Movies obviously had a substantial impact on my life. I was
fortunate enough to grow up and see people who looked like me doing fantastic,
incredible, even relatively normal and mundane things on screen. Looking back
on it, at the films that spoke to me—Goonies, Stand
by Me, Red Dawn, and countless others—almost
everything I watched showed me a version of myself. I know what a presence that
had, I know how much that meant, personally, and I know that wasn’t the case
for everyone. But a lot of people, young people especially, are going to find a
similar sensation, to feel a similar weight, when they watch Black Panther.
That’s not to say Marvel’s latest superhero jaunt is without problems. We’ll get to that. But it does rank in the upper echelon of
what they have to offer and possess a crackle of energy their films too often
lack. Hell, the simple fact that they made a Black Panther
movies rules pretty hard.
Watching Black Panther, there’s an added
weight, an additional sense of magnitude. A ton of black kids, black girls
especially, are going to fall in love with this movie, with these characters
and this story in a way they don’t often have the chance to with mainstream
Hollywood products. I expect, and in fact we’ve already seen, people connect
with this film the way they did with Wonder Woman and
elements of Star Wars: The Last Jedi last year. And that’s
exciting.
When I see people, even people I respect and consider friends
downplay the importance representation—and let’s be honest, I’m talking about
other white people, and people who have often built their entire lives around
movies, who should really know how damn important movies can be—it makes me
want to scream obscenities. It’s endlessly frustrating, but I also get the warm
fuzzies knowing just how much Black Panther is about to mean
to a whole lot of folks.
And it doesn’t hurt that the movie itself is pretty damn
fantastic. Especially the first third. It begins with T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), prince of the African nation Wakanda, shortly after the death of his
father and the events of Captain America: Civil War. By and
large, he’s lost. He deals with the loss of his father; he’s tasked with
becoming king and ruling a country, an overwhelming proposition; he still has
feelings for his ex, Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o). And then there’s that whole being
a costumed protector of the realm thing.
The script from director Ryan Coogler (Creed,
and now the first person of color to direct a Marvel movie) and Joe Robert Cole
takes its time to let all of this develop, but the film’s true strength lies in
the world building. A nation of great technological achievement, thanks in
large part to being home to the world’s supply of vibranium, Wakanda also
isolates itself from the rest of the planet. It portrays itself as a poor
African backwater, a ruse the rest of the world is all too eager to accept. But
Black Panther digs into the history, the people, the vibrant
culture. Not by heavy handed narration or an information dump, but by actually
showing it too us in a variety of ways.
Working with Rachel Morrison, who lensed Coogler’s
Fruitvale Station and recently made history by being the
first ever (!) woman nominated for a cinematography Academy Award, Black
Panther offers much to gawk at. Wakanda is all stunning vistas and
sunsets and waterfalls. In short, gorgeous. Seen from afar, the advanced cities
do look like every other fantastical CGI Marvel city—think Xandar or Asgard—but
once we’re actually down in them, they reveal a distinct look and texture.
Futuristic technology blends with traditional African flourishes to create
something new and unique.
It’s in Wakanda where Black Panther
distinguishes itself. When T’Challa leaves, decked out in his high-tech Black
Panther suit and with a bunch of gadgets—Coogler has remarked on the James Bond
influence—it loses its fresh edge. As they track the notorious Ulysses Klaue
(Andy Serkis, who has way too much fun as the scene-chewing antagonist), and
ultimately encounter the film’s big bad, Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan),
it becomes much more familiar and rote. Things get predictable. That’s not to
say there’s no fun to find, but it definitely devolves into more traditional
Marvel movie fare.
That said, Black Panther take pains to
avoid some of the biggest complaints about the MCU. First, the villain. Klaue
represents the big, cartoonish secondary enemy, but Jordan’s Killmonger is the
only truly interesting villain outside of Loki. He’s vicious and ruthless—for a
PG-13 movie, Black Panther straight up murders way more
people than I expected—but he’s also complex, charismatic, and has specific,
intriguing motivations. He’s not some demi-deity who rules via fear, he makes
an argument, one that makes sense, and people choose to follow him.
