"I NEVER FREEZE."
All Hail the King - the King which is Marvel Studios because they can simply do no wrong, can they? Funnily enough, there's a short film made by Marvel post-Iron Man 3 titled "All Hail the King".
Anyway, I digress.
Now the 18th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (yes, EIGHTEENTH), Black Panther had a mammoth task of doing something different and interesting in an origin-type movie for this new character in the MCU.
Having said that, though, the term "trying something new" is such a common topic these days.
If you look at the movies over the past couple of years, so many have tried to reinvent genres and reinvigorate their universes to varied effect.
Since it's a Marvel movie, let's look at their recent entries. After the Iron Man (2008) rebranding which was Doctor Strange (2016), we got the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
All those movies tried to take steps in new directions. I mean, who would blame them considering how far into this universe we already are. Guardians took the Empire Strikes Back route, Spidey decided to become Tony Stark and Thor decided to laugh at himself and make his movie completely and utterly silly.
Nothing wrong with all that, just that with such a rate of reinvention, it gets so tiring to keep up with all of it.
Oddly enough then, I'm thankful that Black Panther, in a way, takes a step back and reverts to recognisable methods while at the same time, felt remarkably fresh and brimming with excitement.
For starters, I applaud the casting. It is magnificent. Such diversity and such lovely exploration and celebration of African culture (albeit much of it being completely made up) together with an absolutely banging story filled with great drama and some fantastic twists which I honestly did not see coming.
Match all of that with the best Marvel villain since Vulture (Michael Keaton) in Spider-Man: Homecoming and you have more or less the perfect movie.
Except, that it isn't perfect. Well, not all of it, to be precise.
The pacing is a bit of an issue where the first half of the film is painfully slow-burning. Sure, the movie needed time to introduce characters and develop story arcs but still, even with that in mind, we're not even given more of the excellent villain in Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) until only the second half of the movie.
I feel that if we were treated to more Killmonger, he would've been even more epic and memorable. Not taking anything away from what we already got, though. Michael B. Jordan absolutely knocked it out of the park with the character.
His motivations were so relatable and completely realistic, and that's exactly what the best movie villains have in common. It's when they're not too over-the-top where you can still see the humanity in them and the reasoning behind why they chose the darker path of life that makes these characters so compelling. Such a shame that Marvel have struggled for so many years with their villains.
Moving on to the rest of the cast, and the one that stood out the most to me was the character of T'Challa/Black Panther's (Chadwick Boseman) tech-genius little sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright).
She was such a brilliant character filled with perfectly-timed witty comebacks and remarks which made the brother-sister dynamic completely legitimate. On top of her absolute wizardry with the technology of Wakanda, she made for such a terrific addition to this universe.
Just imagine if she teamed up with Tony Stark and combined their technological skills and knowledge. What a force they could become. Sadly, she'll just be using a microscopic fraction of her genius to fix up a new shield for Captain America (lame).
I enjoyed the supporting cast very much as well. It was nice to see more of Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and especially Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) - basically the two white people in this movie.
I thought that Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) in particular were fantastic characters, with the former even speaking some excellent Korean in one scene in South Korea on top of doing a pretty legit African accent. That's Academy Award-winning talent right there for you.
On the topic of accents, I have never been a fan of Chadwick Boseman's African accent. This time, he's not alone in sounding silly as he has Okoye with him in that department.
The scene in the trailer where he goes "I never freeze" in response to Okoye's "Don't freeze" still cracks me up when I think about it.
At least they make the effort to be legit with the accents. Nothing irritates me more than when films on the topics of specific races or nationalities end up being done all Americanised like the movie Valkyrie (2008).
On to the technical aspects of the movie, of which they are all of top, top quality.
The film is supremely shot with some breathtaking wides and establishing shots. I loved how the whole nation of Wakanda and its environment is depicted because it looked so real despite pretty much all of it being CGI.
There were some really iffy green screen moments, especially when Black Panther had his showdowns with Killmonger but apart from that, the rest of the CGI was fantastic.
I think the very young and talented Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed) did an amazing job directing it, and it's nice how Marvel is hiring all these independent filmmakers to direct these movies. This has really reinvigorated the franchise and I feel more studios should do the same with their movies.
The music was spot-on as well. A lovely blend of tribal beats together with the natural electric-energy of Kendrick Lamar's tracks which he wrote specifically for the film. I'm not into Hip-Hop at all but wow, this soundtrack was dope.
All in all, Black Panther delivered on every front that it needed to. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record when reviewing all these Marvel movies. When oh when are they going to screw up again like they did with Spider-Man: Homecoming? Even with its 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I still maintain that the movie isn't very good.
What is very good, however, is this movie. It deserves all the praise it gets, of which there has been and will be plenty of.
