Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: Nothing but love to the Boseman family

Score: 8/10

          With the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman, one of the most successful Marvel franchises had to pivot with its superhero Black Panther. From what I understand, Namor was always set to be the villain, and writer/director Ryan Coogler switched thematic elements and story points from there. The film does a solid job of paying tribute to Boseman, but it also wants to be a Black Panther movie, tie in elements of the TV shows, and set up future films as well. Everything is handled well, and this is ultimately a great movie that is the best Marvel movie of 2022—but that’s not the largest statement to make with Doctor Strange 2 and Thor 4 being the others.

          The best way to describe the mood of the film most of the way through is somber. And appropriately so. We start off with standout Letitia Wright’s Shuri unsuccessfully able to heal her brother from his sickness, so the film immediately addresses his death. Shuri acts as our new lead for the film, and she is a great actress, but this is really more of an ensemble film. Again, you have the other returning Black Panther characters like Winston Duke’s M’Baku, Angela Bassett as the queen, and Martin Freeman still playing an American. All of them get their time, then we get Namor’s backstory too, oh, and Shuri as the protagonist needs to have some form of an arc as well. And in terms of hero arcs, this is one of the weakest; the payoff at the end doesn’t feel naturally resolved or as thought-provoking or emotionally charged as it tries to be. As a common theme of this review, all scenes are well-made, but with how much needs to happen in the 2 hr 40 min runtime, there’s never enough time to let the emotions soak in. I think one of the biggest symptoms is I came in fully prepared to cry over Boseman and get goosebumps, and instead, everything was more muted.

          Where Multiverse of Madness only had moments of cool action but relied too heavily on CGI and Love and Thunder leaned in too far to the goofiness and only had the standout scene in that shadow realm, Wakanda Forever does still rise above these films thanks to the actors and director Coogler. This is some of the strongest acting I’ve seen in a Marvel film as you can tell everyone is giving it their all as their own personal farewell to Boseman, and Coogler is simply one of the more talented directors working today. The way scenes are shot doesn’t make you feel like you’re looking at visual effects, and the focus stays with the powerful faces of the actors. Also, the editing in the fight scenes are quick; however—and this is huge—you’re still able to see everything that happens and can tell thought went into the choreography.

          While Wakanda mourns its king, a new threat arises in the underwater nation of Talokan. Led by mutant Namor, they shock Wakandans by also having vibranium. Having suffered at the hands of slavers centuries ago, Talokans are willing to kill those from the outside world to keep themselves and their vibranium hidden. One early action scene blends horror elements where a nation uses a ship and some rigging to try drilling for vibranium out in the ocean, and some female Talokans mimic being sirens by singing and luring the workers out to the sea and to their death.

          While I am critical of the Marvel movies this year, one thing all of them, including this film, excel at is the villains. DC has always had the better villains, but Namor is another strong entry for Marvel. Since he is a mutant, he has the ability to swim underwater and breathe on land, and he even has wings on his feet. So this makes Black Panther 2 for 2 on awesome villains. The Wakandas can relate to the isolationist mentality of Talokans, but the heroes have more morality in not wanting to create an all-out war with the world. This creates a lot of the thematic elements, particularly with Shuri, on how far you will go for vengeance and if it’s even worth it in the end. And perhaps under normal circumstances, cutting away centuries ago to spend 10 minutes on Namor’s background would’ve been fine, but I think for this film it just dragged the film a bit too much. The middle of this film goes through all its story beats without pausing long enough for the audience to feel the weight of its implications. This is probably most evident when one of our characters dies over halfway through, and while shocking and sad, again, the tone felt more muted.

          With mostly solid visuals, strong music, obviously great costumes, and the focused efforts of the entire cast and director Coogler, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the best Marvel movie of the year. But with so much to accomplish with its own story as well as the MCU as a whole, the emotional impact is lost ever so slightly. This is a solid Marvel movie and is well made overall, but it doesn’t hit quite hard enough to be one of the elites.