In all honesty, he’s a far more interesting character than
the actual Black Panther. T’Challa is, at times, dreadfully dull and one-note,
and the film would be stronger with more Killmonger. He’s the first Marvel
villain with a real purpose beyond a bland quest for power and glory. (Okay, maybe Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming, but that's it.) His
primary objective also ties directly into why representation and recognition
matter, and what happens when they’re not available—it’s not just a theme or
esoteric idea surrounding the film, but a concrete plot point.
Too often, Marvel movies—and superhero movies in general—rely
on massive action scenes that disintegrate into muddy CGI nonsense where humans
awkwardly flip around in a way that resembles videogames. (I find this most
egregious in the Thor movies for some reason.)
Black Panther isn’t wholly immune to this, and it contains a
few big spectacle level scenes of this ilk—CGI armored rhinos anyone? But the
bulk of the action, much more than most of its compatriots, remains fairly
grounded and relies on choreography and stunts rather than pixels and digital
manipulation.
Black Panther and Killmonger throw down wearing high-tech
suits, but their actual fighting is relatively authentic. The same goes for
tactics used by the spear-wielding, shaved-headed Dora Milaje, the all female
security force, led by Danai Gurira’s Okoye, that guards the king. Their
fighting style, while cinematic, encompasses practical techniques and maneuvers.
All of this results in solid action that serves the story and takes a back seat
to things like character development and story. It’s concerned with more than
just kicking ass.
And one biggest, most frequent, and well-earned criticism of
Marvel’s cinematic offerings is that, with a few exceptions, female characters
don’t usually have much to do. Black Panther flips that on
its head. More than just a love interest for the protagonist, Nakia is a spy,
worldly and well travelled, loyal to her homeland but empathetic to the plight
of rest of the world they could potentially help. She’s also essential to the
plot.
Okoye could easily have become a generic warrior, strong and
powerful, bound by duty. And she is those things, but she’s also sharp and
witty and emotionally engaging. She very much has her own stuff going on. In a
universe where Tony Stark and Bruce Banner both exist, the smartest person in
this world is now a teenage girl from Africa. Shuri (Letitia Wright),
T’Challa’s younger sister, puts both of those renowned geniuses to shame.
Continuing the James Bond parallel, she’s Black Panther’s Q, a prodigy in
charge of Wakanda’s ample technology.
Multiple times, women pull T’Challa’s ass out of the fire.
And what’s more, he explicitly acknowledges that fact, which is akin to
spotting a damn unicorn in the wild. For a movie that, at times, treads familiar
ground, that’s oddly revolutionary. It shouldn’t be, but in Hollywood
blockbusters, saying, “Hey, women can be capable, well-rounded characters with
complex feelings and thoughts and minds of their own,” is all too unorthodox.
There’s still a hell of a long way to go in this regard, and this is far from
radical, but it’s a step. And seeing multiple nuanced female characters in one
Marvel movie is nothing if not refreshing.
The fact that this is only Ryan Coogler’s third movie blows
my mind a bit. Starting with the indie Fruitvale Station and
it’s $900,000 price tag, he took a big step up with Creed,
which cost $40 million. That’s a leap, but Black Panther,
with it’s $200 million budget and Disney backing, is a whole other planet. But
it’s never too big for the young filmmaker (movies like Jurassic World and Rogue One often feel like they got away
from directors making similar jumps in scope and scale).
Is Black Panther perfect? No. Does it
occasionally fall into predictable superhero traps? Yes. But it also feels like
the work of someone with a specific vision, one he more or less executes. It’s
fun, often thrilling. While it presents familiar beats, it offers enough to set
it apart and create its own personality—and it doesn't shoehorn in references to the larger MCU, those that do occur, happen naturally. It feels much more current and
relevant than what Marvel usually offers, and I can’t wait to watch people fall
in love with this. I’ve seen it once and I can’t wait to see it again. Although
I usually enjoy them, that’s more than I can say for most Marvel movies.
(Crap, I didn’t even mention the music, and the music
rules.)
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