Seismic: A Review of Black Panther

directed by Ryan Coogler
written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole

It's hard to review Marvel Studios' latest cinematic offering The Black Panther without bearing in mind the storm of publicity it's generated for the last few weeks, but I am going to give it the old college try.

Following the violent death of his father King T'Chaka (John Kani) in Captain America: Civil War, Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), must now assume the throne of the sovereign African nation of Wakanda, the most technologically-advanced society in the world. T'Challa assumes a great burden considering that, as advanced as Wakanda may be, it has kept its secrets hidden from the world for thousands of years, masquerading as yet another impoverished African nation while keeping its scientific advancements and its deposit of the highly valuable and unique metal, Vibranium to itself. With the throne, therefore, T'Challa must therefore safeguard Wakanda and its technology, the development of which is overseen by his younger sister, the prodigy Shuri (Letitia Wright). He will rely on the counsel of the elders, of Okoye (Danai Gurira), the general of his military, the Dora Milaje, and his old friend W'Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya). In contrast, though, one of Wakanda's spies and T'Challa's ex-lover Nakai (Lupita Nyong'o) disagrees with Wakanda's millennia-old policy of keeping to itself, having seen the misery in the rest of the world, and feels there is much they can do to help.

Only one man from the outside, Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) has been able to steal Vibranium from Wakanda, which he was only able to do with inside help from no less than T'Chaka's brother N'Jobu (Sterling K. Brown) several years ago. With the death of T'Chaka, Klaue surfaces again for the first time in thirty years, this time allied with the mysterious Erik (Michael B. Jordan) who has terrifying plans for Wakanda and its technology. T'Challa brings Okoye and Nakai along to stop Klaue from selling (newly) stolen Vibranium in South Korea, but things go awry, and when long-held secrets are revealed, even the mighty Black Panther may not be prepared for what's coming.

After they basically revolutionized cinematic storytelling by pioneering the concept of the cinematic universe, Disney's Marvel Studios has been repeatedly criticized for playing it "safe," by adhering to specific narrative tropes, and while I respectfully disagree with it overall, this criticism isn't entirely without basis. One particular trope I agree with was that the persons of color in their movies, whether it was Don Cheadle's James Rhodes in Iron Man, Idris Elba's Heimdall in Thor, Anthony Mackie's Falcon in Captain America, Chiwetel Ejiofor's Mordo in Doctor Strange or Jacob Batalon's Ned in Spider-Man, were invariably portrayed as sidekicks to the white protagonist. It was getting downright embarrassing, especially after rival Warner Brothers/DC came out with the risible Suicide Squad, a film that featured African-American superstar Will Smith in the lead role, albeit as a bad guy turned good. With Black Panther, Marvel finally put to rest the notion that only white males can star as leads in their movies. I'm neither black nor American but the cultural significance of this film is not lost on me.

Still, as a fan of these films, my first question is whether or not the film is any good, and I'm quite happy to say that it is.

From the basics like the writing, acting and directing the film hits all the notes. I find it extraordinary that Ryan Coogler and his co-writer Joe Robert Cole have crafted a script that pays faithful homage to the comics from which the film is derived, yet at the same time builds an entire world here that doesn't require an encyclopedic knowledge of either Marvel's printed or filmed universe to make sense. It's particularly remarkable that, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe nears its tenth year anniversary, they are able to come up with a movie that can stand alone as well as this does, even though its connection to the bigger universe has already been established. Doctor Strange was the last such Marvel movie, but in that instance Stephen Strange had only just "entered the universe," whereas T'Challa has already been introduced to audiences and his fellow heroes. Recent Marvel hits like Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok cashed in on having other MCU characters appear in them, but this film stands proudly, almost defiantly on its own. In a way it mirrors the dilemma T'Challa, as the head of state of a very powerful nation, faces in the film: should Wakanda keep to itself, safe from those who would exploit its wealth, should it open up to the world and provide aid to those who need it, or should it use its wealth to arm those who have been oppressed for thousands of years? This movie is easily the most thematically ambitious of any Marvel production.