I had a blast with Black Panther and I'm sure pretty much everyone would as well.
8.5/10.
Anyway, I digress.
Now the 18th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (yes, EIGHTEENTH), Black Panther had a mammoth task of doing something different and interesting in an origin-type movie for this new character in the MCU.
Having said that, though, the term "trying something new" is such a common topic these days.
If you look at the movies over the past couple of years, so many have tried to reinvent genres and reinvigorate their universes to varied effect.
Since it's a Marvel movie, let's look at their recent entries. After the Iron Man (2008) rebranding which was Doctor Strange (2016), we got the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
All those movies tried to take steps in new directions. I mean, who would blame them considering how far into this universe we already are. Guardians took the Empire Strikes Back route, Spidey decided to become Tony Stark and Thor decided to laugh at himself and make his movie completely and utterly silly.
Nothing wrong with all that, just that with such a rate of reinvention, it gets so tiring to keep up with all of it.
Oddly enough then, I'm thankful that Black Panther, in a way, takes a step back and reverts to recognisable methods while at the same time, felt remarkably fresh and brimming with excitement.
For starters, I applaud the casting. It is magnificent. Such diversity and such lovely exploration and celebration of African culture (albeit much of it being completely made up) together with an absolutely banging story filled with great drama and some fantastic twists which I honestly did not see coming.
Match all of that with the best Marvel villain since Vulture (Michael Keaton) in Spider-Man: Homecoming and you have more or less the perfect movie.
Except, that it isn't perfect. Well, not all of it, to be precise.
The pacing is a bit of an issue where the first half of the film is painfully slow-burning. Sure, the movie needed time to introduce characters and develop story arcs but still, even with that in mind, we're not even given more of the excellent villain in Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) until only the second half of the movie.
I feel that if we were treated to more Killmonger, he would've been even more epic and memorable. Not taking anything away from what we already got, though. Michael B. Jordan absolutely knocked it out of the park with the character.
His motivations were so relatable and completely realistic, and that's exactly what the best movie villains have in common. It's when they're not too over-the-top where you can still see the humanity in them and the reasoning behind why they chose the darker path of life that makes these characters so compelling. Such a shame that Marvel have struggled for so many years with their villains.
Moving on to the rest of the cast, and the one that stood out the most to me was the character of T'Challa/Black Panther's (Chadwick Boseman) tech-genius little sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright).
She was such a brilliant character filled with perfectly-timed witty comebacks and remarks which made the brother-sister dynamic completely legitimate. On top of her absolute wizardry with the technology of Wakanda, she made for such a terrific addition to this universe.
Just imagine if she teamed up with Tony Stark and combined their technological skills and knowledge. What a force they could become. Sadly, she'll just be using a microscopic fraction of her genius to fix up a new shield for Captain America (lame).
I enjoyed the supporting cast very much as well. It was nice to see more of Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and especially Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) - basically the two white people in this movie.
I thought that Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) in particular were fantastic characters, with the former even speaking some excellent Korean in one scene in South Korea on top of doing a pretty legit African accent. That's Academy Award-winning talent right there for you.
On the topic of accents, I have never been a fan of Chadwick Boseman's African accent. This time, he's not alone in sounding silly as he has Okoye with him in that department.
The scene in the trailer where he goes "I never freeze" in response to Okoye's "Don't freeze" still cracks me up when I think about it.
At least they make the effort to be legit with the accents. Nothing irritates me more than when films on the topics of specific races or nationalities end up being done all Americanised like the movie Valkyrie (2008).
On to the technical aspects of the movie, of which they are all of top, top quality.
The film is supremely shot with some breathtaking wides and establishing shots. I loved how the whole nation of Wakanda and its environment is depicted because it looked so real despite pretty much all of it being CGI.
There were some really iffy green screen moments, especially when Black Panther had his showdowns with Killmonger but apart from that, the rest of the CGI was fantastic.
I think the very young and talented Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed) did an amazing job directing it, and it's nice how Marvel is hiring all these independent filmmakers to direct these movies. This has really reinvigorated the franchise and I feel more studios should do the same with their movies.
The music was spot-on as well. A lovely blend of tribal beats together with the natural electric-energy of Kendrick Lamar's tracks which he wrote specifically for the film. I'm not into Hip-Hop at all but wow, this soundtrack was dope.
All in all, Black Panther delivered on every front that it needed to. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record when reviewing all these Marvel movies. When oh when are they going to screw up again like they did with Spider-Man: Homecoming? Even with its 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I still maintain that the movie isn't very good.
What is very good, however, is this movie. It deserves all the praise it gets, of which there has been and will be plenty of.
I had a blast with Black Panther and I'm sure pretty much everyone would as well.
8.5/10.
Thanks for sharing the nice and wonderful information. This was good movie. Black magic specialist in Hyderabad
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