistry developed offscreen, although the film does take their relationship more as an advisory-type rather than a romance. Martin Freeman as Everett Ross, the CIA agent who gets rolled up in T'Challa's hunt for Klaue, is kind of unnecessary in the story as a whole and feels like he was cast just to be the one good white guy in the movie. Last, there's Daniel Kaluuya as W'Kabi, a friend of T'Challa who drops his loyalty once the latter broke his promise to kill Klaue, who is the most underdeveloped character of the film and we never really get the sense of the friendship he and T'Challa share. Outside of some weak side characters, the cast, and, especially, the main leads of Boseman and Jordan are simply fantastic. It's also amazing that this Hollywood superhero production with a $200 million budget has a majority of black actors. There's a reason why this is considered one of the most important films of the genre as well as for the black community, and that's that kids of colour can now watch a popular, blockbuster movie where their people are the stars.
Ryan Coogler is one of the few directors who have managed to be given a lot of creative freedom by Kevin Feige, similar to James Gunn for the "Guardians of the Galaxy" films, and it's not because of his work on "Creed". The real reason and one of the film's biggest strengths is the central location of Wakanda and the production design as a whole. Outside of the creative city and imagination surrounding the fictional country and how it pools multiple African languages and cultures, I love how much like the country's obsession of isolation, the film itself feels very much isolated and stand-alone from the MCU. Outside of a scuffle in Korea, the majority of the film is centred in Wakanda, which is a location that no one from the entire world, including other superheroes, are aware of. The stakes and set-pieces only concern Wakanda and it allows a lot of reasons why T'Challa is working alone or why Iron Man doesn't show up. The stand-alone nature of the film makes it accessible to anyone, as they don't need to watch any other movie to understand what's going on. On top of that, Coogler's direction uses colour so effectively. In the cities outside of Wakanda, it's very unfiltered and is mainly visually pleasing at night. In Wakanda though, the scenes explode with colour with the daytime scenes just showing the beauty of the city and the African landscape. The use of black and purple is such a nice combination and Coogler puts detail into his colour palette. The cinematography by Racheal Morrison is great with the use of tracking shots and establishing shots. The camerawork for the most part really works around with the CGI effects, although some things can get a bit messy during the third act. The Oscar winning-score by Ludwig Goransson majestic to say the least and is the standard for how to make a great, modern superhero soundtrack. From the Wakanda theme, the Astral Plane theme, Killmonger's theme, and the various action beats that resemble a mixtape of African-inspired music, Goransson deserves every bit of that medal and has became one of my favourite modern composers. The action sequences are for the most part memorizing to watch, with the variation of combat used, both unarmed and weaponry, as well as the various gadgets that are introduced such as Shuri's arm cannons. Then, there's the CGI, which I feel the film tends to really overuse. For the scenes revolving around the city, background landscapes, ships and laser blasts, along with some action moments, it's acceptable and does look polished. But, things get really overboard by the climatic battle. Of course there's the infamous tunnel scene, but even the battle happening above ground looks more like a cartoon as the colours, weaponry and war rhinos all mash together to a CGI mess. On top of that, I simply prefer the suit/costume T'Challa wore in "Civil War" not only by how much cooler it looks, but it doesn't have the ability to emit explosive blasts whenever T'Challa launches himself. I know that was part of the comics, but I feel that it's a pretty overpowered ability on top of an unbreakable suit and combat mastery. Regardless, Coogler did a fantastic job directing and I'm happy that Feige gave him as much freedom as possible given the franchise limitations.
"Black Panther", in my opinion, might be the best MCU film to date, regardless of my personal favourite title. It's not flawless, in fact, all of the MCU films have some critical flaw of some sort. The use of vibranium can get pretty out there at times, some of the jokes really don't work at all, the characters of Nakia, Everett Ross, and W'Kabi are very underdeveloped and not very likeable or necessary in the long run, the CGI can vary in quality and be extremely overused, and the climatic battle, as fun as it can be, feels artificial and cartoony from the overbearing amount of colours and effects. Despite these issues, there are plenty of reasons why this is being regarded as one of the best superhero films to date. From the great story that feels adult and asks difficult questions, the mostly serious tone that complements the maturity of said story, the performances of Boseman and Jordan giving us not only great characters, but an excellent dynamic for the hero and villain, a very good supporting cast of loveable characters and actors, the cultural significance of the film in general, the use of colour, Morrison's pleasing cinematography, Goransson's excellent soundtrack, enjoyable action sequences, and above all, Coogler's direction of not only creating a distinct location of Wakanda and using so many cultures spread across Africa, but the stand-alone nature of the film compared to the universe it inhabits. I don't think this film even needs a sequel, considering that it doesn't even foreshadow one to begin with. Disney and Marvel should really just let this film be the exception as not only a great film, but as an important piece in Boseman's legacy.
Verdict: 8.5/10. If a few of these issues were ironed out, it would have been a masterpiece. Even then, it's still one hell of a superhero film.
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