Plot: Some time after the events of Civil War, Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns to his home country of Wakanda to take up the throne with the death of his father. Though he is challenged in a ritualistic combat situation by a neighboring rival, the King prevails and thus retains his throne, choosing to spare the rival instead of killing him. But after a Wakandan artifact is stolen from a museum and prepared to be sold on the black market, the King travels to South Korea alongside his former lover Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and his trusted friend Okoye (Danai Gurira) to try and intercept the sale. To their surprise, the deal is between notorious black market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) and CIA operative Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman). The ensuing conflict between all parties results in Ross being critically wounded and Klaue escaping with the aid of a mysterious Black Ops Navy Seal by the name of Erik Stevens.
Ross is taken back to Wakanda to be healed, being one of the first outsiders to set foot in their sacred and hidden Kingdom. T'Challa's sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) uses the advanced technology and abundant reserves of Vibranium to save Ross's life. But Erik Stevens arrives in Wakanda, revealing himself to be the son of N'Jobu (Sterling K. Brown), the dead King T'Chaka's brother who had been accused of selling Wakandan weapons to the countless enslaved African peoples around the world and was killed for this. Stevens is confirmed to be N'Jadaka (Michael B. Jordan) and has taken the name of Kilmonger while also desiring the throne that he believes is rightfully his. In a ritualistic battle, Kilmonger proves to be too powerful for T'Challa to take head on and is bested and presumed killed by the invader. Kilmonger assumes the throne as King of Wakanda, burns the herbs said to contain the inner vitality and strength of the Black Panther and announces plans to openly sell weapons to the repressed and subjugated minorities around the world to have them wipe out their oppressors. T'Challa's few faithful allies flee to the aid of the tribe the previous rival had come from, finding T'Challa's body lying comatose from the fall. T'Challa, in a vision, confronts the spirit of his father for his past transgressions, but is ultimately compelled to return to Wakanda for his throne and to prevent the bloodshed his cousin hopes to cause.
What's Wrong?: The reason why I bring up that this movie can sometimes feel like nobody in Marvel had much faith in it is due to the strangely mediocre special effects. The effects were done by ILM, which is really surprising considering how truly fake-looking the film's infamous War Rhinos are in the film's climax. They look similar to the troll in the first Harry Potter movie or the dragon from that Dungeons and Dragons movie made almost 30 years ago. I understand that making believable Rhinos to serve as an armored and armed force of the Wakandan military would be tough to pull off, so why not just not use them? They have plenty of technology that could have filled in. As of this point, it looks as dated as the "realistic" effects of The Lion King (2019) will look in a few years.
Another slim but notably very unnerving flaw I found in the movie was how long it took the film to address the central conflict of the movie, chiefly the hatred between the brothers that ruled and watched over Wakanda in T'Chaka and N'Jobu. There is so much time dedicated to the phony and forced fighting scenes in South Korea as well as the Everett Ross plots that I feel could have been given more time to deal with the conflict that is central between Black Panther and Kilmonger. I don't like movies that meander to the point where you almost forget the central conflict. Klaue was not the main villain, but the film spends a ton of time on him. Strange, but I guess it's not a backbreaking flaw.
What's Good?: Well, like I said before, the meat of the movie is it's central and Shakespearean conflicts between the Royal Family of Wakanda. Both T'Chaka and his brother have valid points to make about what was good for the people of both Wakanda and the world, as yes, a nation as good and as highly modernized as Wakanda should be aiding those of their race who are suffering, but T'Chaka wished to do so diplomatically, while N'Jobu wanted to do so through violent uprisings, which to many seem to be the only way to overcome boundaries of racial prejudice and social justice. This conflict is only magnified by their sons, as T'Challa has seen what the path of vengeful hatred can cause through his involvement in the Civil War clashes between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, but Kilmonger has seen the injustices done by the world governments and those in power to his people personally and believes Wakanda needed to be a leader in aiding in the uprising. They both have sound yet flawed logic behind their creeds, but in the end Kilmonger cannot move on past his personal hatred of T'Chaka or T'Challa and the death of his father, which ultimately becomes the driving force of his rage. This is where the film is at it's strongest points and evokes The Lion King most clearly, with the conflicts between Simba, Mufasa and Scar being the driving force of that film.
I also have to say the acting in this film is top notch. I've always been very "meh" towards Chadwick Boseman as an actor, but he certainly improved his acting chops by the time this movie came out. It's a shame we won't ever get to see him in this role again (RIP). But Michael B. Jordan as Kilmonger is who stole the show. It's awesome when the villain is the one who truly dominates the screen whenever he's on it, something as you'll see Marvel can be really good at. Jordan sells his anger, his pride and his hatred better than any of the other Marvel villains so far, while someone like Hela sold her vicious and coldblooded evil as well as she did in Thor: Ragnarok.
Though I'm counting this more as a positive, I really wish we got to see more of Wakanda in this film. As someone who (as you all very well know at this point) adored The Lion King for the epic scale it gave to Africa, I was hoping we would get to see more of that in this film. But, from what we've got, a technological super power surrounded by lush flora and fauna, I give the look of the film a solid A rating (I haven't rated films in a long time, have I?)
Overall: For a film that was trying so hard to be it's own piece of MCU magic, I feel that Black Panther surpassed even the loftiest of expectations I could have had for it. I only first saw this film when my Grandfather became ill in 2018, so it was a breath of fresh air for me to see something this emotionally heavy come from an MCU that's usually light and humorous. While I'll be the first to say not every film can or should be made in the same veins as this one, I feel there is a happy medium between Thor: Ragnarok and this one that could make perhaps the greatest superhero movies of all time. If only Marvel would make a movie that has the best of both of these films in it...oh wait...they did...get ready for Thanos kiddies, he's here...
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