Movie Review: ‘Black Panther’
Black Panther is ascendant: only slightly hampered by Marvel’s movie formula
Quick disclaimer: There are some spoilers in this review, if I’ve actually remembered the movie correctly.
Director Ryan Coogler is only 31 years old and he seems to have this filmmaking thing figured out. His debut, 2013’s “Fruitvale Station,” the true life story of the shooting death of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer in 2009, won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival that year. His follow-up, 2015’s “Creed” was a reinvention of the stayed Rocky franchise this time featuring the son of Rocky’s foe-turned-friend Apollo Creed. He took what could have been a franchise retread and transformed it into to an unexpected financial and critical success; garnering Sylvester Stallone an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. I guess it might not hurt either that both of those films just happen to star one of the most charismatic performers working today, Michael B. Jordan, the De Niro to Coogler’s Scorsese. Well, I guess when you’ve got it, you’ve got it — Coogler seemingly has that “it” in spades. In his latest, “Black Panther,” he fuses the intimate character-driven narratives of his first two films and combines them with the over-the-top, big-budget superheroics that only the good folks at Marvel Studios can bring to bear.
We were first introduced to this film’s titular character in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.” The much-hyped cinematic showdown between the two heroic cornerstones of the Marvel movie universe, Iron Man and Captain America. While the film was alright — it had its moments — at the end of the day it was mostly notable for the introductions of the newly Marvel Studios re-branded Spider-Man and T’Challa a.k.a. Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). Boseman is all but perfectly cast in the role, a quiet, strong, stately presence. In “Civil War,” T’Challa featured prominently; his introduction and the subsequent death of his father, the King of the fictional Africa nation of Wakanda, served as one of the inciting incidents of that film.
“Black Panther” begins just weeks after the conclusion of the events of “Civil War” as T’Challa returns home to his native Wakanda on the eve of his coronation as its next king. He is now charged with not only the title of Black Panther and the protection of his kingdom, which has been long isolated from the rest of the world, but also of its wealth of powerful, technological secrets, all of which are derived of a metal called Vibranium. T’Challa is aided in this task by the Wakanda’s all-female special forces, the Dora Milaje,which is lead by General Okoye (Danai Gurira) in addition to T’Challa’s sometimes girlfriend and full-time Wakandan spy Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and the Q to T’Challa’s James Bond, his younger sister Shuri (Letitia Wright).
Not many know of Wakanda’s wealth but those who do would look to exploit it. People like arms dealer and Soundcloud mixtape enthusiast, Ulysses Klaue, gleefully played the always rare non-CGI version of actor Andy Serkis. He’s been long sought after by the Wakandan authorities for various thefts of that country’s Vibranium wealth. Klaue is eventually tracked down by T’Challa and crew to South Korea. He’s trying to unload an stolen Vibranium artifact but the deal just happens to be a CIA-backed setup by T’Challa’s old “Civil War” acquaintance, Everett Ross (Martin Freeman). Klaue is eventually chased down and captured by Black Panther but he’s not long for custody. He’s subsequently freed by a group of his mercenary associates lead by the skilled CIA-trained killer, Erik Stevens a.k.a. Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan).
Jordan’s portrayal of Erik Killmonger is hands-down the best and most memorable amongst a dearth of well-developed or relatable Marvel movie antagonists. Killmonger seethes with such fiery underlying anger and resentment towards T’Challa and Wakanda itself that it’s palpable and understood given the circumstances. There have been many comparisons to Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight” in both character and performance. But, whereas the Joker seemed to be an apparition that would simply appear out of nowhere to sew chaos, Killmonger willed himself into existence in order to burn down Wakanda because of the indifference that it has shown him and the others who could have used its help.
T’Challa throughout the movie must learn how to navigate with being both “a good man and a good king” because, as he learns, those two things are not synonymous. He must do all this while staving off multiple challenges to the throne, defying death itself, forging unlikely alliances, and reconciling his own daddy issues (a common and overused theme in these movies). In the film’s climax, Black Panther must prevent advanced Wakandan arms and its Vibranium from leaving the country and falling into the wrong hands, and he must also defeat an ascendant Killmonger.
More than any of the Marvel movies that has preceded it, “Black Panther” creates a world and mythos of its own. Thankfully Marvel allowed director Coogler and his team to build a film almost unfettered by the rest of its cinematic universe trappings. Oh, there’s still some of the traditional Marvel movie clunkiness there but that’s most reserved for some of the action sequences and overly (and poorly) CGI-ed final battle. From its production design, costumes, language, score and sound, even typography, rarely have we seen this complete of a vision this well achieved in one of these films.
“Black Panther” was a joy of a movie to experience, and even with its flaws, it’s still should be considered among the “best in class” in the inescapable and every growing superhero genre.
