|
Edit Coming 07/27/26  Let's take a second to talk about the late, great Chadwick Boseman. This guy has received the respect of so many MCU fans, as it was discovered that he was actually quite sick while filming 'Black Panther.' Diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016, the man carried on, not mentioning his illness to many more than a few close family members. It is admirable that he kept going to film something like 'Black Panther,' a film that has gone down in cinematic history for black culture. Boseman was a fighter and an inspiration, and he will be missed.
Boseman's T'challa also marks (I think) the only MCU character not to be recast but to have a story worked around his real-life death instead. Names that come to mind are Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle as Rhodes/War Machine, Ed Norton with Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, and recently, the puzzle of casting that went to Cassie Lang, first by Abby Ryder Fortson, then by Emma Fuhrmann, and now portrayed by Kathryn Newton. One can simply argue that none of these are posthumous replacements - but look at the fact that Harrison Ford is to replace the recently deceased William Hurt as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. There seems to be a certain heavy respect for Boseman - but does it hinder the final product? The film quite literally opens with T'challa's off-screen death due to an unspecified illness. While Shuri (Letitia Wright) tries like hell to synthesize a cure from the heart-shaped herb (the thing that gives the Black Panther power). To no one's surprise, it all fails, and Shuri is soon left with a broken heart, having lost her brother and probably best friend. A year passes, and Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) is pressured by other nations to share their vibranium. The Queen refuses and even makes some examples of people with the knowledge that so many of these nations are bound to weaponize it. This soon leads the CIA and US Navy SEALs to use a vibranium detector to find another potential deposit underwater. This is where Namor (Tenoch Huerta) attacks the highly trained professionals, leading a group of blue aquatic superhumans. Recognizing a vibranium race at hand, Namor easily blames Wakanda for the interference of their underwater realm. Namor offers an ultimatum - deliver the scientist who created the vibranium detector or begin a war with Namor and his overpowering underwater race. Soon enough, Shuri and Okoye (Danai Gurira) discover from Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) that this inventor is Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), an MIT genius, nothing short of Tony Stark, himself - in many ways, actually. And this is where the film turns into a bit of an "escort mission" movie, which is actually a criticism of mine. Don't get me wrong, it all makes sense in its execution. However, going through this, I definitely got reflections of 'Multiverse of Madness' because the film is mostly about protecting a brand-spanking-new character. There, we had America Chavez; here, we have Riri Williams, aka Ironheart. I theorize at the point of writing this that they will eventually assemble a new, all-female team of "Young Avengers," who will include no less than Iron Heart, Chavez, Bishop (New Hawkeye), Ms. Marvel and maybe Yelena Belova (New Black Widow). It's just a theory, but we'll see what happens with all of that. Anyway, perhaps the "escort mission" aspect is a bit of a nitpick on my part, as it all makes sense in both stories. I just don't wanna see a whole bunch of it start happening now. Overall, the film is decent and enjoyable, but I have to admit that I didn't appreciate it nearly as much as I did the first film. The film's cleverness is the idea of a precious resource that people are willing to go to war over and all that comes with that. When it comes to something like vibranium in the MCU, that makes perfect sense, and I appreciate that whole aspect. However, there were just too many nitpicks about the film I had along the way. In some cases, the film ends up being predictable - especially the answer to "Who is this new female Black Panther we see in the trailers?" I never understood how that was such a mystery - but that's just me. Further to that, I wasn't too big on our villain here, thinking Killmonger left a hell of a lot more of an impact in the first film. I also liked Shuri herself way more in the first film. She was much more fun and charming then. And I GET why she has an air of super seriousness here now - it all makes perfect sense, but as I mentioned, this is me nitpicking. A lot of this was just me saying, "I might have done that differently", not so much, "That was dumb," or anything so negative. I think it's a decent watch, but it has nothing on the first 'Black Panther' film. With this, we bring "Phase 4" to a close, and I must admit it's done so in a pretty sweet way instead of a brutal cliff-hanger. The film is clearly dedicated to Boseman, and its heart is definitely in the right place. If I was to use a term to describe its overall execution: "bittersweet". MID-CREDITS SCENE: Shuri learns that Nakia has been raising a child she had with T'Challa named Toussaint, who reveals his Wakandan name to be T'Challa. 3/5
0 Comments
Edit Coming 05/04/26  Well, once again Marvel has accomplished a hell of a feat, now holding five of the ten titles in the top ten all-time opening weekend list. This comes in at #5, right in between the first two 'Avengers' movies. Oh, and it's now a higher grossing movie than 'The Avengers', so... I think T'Challa here will be ultimately the safest character in 'Infinity War'.
The film begins with an origin story involving the creation of the Black Panther, and how the powers and suit have been handed down through the generations to a royal African family. In the spotlight now, is T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), and the film tasks him with stopping a lethal thief named Klaue (Andy Serkis who has seemingly found his way to Wakandan technology, and intends to steal it. However this leads the Black Panther to an even bigger challenge involving Klaue's parnter in crime, Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan). Serkis, as Klaue, has this twisted craziness to his personality that wasn't quite as abundant in 'Age of Ultron', so for me, he was the more enjoyable villain. Killmonger, for whatever reason, didn't strike me as quite as much a threat. It also just showed in their respective acting skills. Not that Jordan was bad, but he struck me as more of a jockish bully whereas Serkis was relishing his every second of screen time as this crazy dude. Shades of The Joker came through, for me. Not a direct comparison, mind, just shades. The favorite character in this for me was probably Shuri (Latitia Wright), who is T'Challa's sister, and essentially his "Q" - making the gadgets for him to go out and fight with. She brings a very charming sense of humor to it all as the bratty but fun little sister figure. That said, everyone does a good job here with their respective roles, and this movie kinda knocked it out of the park with what it was all about. The studio definitely knew what the hell they were doing with this. While DC did a great job with the big female superhero, Marvel got it right with the black superhero - released throughout Black History Month, no less. But the movie transcends racial boundaries with it's audience, and that's the real beauty of this movie. It brings ALL the Marvel fans together for a great story, no matter their skin color. I'll repeat, this is now a higher grossing movie than 'The Avengers'! It's so far the most successful Marvel film of all time. 'Infinity War' is bound to be hot on it's heals, but for now, an impressive feat for a solo title! It may not be at the tip-top of my Marvel hero list, personally, but all in all I still enjoyed it quite a bit. In the end, it represents a nice piece of cinematic history, and it's something I really think everyone should check out if only to get a different, forward-thinking perspective on things. 4/5 MID-CREDIT SCENE: T'Challa appears before the UN to reveal Wakanda's technology to the rest of the world. POST-CREDIT SCENE: Shuri is seen helping Bucky Barnes with his recuperation, after having gone back under the ice in 'Civil War' |
RSS Feed