BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER (2022)
Tagline: For Honor, For Legacy, For Wakanda!
(Action, Adventure, Landlocked Nations with Submarines) [PG-13]
You have two choices: you can come to Wakanda conscious, or unconscious.
In this one, we are taken to Wakanda shortly before the death of King T'Challa the BLACK PANTHER. The nation is struggling to deal with its loss and the threat of other nations pillaging them for their most sought-after natural resource vibranium. In their efforts to find the metal outside of Wakanda Americans recruits a brilliant scientist named Riri who develops a vibranium detector. This detector leads them to a place too close to Talocan waters for its leader Namor to let pass. As he sets out to have Riri killed, Wakanda is brought into the fold to help Talocan take over the surface world and eliminate the threat of vibranium falling into the wrong hands.
First off, if you go see this thing be ready for a 2 hour and 41-minute film that feels like it could have been a 1 hour and 50 minutes and gotten the same message and substance in. I should preface this review by saying that I gave BLACK PANTHER a 7 out of 7 rating and saw it in theaters 4 or 5 times. It is to this day one of my favorite MCU films ever made. Having said that, this one hit on most cylinders for me as well and I really loved how they handled the passing of Chadwick Boseman. I am not going to give any spoilers in this review, but I felt everything about that aspect of the film was class as it gets. Marvel fans will also probably notice that Namor’s backstory was changed to show him being from Talocan rather than Atlantis.
Pacing wise if you were expecting an all-out brawl like in some of the earlier Marvel films, that isn’t really what is going on here. This movie is oddly mostly an introduction to Namor. We don’t really find out much if anything new about Wakanda in spite of the movie's namesake. I mean, I guess we do find out they have submarines for some reason. Kind of odd for a landlocked country, but I digress. Given Ryan Coogler’s writing style I am surprised that more people weren’t expecting a character-driven movie here. We get to see Shuri wrestling with all the emotions of her brother’s death. We get to see why Nakia left Wakanda, we get to see the Queen’s passion, strength and pain and it’s all very exquisitely performed. The sets are over-the-top epic and the CGI is fine, although it does feel like Marvel is starting to have an issue with quality in this regard.
If I had a complaint on aesthetics, it is that AQUAMAN perfected underwater sequences several years ago and something about the underwater shots in this just kind of drove me nuts. The backstory they give the Talocan’s (which makes almost zero sense) is kind of frustrating but not enough to knock the movie's score down.
If you are largely concerned about Namor, this is your movie, because it’s at least 60% about him. If you are concerned about Iron Heart (RiRi) then this is also your movie. If you are concerned about Wakanda, unfortunately very little of this film adds to that lore and in fact, there is even a scene given to one of Black Panther's former foes that takes time to rip Wakanda’s leadership for a few minutes. Given the massive anti-vaccination controversy from Letitia Wright (who plays Shuri), I am surprised she got much screen time at all. Heck, even screenrant.com threw a temper tantrum over it an article long. We live in a world where being anti-vaccination or even merely anti-unproven vaccinations can get you canceled and even verbally torn to shreds by actors in your own cinematic universe. I don’t have many compliments for Disney these days, but bravo for letting Ryan and Letitia do their thing without forcing more PC crap down our throats, even if it pissed off some of your own elitists.
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER for the most part is a cinematic triumph that while preachy at times gave us a wonderful adventure with some intriguing new characters. Also any time M’Baku shows up on screen I get pumped because I love the character and this thing just gave him so much more depth than the original movie. So yeah, any time you can hire Winston Duke, just hire him, the man is an incredible talent. I am glad he didn’t get his way and get to be the bad guy in this one though. I also have to give props to Tenoch Huerta who plays Namor, absolutely outstanding.
A few minor changes and shortening this thing by even 30 minutes would have helped out a ton. Also, in the first movie, I let the fact that we get what the villain is eluding to, pass. They humanize War-Monger to a point where you kinda get him. However, doing that with two villains in a row is a bit much. Give me a good guy, give me a bad guy and let’s slap on that “Let’s Get Nuts Mix” playlist. The more I can identify with both positions two sides in a battle are taking, the less I care about your movie. In my head, I’m already looking for a bad guy I can’t identify with and that is pure evil to fight.
Overall I have to give this one a 5 out of 7. This is one of the better phase 4 movies for the MCU.
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