Even though there has yet to be a badly-acted Marvel film, it's worth noting that the cast of African-American, African-British and African actors led by Boseman, Nyong'o, and Gurira and a couple of "token" white British actors in Serkis (who first appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron) and Martin Freeman (who reprises his "Civil War" role as Everett K. Ross), totally deliver the goods here. In particular, I was really happy to see Gurira, whom I had, prior to this film, exclusively seen as The Walking Dead's dreadlocked, katana-wielding bad-ass Michonne take to this new role like a fish to water. Sure, Boseman was excellent as T'Challa, but Gurira, Nyong'o, and the scene-stealing, wise-cracking Wright as Shuri demonstrate that you don't need to be an Amazon goddess to be a formidable woman in what has, up until this point, been almost exclusively a man's universe, i.e. the world of the superhero movie. I was not quite as sold on Michael B. Jordan's Erik Killmonger, even though there was clearly a lot of narrative investment in him, but to be fair he is a significant step up from the generic Marvel villain. Still, I'm sure Jordan is glad to have at least added one excellent Marvel movie to his resume to cancel out the utterly rancid Fantastic Four reboot he did three years ago. In contrast, I found Sterling K. Brown's turn as the tragic Prince N'Jobu to be both forceful and heartbreaking despite the very limited screen time the character had. It's so very calibrated, unlike Jordan's mostly unchecked rage; I haven't read a lot of reviews talking about it, but I feel it deserves a fair bit of recognition.

I do feel, however, that the cast feels a bit to bloated at times, with characters like Winston Duke's M'Baku serving more as a convenient plot device and even comic relief than a fully-fleshed out character. While veteran actors Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett do a creditable job filling out their roles as Zuri, the royal adviser and Ramonda, the queen and T'Challa's mother, again, for constraints of running time they feel more like archetypes than characters in their own right, though Whitaker has a powerful scene with Boseman deep into the film. W'Kabi, the character of Kaluuya, now a superstar in his own right thanks to his Oscar-nominated turn in Get Out, feels distinctly underdeveloped and I sometimes wonder if he has scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor. Still, I suppose with a cast this big, it was inevitable that people would get lost in the proverbial shuffle. It's impressive that the 31-year-old Coogler juggled as many performances as he did.

Apart from those aspects, the production is a showcase of everything that's made Marvel movies such enjoyable cinematic outings over the last decade, from the meticulously-realized sets to the eye-popping visual effects, and then some. It's worth noting that there have been some departures from Marvel's "house style." Cinematographer Rachel Morrison's palette of colors is bolder and warmer than the often washed-out colors favored by Marvel's frequent go-to-directors of photography Ben Davis and Trent Opaloch, and Ruth E. Carter's fantastically-realized costumes, while not necessarily "better" than frequent MCU costume designer Alex Byrne's lively superhero wardrobe, are definitely unlike anything we've ever seen before in one of these movies. Composer Ludwig Goransson provides a score that fuses brassy superhero fanfare with traditional, percussion-based African rhythms and electronic urban hip-hop, and even though I'm still partial to Michael Giacchino's trippy Doctor Strange score as far as MCU music goes, this film is, again, wonderfully unique in its musical signature. There's also some very impressive bone-crunching hand-to-hand fighting here, something that Marvel films have been pretty good at depicting on screen since Captain America: Winter Soldier.

I hesitate to use the tag of "best Marvel movie ever" that a bit too many critics have been heaping on this film, as I feel that this distinction still belongs in equal measure to the first Iron Man film and the first Avengers film, without either of which, this film would not have been possible. I will readily agree, however, that this film is an extraordinary piece of work and that it is, by far, the 10-year-old studio's most important one to date, and quite possibly the most likely to alter the cinematic landscape as we know it.

9/10