Black Panther

Ryan Coogler is a young and talented director that has an eye for detail. I have not been to Philadelphia, but after watching Creed, I can feel its character through his shots of graffiti and cold-foggy mornings. The problem of having a director that knows how to shoot real cities with real people for a film with 70% green-screen CGI cityscapes is that he has nothing to use. Everything the audience sees on the screen is only from his mind and the animators he is working with. Now, Marvel probably hired Coogler because he could film the nation of Wakanda with texture and realism, but when everything is animated with space ships and floating monorails, they forgot to fully use Coogler’s skills. His attention to detail and culture is found in every frame, but his characters never seem to fit naturally into the world.

Chadwick Boseman’s performance of the Black Panther is about equal to his scenes in Captain America: Civil War. He was my favorite part of that film, and he shows that the Black Panther has definitely grown since then. The nation of Wakanda is on his shoulders, and the legacy of his father is an interesting aspect that I enjoyed when it reveals to cause more faults than good deeds. Michael B. Jordan and Andy Serkis are honestly the best performances this film had to offer. Andy Serkis knows his characters like the back of his hand, and the charisma of Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger hits you in the chest. If I could ask one thing for Coogler to add to this film, it would be more scenes of these two characters. I wanted so much more from them; the cackling weapons dealer and his royal-blood gangster breaking into Wakanda to break the nation’s foundation— that story would catch my attention.

Marvel films always cut away from the antagonists to pour their spotlights on their main heroes, which are consistently better than the antagonists; this film is the exception. There were too many protagonists to develop each one consistently and smoothly. Daniel Kaluuya’s character had the potential of being a deeply motivated character with a corruptible weakness, but his critical transition happens in a single second. Forest Whitaker’s character had a really good arc that cliff jumped into a two second ending, which left me completely disappointed. This film spent no time on the men’s downfall because it was using all of its cameras to show how strong the women were. Do not get me wrong, the women in this film were strong and inspiring, but they were flawless (kind of sounds familiar to another Disney movie I reviewed). From the first scene to the last, the women were strong willed and stood for what they believed in without tripping on a single bit of doubt. The men were falling apart in classically tragic ways, but it always happened either between scenes or in less than a minute. I want women in cinema to be strong and proud, and I am fine with men being a complete mess, but I want to be shown WHY.

Something else I want to mention that is far less important than the characters: the fight scenes were very disappointing. Any scene involving the Black Panther suit either starts at night with low visibility, or goes out of its way to find a dark place to throw their punches. The tribal ceremony fights were shown in the trailers, and I was excited to see them based on what Coogler has shown with his single-shot matches in Creed. What I got was a choppily cut, above average fight scene compared to the other Marvel films. I know Coogler knows what he is doing, but what I saw did not have his signature directing. I do not know what was going on during the editing, or if the filming was constrained for time and they could not choreograph a single shot fight, but it contrasts with Creed’s excellence like a red flag on a green field. The African patterns and rich focus to its people’s history comes from his experience, and he probably focused on the atmosphere of Wakanda instead of burning through shoots to have a cool, two-minute fight.

Black Panther contains colorful visuals that both serve as eye candy and representation of the African culture. The sets are rich with tribal patterns and the score is comprised with drums and chants that energize every scene. The people within the sets are just as colorful, sometimes too fantastic to believe (even within the MCU), but still fascinating to watch. Many scenes do not smoothly transition into the next, and there would have been a far more impressive story if the spotlight was on the antagonists, but most people are satisfied by this film and loudly proclaim it. A Rotten Tomatoes critic was singled out by name on twitter because he was the first to give Black Panther a bad review. His reason for not enjoying this film might be selfish, claiming that when he goes to see a Marvel movie he expects fights not dialogue, but that does not justify burning him at the stake on social media. Going back to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, audiences expect to either love or hate a film, and when something does not go as expected, they sharpen their pitchforks and burn down buildings. Why? Films are not supposed to appease the crowd with one sitting, it is made to introduce new ideas and different cultures into the lives of people not used to seeing such variety. This film succeeds at showing its culture. Did I love it? No, but I will not put its story and the people that worked on it into the dirt. This film deserves the praise it is receiving. Ryan Coogler is a talented writer-director, and I hope Black Panther launches him into Hollywood with a large enough budget and production schedule so he can make the best film he can make.

Story Rating: 6/10

Character Rating: 7/10