Black Panther Review

First off: Black Panther was damn good. Easily one of the strongest Marvel Cinematic Universe films and one of the strongest superhero films we've seen in a while. It breaks well away from the general uniformity of Marvel films, which is nice, and something they've been trying to do more lately.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

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Black Panther was very tightly scripted- there wasn't much in the way of surprise twists, but that's a good thing. They instead focused on satisfying plot arcs and character development. Multiple times in the movie I knew exactly what was going to happen, but only just before it happened, giving me a real sense of satisfaction about it. (You really want your audience to guess a lot of what happens, but not too early, and you don't want to blindside them too often.)

The acting was top notch. Forest Whitaker had far and away the best performance in the film, but Forest Whitaker is always going to have the best performance in almost any film. Chadwick Boseman gave T'Challa a sense of gravitas that many of the other characters in the MCU lack entirely- he commands immediate respect. I've adored Lupita Nyong'o as an actor since her performance in Twelve Years a Slave, and she doesn't disappoint here. Daniel Kaluuya's character W'Kabi was my least favorite performance, but that wasn't due to bad acting- the character was just a little bit underdeveloped in the script, so Kaluuya didn't have a ton to work with.

That's not to say I thought it was a perfect film, of course. There were some weaknesses. I disliked some of the more contemporary pop culture references. The "what are those" meme reference was certainly funny, but it and its ilk, like similar references in older MCU films, aren't going to age that well. The larger weaknesses come from the structure of the MCU, however. The filmmakers are forced to conform to decisions made by numerous writers, producers, and directors who've worked on the MCU in the past, which definitely restrict their options a little.

The villain, Killmonger, was by far the most interesting part of the story for me. Marvel villains are, for the most part, the least interesting part of most of the movies. I have trouble remembering which villain goes to which film sometime. Killmonger, however, was fantastic. Much of it is thanks to Michael B. Jordan's performance, but past that was his storyline, which wasn't a villain's plot arc. Killmonger had a hero's plot arc. His story traveled through a fairly classic hero's journey, and even paralleled Black Panther's to a great extent. They didn't just throw another Black Panther outfit on him for the final fight because it looked cool- it was absolutely essential to his hero's journey. This film could have been so easily altered into a Killmonger movie. That being said, I actually was a little mad they gave him the death they did. While discussing the movie with friends, we all came to the decision that it would have been so much cooler if he decided to live and go to prison, becoming some sort of super-villain Nelson Mandela type- he could have been an awesome recurring villain. Of course, the familial relation recurring villain would have been pretty close to Loki's storyline, and Marvel was trying to do something new with this film.

Killmonger's arguments, unlike the arguments of so many villains trying to justify themselves, actually make a huge deal of sense. I didn't think of him as having a hero's journey for no reason. T'Challa's outreach efforts to poor black neighborhoods in other countries was really the perfect note to end the film on- it showed that rather than rejecting Killmonger's arguments, T'Challa LISTENED, and decided to do something about it.

Our world puts function above form when designing most of its technology, so most science fiction films subvert that by placing form above function when designing technology. It's just made to look cool, really. In Black Panther, however, the design of the tech impressed me on a bunch of levels. While form was clearly placed above function, it wasn't merely for form's sake- instead, every piece of technology reflected a fundamental aspect of Wakandan culture. Wakandan technology is, almost universally, built to reflect aspects of the natural world or traditional Wakandan lifestyles. Advanced sonic cannons built to look like spears their herdsman ancestors used, fighter craft built to look like dragonflies, sonic gauntlets built to look like lions. It shows up everywhere. (Plus, it really is super cool. I've been a fan of Afro-futurist design for a while now, and this seriously takes it up a level.)

In fact, all of Wakandan society can be seen as a balancing act between their advanced technology, traditional lifestyles, and their respect for nature. They deliberately court anachronism to show respect to the past. Their pretense of being an isolationist nation of herdsmen isn't entirely pretense- they genuinely treasure that part of their culture, even though it might be less efficient than other methods. They clearly manage their lands very carefully, and seek to do minimal damage to the natural world around them.

Of course, any discussion of Black Panther needs to address the conversation about race that's swirling around the film. As far as my two cents go- it's a film filled with positive black role models, both male and female. It does stumble here and there, but it mostly does a great job. The biggest weakness in the movie's discussion of race is the Vibranium Mound- the film almost makes it feel as if the Mound were entirely responsible for Wakanda's success at points. The filmmakers couldn't get rid of the Mound, since it's longstanding Marvel and MCU canon. The inventor princess Shuri is a great counter to the Mound, however- she makes it clear that Wakandans are responsible for their own successes. (As does everyone else, really.) And T'Challa's outreach efforts to poor black communities at the end of the film? Fucking fantastic. That's a way to make real, positive change in those communities. It's not some crazy scifi plan, it's a workable, well thought out idea.

I think we needed this movie right now. For all the talk we hear about minority representation in film we don't see very damn much of it. And we sure as hell don't see representation this positive very often. And even if you're not interested in that part of the conversation, be grateful that it injected a much needed dose of new blood into the slowly stagnating superhero genre.

Next time: More depressing ways we're hurting the oceans. Fun!