FILM REVIEW: Black Panther (2018)

Directed by Ryan Coogler

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It’s crazy to think that almost 10 years ago, all of us walked out of the theater completely blown away by Iron Man, the first entry into the wide-spread Marvel Cinematic Universe. While I’ve never been a comic book enthusiast, I look back on the first couple of years of MCU with great fondness: when the next Marvel film was released, it was an event, and to think about how all of these films will cultivate was exciting. Now, it’s 2018.  While I have no doubt that comic book fans eagerly await the next entry into the MCU, I sometimes get the feeling that the MCU ran its course years ago, and that the only reason for a casual movie goer to see a Marvel movie is because there’s nothing else to see.

To me, part of the reason the MCU became stale is because of the lack of identity they seem to possess. They began to look, sound, and feel practically identical after a while (to me, anyway). Many of them seem as if they used pre-rendered modern-yet-futuristic backgrounds with different characters in the foreground.

But now we have Black Panther, and while it is not totally liberated from some of these Marvel “signatures”, it does spruce it up with a few additional ingredients that results in an identity all its own. Everything in Black Panther, from the music to the costumes, is heavily enrooted in both modern and traditional African culture. Not once, however, does the film pander or become overbearing. It’s a sincerely welcome change of scenery for the Marvel universe.

Our hero, the titular Black Panther, is T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman). He is the son of T’Chaka (John Kani), the King of their homeland Wakanda. T’Chaka has been killed in an explosion, thus enthroning T’Challa as the new King. He is indifferent and uncertain about his position. Things become more complicated when he fails to bring Klaue, a long time enemy of Wakanda, back for justice – this brings ire out of W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya), who lost his family to Klaue.

Klaue (Andy Serkis) is a long-time enemy of Wakanda, and he is working with Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan). To say anything else about the latter would result in spoilers, so I will leave it at this: the tagline of Black Panther is “Long Live the King”, but not without struggle.

There is somewhat of a lack of distinctive personality in certain characters, most notably (and disappointingly) in T’Challa. He’s certainly not a blank slate character and there’s enough to make him three dimensional – as mentioned above, he’s somewhat insecure in his duties as king, he’s charmingly cocky at times (“I don’t freeze” – you’ll know the scene), but he’s always integral and good-spirited. So, there is a character here, but compared to the distinction of characters like Tony Stark and Thor, there’s not much there in T’Challa. It’s usually against my personal policy to criticize based on comparisons like these, but knowing what Marvel Studios is capable of, there is much to be desired.

What Black Panther may lack in character, so to speak, it makes up for ten-fold in performances. Chadwick Boseman, in spite of everything, is a great fit for T’Challa and hits all the notes the character requires. What stands out even more is the strength in the supporting cast, particularly in Letitia Wright as Shuri, T’Challa’s sister. She is a genius at engineering and creating her brother’s technology, but can’t go on without some sibling shenanigans – the result is a charming comic relief of a character. And then there’s Danai Gurira as Okoye, a royal guardian who is always by her King’s side. Excuse me for being vulgar, but talk about badass (I really hope she gets her own spinoff movie). Also worth mentioning is Daniel Kaluuya, of last year's big hit Get Out, and Black Panther is putting display great potential for a promising new actor.

As for the villains: Serkis gives Klaue a skid-row kind of energy that makes him a menacingly sleazy character, almost like he’s always coked up. I repeat that to say too much more about Jordan’s Killmonger would be spoiling the film, but the threat of his character really sneaks up on you.

The production quality and visual effects of Black Panther are about what you’d expect from a Marvel film, and there’s really not too much to comment on. However, when it comes to the action sequences, Black Panther is incredible. Contrary to the epic-scale battles that are prevalent in Marvel films, Black Panther proves that less is more: action scenes are rather small-scale and reserved, but turn out to be some of the MCU’s most memorable moments – I was particularly taken by a melee battle on the waterfall. Even in its more grand scale battles, namely the climactic final battle, the focus is still on specific sects of the battle instead of the big picture. It adds a claustrophobic tension that makes them all the more exciting.

The score is also worth giving a mention. Yes, many times it’s what you’d expect with its stock epic orchestra, but we are also given plenty of wonderful African music, from hip-hop beats to some exquisite polyrhythmic percussion, which there’s a lot of. My ears were pleased.

The overall response to Black Panther has been rather polarized. I believe that audiences are being too quick to give either unconditional praise or harsh judgement to Black Panther. I greatly admire the passion in its progressivity, and it certainly stands out in an ocean of run-of-the-mill comic book films. At the end of the day, though, strip away its key identifiers and it is nothing too spectacular in the MCU, but with its unique spin on the typical Marvel tropes, it is still an entertaining and most welcome addition to the franchise.