Black Panther Is More Than A Movie (Criticism Without Spoiler)
Ryan Coogler and his sublime cast have managed their bet.
Like a symbol, 10 years after its launch with great fanfare, with the Iron Man by Jon Favreau, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU for Intimate) dedicates for the first time a movie to his black superhero, Black Panther. A feature film expected at the turn, even more than the recent Guardians of Galaxy 2 and Thor: Ragnarok, as much for its practical function (a new piece in the MCU puzzle before Infinity War ) than for its political aspect.
Black Panther vs Black Panther
Black Panther. The term is so loaded, so connoted, that we almost forget that the character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966 is earlier (a few months) the Black Panther Party, this revolutionary movement that was qualified by the director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover of " greatest threat to national security ".
A cohabitation that embarrassed Marvel to the point that the hero was briefly renamed Black Leopard to avoid confusion. Questioned by La Chose in a number of the 4 Fantastisques of 1972, La Panthere Noire itself explained its choice taking care not to offend anyone: " I do not condemn nor support those who have taken this name, but T'Challa follows his own laws ".
In 2018, no more gazelle shame for Marvel Studios. The lucrative branch of Disney goes headlong into black pride and surfs squarely on the controversial legacy of the surname. The first visuals of the promo, started a year earlier, already showed the color with these posters taking more or less clear the mythical photos of the Black Panther, like the cliché of Huey P. Newton sitting on an African chair, a rifle in a hand, a spear in the other.
Authors:
T'challa French Toast
All this imagery is at the heart of Ryan Coogler's film. On the form as well as the background, the director of Fruitvale Station and Creed went to the end of his ideas, at least as far as he could in a Marvel movie. It reveals a sublime Wakanda, and necessarily a little kitsch, this fictional country that symbolizes what Africa could have been without the looting of its culture and its goods. His secret for not having finished like ancient Egypt?
Hide its wealth (a gigantic deposit of vibranium, the world's strongest metal) and its technological edge to the rest of the world.
A Big Bad Guy And Strong Women
After the death of King T'Chaka, however, the Wakanda will have to leave his reserve and his little routine. His son T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) logically succeeds him (and recovers the powers of Black Panther), but he will find himself faced with a great dilemma, incarnated by the accultured Killmonger (masterful Michael B. Jordan), who will shake the established order by tipping the kingdom into his "madness" revenge.
A nemesis sexy, terrifying and ambiguous, like the MCU we have unfortunately used too little. And no doubt the great success of this Black Panther who skilfully avoids wallowing in Manichaeism. With the culmination of this confession of W'Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya), the head of the borders, who sees a very bad eye the arrival of African migrants in Wakanda.
Around this duo of shock, Coogler has set up an impeccable cast, even in small roles (mention to Sterling K. Brown of This is Us ). And it gives pride of place to women, placing no less than four strong female characters as a whole: Lupita Nyong'o spy and ex-girlfriend of T'Challa, Danai Gurira the boss of the Amazonsque special forces of the country (the Dora Mijae), incredibly classy Angela Basset as Queen Mother, and young Letitia Wright (seen in Black Mirror's episode "Black Museum" ) bluffing in her role as Wakanda's little sister and chief engineer. And it's tasty to see Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis play the utilities amidst this almost 100% black cast.
Colonialism, pan-Africanism, uprooting of the black diaspora, "black on black crime", cultural appropriation: Coogler sweeps away all the questions, even those that disturb (blacks as well as whites). A bias that will repel some, but otherwise would have been admissible?
Black Panther is intrinsically an allegory of the black question, as the X-Men carried with them a subtext defending the gay community, but he did not forget to also address more universal themes, such as clannism, parentage and the weight of the inheritance, so as not to completely lose the other spectators.
While it is less visually stunning than other Marvel feature films (despite the casino's enjoyable scene), Black Panther is catching up on the meaning, just like the final sequence that relies more on the psychology of the characters than on the spectacle of their confrontation. Assuming also to be much less fun (apart from a few union jokes) than his comrades, he poses resolutely as a film of superheroes dark and serious, but also hopeful, ensuring the transition perfectly with Avengers: Infinity War , which is supposed to tilt the MCU both in the dark and a new era.
THANKS FOR READING You can check out my previous review on JUMANJI