Black Panther Movie Review

Major Spoilers are included in this movie review. Please read with caution.

On August 31, 2020, I watched Black Panther in honor of Chadwick Boseman’s death. Rewatching this movie made me realize how different it was from the previous Marvel movies—like Captain America: Civil War and Guardians of the Galaxy—but at the same time, how the same it was based on how Black Panther followed the Marvel movie formula.

The major difference between Black Panther and its predecessors is the long overdue diversity and representation and the lack of set-up—aside from a post-credit scene—for the future showdown between Thanos and the Avengers in Infinity War and Endgame.

The movie also had something to say about today’s world and focused more on that message rather than the next movie coming out that would lead to said faceoff against Thanos. As a result, Black Panther effectively works as a standalone superhero movie with great representation and diversity (there are only two major White characters), humorous moments, cool action, and life lessons about the world’s treatment toward Black people.

Black Panther picks up in the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, with Prince T’Challa returning home to Wakanda to take the throne in the wake of his father’s death. Wakanda is a beautiful African nation, only known to the world as a “third-world country” to hide their technological advances and source of vibranium, a rare ore found exclusively in Wakanda; the same material that Captain America’s shield is made out of.

The only person to know about the vibranium source is arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis, one of the two major White characters), who stole vibranium and is looking to sell the ore on the Black Market alongside Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), the main antagonist and former U.S. military operative with a secret connection to Wakanda.

The main plot starts with T’Challa putting a team together in order to serve justice for crimes Klaue committed against Wakanda, but the plot deepens once we learn more about Killmonger’s backstory. Then the plot winds up being a battle for the Wakanda throne and an argument on whether the Wakanda ancestors were right to hide Wakanda’s advanced technology while the rest of the world—specifically Black people—suffered.

Chadwick Boseman did an excellent job portraying T’Challa, effectively showing his turmoil of keeping up the Wakanda traditions and the growing realization—especially through his conflict with Killmonger—that Wakanda cannot simply hide from the rest of the world anymore in a thoughtful and meaningful way. The emotional scene when T’Challa yelled at the ancestors for being wrong was brilliant and heartbreaking.

Michael B. Jordan was also the breakout star of Black Panther, playing the main villain with multiple layers of grief, anger, and fury for what the world took from him and his people. A classic tragic villain trope—also an MCU one—amplified through Michael B. Jordan’s raw performance, making the character’s motives for wanting to claim Wakanda relatable and emotionally resonance.

The supporting cast was also stellar and had their own moments to shine throughout this movie too—probably more so than T’Challa himself—especially during the scenes when T’Challa was presumed dead.

 T’Challa’s team consisted of all Black women ranging from his love interest / spy Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Head of Wakanda’s Special Forces Okoye (Danai Gurira), tech genius and his little sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), and of course, his mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett). The female representation was also strong in this movie, as the Special Forces—Dora Milaje—consists of only Black women. Also, the movie did a good job on excluding the betrothal aspect from the comics, focusing only on the characters being great warriors loyal to the royal throne.

The world-building of Wakanda itself was also the best out of all the Marvel movies out so far. While many of the other movies—like Thor: Ragnarök and Guardians of the Galaxy—had gorgeous and colorful planet-level settings, there wasn’t a real “feel” to them being real places other than how pretty they looked. Wakanda had rich culture and traditions that blended with the narrative and made the fictional place a fully realized world to the point that people in real-life thought Wakanda actually existed somewhere in Africa.

Overall, Black Panther did an incredible job despite being trapped in the Marvel movie formula. Originally, I was excited to see how Black Panther 2 would follow-up on the events of this movie and post-Endgame, but now that Chadwick Boseman is gone, I’m not sure the Marvel Studios should follow up with that particular sequel out of respect. Or at least delay the sequel—if it’s not delayed already due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and now Chadwick Boseman’s death—until they figure something else out.

Thanks for reading this movie review, everyone! Rest in power, Chadwick Boseman, our beloved king. You did good.