My review on black panther movie

There’s a lot of hype surrounding this movie. With many proclaiming it to be this political game-changer and this masterpiece of a movie. But honestly, I don’t think I’d go that far. Yes. It’s a competent marvel movie. But as far as masterpieces go, this film is unfortunately not one of them.

Black Panther (2018)

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The good things:

The Visuals and Costumes:

The visuals in Black Panther were spectacular. I love how they created the city in Wakanda to be futuristic and metropolitan, yet still having that old, traditional village vibe with the characters wearing these tribal clothes and still following these ancient rituals and traditions like Black Panther’s initiation and the way he communicates with his ancestors. They succeed in making Wakanda look large-scale and just atheistically pleasing to look at. That shot of the black panther statue overlooking Wakanda as the sun set is just a beauty to look at.

1. The Themes

I admire the themes that this film was trying to represent. Themes of tradition vs progression, old vs and new, and so forth. I appreciate how they made the conflict of the story revolve around Wakanda’s status as a country, torn between giving aid to other unfortunate countries and just secluding itself from the world’s eyes. I also love how the conflict ties itself into the discrimination of black people and without giving the story away, its a neat driving force into the story’s progression.

1. Action Scenes

The action scenes in this film were really great and well-done. The car chase in particular was very suspenseful, with Black panther jumping from car to building and that scene of him using his claws to steer the car in the right direction was really cool to look at. I also like the way the Wakandans incorporated technology into their traditional weapons, like using these blankets as shields and this spear that can produce electricity and sonic waves.

1. Humor/ Satire

I love how this film satirises and takes jabs at white people, like the characters mentioning them as colonizers and some saying lines like “Americans…” without sounding cold. I also like how T’Challa’s sister is this sassy, progressive girl and I felt she lightens up the mood in some of the otherwise, solemn scenes. And it didn’t really feel forced because that’s part of her character, someone who scoffs at tradition.

The Problems

T’Challa

I felt that the character arc of the main character was weak. I don’t really blame the actor for this as he did a fine job portraying Black Panther the best as he could. But I have problems with the T’Challa himself. At the beginning of the movie, he was crowned the king of Wakanda and he was told that he would have to start being more of a king than a warrior but I didn’t really see or feel that inner struggle or conflict that he was going through. While this film succeeds in displaying that warrior side of him, I’ve never really gotten that king side. He’s never really had to make difficult decisions as a king for Wakanda and aside from a couple of jokes, I never got that impression that he was a king.

1. The Villain

I have really mixed thoughts about the villain. He had a really good set up and built up as a villain with someone related to T’Challa and had a really good motive for being king. I thought that he was going to be this anti-hero, equipping black people with weaponry and believing it would make their lives easier without knowing the consequences. But then Halfway in the film, he starts becoming this Adolf Hitler-esque bad guy who just wants WORLD DOMINATION and just goes full on Nazi at the end with no redeeming qualities. By the end of the film we just think “Oh, hes horrible. he needs to be stopped” instead of “I can see your point but…”

1. Not enough world building

I felt that the technological city in Wakanda was not really explored much or built upon. Yes we do get impressive shots of it but they only last for five seconds and I really wished they’d show what life was like in the city of Wakand or have the characters interact with the city more instead of having them in less aesthetic locations like the plains and the throne room. They could have really built upon the city of Wakanda and expanded it further.

1. Arcs that don’t go anywhere

Some character arcs in this film don’t go anywhere. For example, in the beginning of the film, T’Challa had this problem of “freezing up” when he’s faced with an enemy but that was never really addressed later in the film and it didn’t go anywhere. Several character arcs like this just aren’t really talked about later in the film.

1. Too much tell and not enough show

A central conflict in the film is the discrimination against black people. And yes, I know black people do still get discriminated in many countries but I felt that that the film didn’t do a good job showing that discrimination; they just had the characters say they were discriminated throughout history and they didn’t really show it through the visuals to get us to emphatise with the characters more. Maybe this film could have SHOWN us some scenes about the plight of black people, like maybe SHOW the security guards look at Michael B Jordon in an uncomfortable way or SHOW the CIA officers being alert in front of T’Challa which would only take like 10–20 seconds to do. Scenes like that would have made me emphatic with the characters more instead of just them giving speeches and anecdotes all the time.

This film certainly didn’t exceed the hype that surrounded it. No, I don’t think this is a bad film by any means but its hype certainly overshadowed it.

8.5/10