Black Panther Review [Spoilers…]

Black Panther was directed by Ryan Coogler and stars Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, and Letitia Wright. It’s the next in the long line of seemingly endless Marvel movies and covers the rise of T’Challa as he becomes king of his homeland, Wakanda, and takes the helm of the hero “Black Panther.” The film was released to widespread critical acclaim, but after leaving the theater, I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed for what I had just watched.

I have been an avid Marvel fan for years now and I so desperately wanted to like this movie, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t convince myself that it was anything more than just an average film. It was held back by numerous narrative shortcomings established early on in the script, and while many of those issues were resolved as the movie progressed, it still could not fully rid itself of these problems overall. So with that, allow me to start with the bad.

The Biggest Issue: The largest problem that Black Panther had was nothing inherently wrong with the movie itself, but instead both Marvel and Disney’s desperate attempts to connect the story to the overarching Marvel Cinematic Universe (the MCU). The live action adaption of the hero Black Panther was first introduced in a prior film, Captain America: Civil War, where it showed the death of T’Challa’s father which set his origin story into motion. Since part of this character’s backstory had already been told, albeit hastily rushed, in another movie, the writers struggled to decide whether they should tell an origin story or a separate, self contained plot. Sadly, they decided to do both, yet it is hard to fault the writers for this when they were forced into such an awkward position by an established universe.

The Shifts: About one-third to halfway through the film, there was a discernible shift both narratively and tonally that changed the entire direction of the movie. This massive change took place roughly at the point where Ulysses Klaw was killed and Killmonger took the helm as the main villain. Once this occurred, the shot selection, especially during action scenes, changed drastically and so did the humor, emotion, and character development. It made the experience seem as if I had watched two entirely different movies that had been mixed together in the editing room. It’s similar to my earlier comment about origin stories and it was at here where the writers chose to no longer tell an origin story but instead a self contained narrative. I am, however, extremely grateful for this shift since I found the first half of the film to be nearly unbearable and it wasn’t until the second half of the movie where I found myself truly engrossed in what I was watching. I therefore feel a need to discuss this movie in its two clear parts.

The First Half: The beginning sequences of Black Panther felt rushed and choppy. The scene order had very little flow to it and the scenes themselves varied in length in ways that made them hard to follow. The writers would skip past a crucial scene then stop to focus on a less enticing one, an example being T’Challa’s ascension to the throne getting little showtime in comparison to the sister and her laboratory which felt like it dragged the movie behind through unneccesary comic relief and nonsense technology. This ruined the pacing of the movie and made it feel jumpy and not cohesive. Another important part of the film’s introduction were its action scenes, a very crucial aspect of superhero movies which generally bank on choreography far more than traditional storytelling. However, the numerous fight scenes in the first half were poorly done and horribly directed. To start, the opening action scene was a night time gun fight where the only lighting was the gunfire. Stylistically, this was a complete failure, and made for a hard to follow mess. Not only that, but the technology introduced in these scenes gave the protagonists a sense of invincibility and lowered the stakes of every early fight scene. These issues continued into the following scenes like the one in South Korea where the fighting seemed to be ripped directly from a James Bond movie and didn’t fit the genre at all which then led into a car chase that dragged on for far too long. Also, speaking on this section, I found the South Korea scene to be the lowest point in the entire movie. For the most part, Black Panther felt very self contained and spent most of its time in Wakanda, save for the few and necessary scenes in the United States. Then, they suddenly travelled to a completely new country with barely any setup leaving a sequence that felt extremely out of place and much too flashy for the established tone. Overall, the first half of this film was an unevenly paced mess that staggered and nearly fell flat, but was barely saved by a narrative shift that set Black Panther back in the right direction.

The Second Half: In comparison to the first half, this section of the film felt far more cohesive and had a well paced flow to it that drew the viewer into the world in a way that the beginning could not. The new villain, Killmonger (who I will discuss in more depth further on), was far beyond Klaw as a villain and his interactions with the protagonists were some of the greatest scenes in the movie. The fight scenes became much more polished as well and the writers began to develop characters vastly more in depth. Along with that, the inclusion of Killmonger using the same piece of Black Panther armor eliminated the technology issue and added tension by creating an evenly matched fight. The only times when this movie felt disjointed again was when it was forced to continue the subplots of characters like Shuri and Ross in which I found myself lacking any investment or care in. For example, the final major battle was resolved between two characters’ love for each other but their entire relationship was an aspect of the movie that was set up in merely one line an hour before and never touched on again. The second section of the movie gave its best attempt at fixing the mistakes established early on, and for the most part it succeeded, but it faltered when it came to connecting beginning subplots to the finale. However, it was still an extremely enjoyable experience overall that nearly made me forget about all of the earlier problems.

The Villains: Black Panther decided to use two different antagonists, Ulysses Klaw and Erik Killmonger, who are both my least and most favorite major villains in the MCU. Klaw was perhaps the least intimidating villain I’ve ever seen on screen and the viewer felt absolutely no suspense when he appeared. The writers tried to give him the same sense of unpredictability that makes the Joker in DC so frightening, but he ended up appearing more foolish than villainous. The character utilized awful comic relief and awkward dialogue in a horrible mixture that made me want to rejoice when he was finally killed. While Andy Serkis’ performance was well done, it wasn’t enough to save one of the worst villains in the MCU to date. Killmonger, on the other hand, was the polar opposite. Michael B. Jordan gave a phenomonal performance as Erik Killmonger and was by far the highlight of this entire movie for me. I found myself captivated every time he was on screen and after seeing this film, I only wish this character could have been a much more prominent villain in not just this film, but in all Marvel films. His motivations and development were some of the most real and believable in a superhero movie and it even forced me to question whether or not I wanted him to win in the end. The only issue with this character is that his plan as king did not show him to be nearly as evil as the writers hoped it would. His introduction in Wakanda showed him wanting to use the vibranium to help the poor, underprivileged Africans he’d seen struggle to survive. And while his methods may have been radical, it wasn’t enough to make the viewer wonder if they were supposed to find him evil or not. Another main issue with Killmonger isn’t a problem with the character itself, but instead with the fact that as a king, his rule was barely fleshed out. I felt like I was cheated out of seeing more of Killmonger’s tyrannical rule and there was not nearly enough time allotted to show him as king and prove that he is indeed a villain. While Black Panther attempted to juggle two villains, it both failed and massively succeeded by using the terribly written Klaw alongside the brilliantly executed Killmonger. This only made me wish that the screen time given to Klaw had instead been given to Killmonger to develop the character even further.

Character Development: Black Panther as a whole struggled with character development which seemed to be from the films attempt to introduce far more main characters than they had screen time for. One problem I found after leaving the theater is that I barely even knew any of the characters names and it’s hard to care about the fate of a character when you can’t even remember their name. Many of the characters lacked originality and seemed to just serve a writing purpose like T’Challa’s sister who was only there for “Deus Ex Machina” and “comic relief.” His sister, Shuri, was also one of the worst characters in the movie, alongside Klaw, and the film struggled to keep my attention every time her subplots were on screen. Another character, Everett Ross, played by Martin Freeman, felt very out of place and his inclusion in the movie was exceedingly forced. I didn’t care at all about his story or what happened to him and his only purpose was to be the “clueless outsider.” Even Forest Whitaker’s character was underdeveloped in such a way that I felt absolutely nothing emotionally when he was killed. The only true development with the protagonists took place with T’Challa; his maturation being that he became ready to serve as king and he no longer felt a need to seek out his father’s constant approval. He also finally realized that he should help the rest of the world, adopting a less radical version of Killmonger’s beliefs. Character development in Black Panther was very poor and the film did little to make me care about the lives of the characters that I was watching. The only character that I found myself truly caring about was Erik Killmonger, the villain of the film.

Comic Relief: I’d be remiss if I didn’t give the comic relief in this film its own section. The humor in this movie was absolutely awful and was rarely close to being actually funny. It always seemed to come at moments in scenes where it didn’t belong and dragged on for far too long. An example of this being the Soundcloud mixtape “joke,” if you want to call it that, which carried on for much longer than it ever should have. The film also had outdated references like a “what are those” line directed towards T’Challa that was probably old even when this movie was being written. The humor in this movie was terrible and could barely even make me crack a smile at its best and was so horrendous that it deserved its own paragraph.

Marvel at Its Best and Worst: Black Panther shows Marvel executing some of its best work yet, while simultaneously showing the lowest that a big budget superhero movie can stoop. This film had some of the purest, most emotional scenes that I’ve ever watched in a Marvel movie. Because of this, I believe that some of the greatest parts of this entire movie are when T’Challa is outside of the Black Panther suit. My favorite scenes from the movie being when T’Challa and Killmonger are talking to their fathers, respectively, enhanced only by the brilliant score with songs like Ancestral Plane to bring out the emotion (probably, in my opinion, the most memorable score in a Marvel movie to date). And while the film had trouble subverting predictability, like with Killmonger’s success in his first fight against T’Challa and T’Challa’s eventual return, it didn’t let the predictability become an issue. The reveal that the former king murdered his own brother, which connected very well throughout the film, was a tremendously powerful sequence that made for some unforgettable scenes. Scenes like Killmonger’s final appearance resonated exceptionally well and were able to create a lasting impact on me as a viewer. However, through all of this, this movie still failed in many respects. Issues like nearly nonexistent character development, horribly written characters and dialogue, and sloppy choreography and directing were immensely prevalent. The film did do its best to fix these issues though and for the most part succeeded generally well, which is why I have been so torn up with my final concensus on Black Panther.

Through a struggle in the beginning, Black Panther loses its footing to eventually gain it back for the second half of the movie and finish strong. While issues that plagued the introduction could not be fully resolved, the film tries its best to undo those mistakes and deliver an emotional and action packed addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, because the mess that was the first half of this movie, I have to give Black Panther a 7.5/10.