BGOL BLACK PANTHER Movie Thread [Denzel Washington to star in Black Panther 3]
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I am FAR from impartial and even without seeing the movie?
This review is bulllsh*t
www.vulture.com
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Doesn’t Have the Answers
By Angelica Jade Bastién@angelicabastien
Angelica Jade Bastién is a critic for New York’s Vulture focusing on pop culture. She was once described by a close friend as “deliciously vulgar.”
How can any one film manage the expectations put on Ryan Coogler’s sequel and make space for grief? It can’t. Photo: Marvel Studios/Disney
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever carries a series of burdens no one film could ever bear. Its director, Ryan Coogler, must grapple with the challenges and expectations born and influenced by the tragic death of star Chadwick Boseman. Coogler must craft an entertaining sequel to a billion-dollar blockbuster while working within the constricting Marvel Cinematic Universe. He must carefully balance the expectations of Black folks who have elevated the film to a celestial status — a pinnacle of Afrofuturism-tinged desires for a specific kind of Black power and representation onscreen. The film is called to respectfully introduce a new Black Panther and push the MCU forward with the introduction of Namor (Tenoch Huerta), an Indigenous Mesoamerican king-god figure of the undersea, isolationist kingdom Talokan — which has its own cache of vibranium and superhuman strength that makes Wakanda buckle. Perhaps most crucially, the film’s cast must act out grief while being mired in the experience themselves, which is especially true for Letitia Wright’s Shuri, who is tasked with shouldering the film’s most dramatic moments.
To say the film is overtaxed is an understatement. Regrettably, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever tries to do so many things that it comes across as threadbare and pallid — less a failure of imagination and more of circumstance, time, and narrative constraints.
I have complicated feelings around the original Black Panther, which was released to great acclaim in 2018. I’ve never gravitated to the mythos, primarily because T’Challa is a character of such noble stature that he can come across as uncomplicated, too perfect, and lacking the human foibles that make a character root themself in your memory. (In a surprising moment of self-awareness for the franchise, a cameo in Wakanda Forever says as much.) But Boseman rounded out T’Challa with a sweetness he aimed toward the character’s loved ones, which makes the actor’s absence in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever even more profound. Without him, the sequel struggles to hit the graceful emotional frequencies of its predecessor. The Marvel framework tends to falter when it comes to portraying genuine, complicated feelings, and what is more complicated than grief? It lacks a linear quality. It isn’t something you can overcome with a magic spell or godlike abilities. It breaks against the form and function of a Marvel property.
Wakanda Forever begins with the funeral of T’Challa — a sight tinged with joy and sorrow. Here, the film is at its most vivid and visually intriguing. T’Challa’s coffin is carried through the capital of Wakanda by the tearful Dora Milaje led by Okoye (Danai Gurira). The cortege and people of Wakanda are dressed in all white — a striking touch from costuming legend Ruth E. Carter. While the faces of T’Challa’s closest loved ones are solemn, the people of Wakanda move their bodies in an ecstatic dance slowed down to the speed of molasses. But the scene is all too brief. The editing, which gives the film a rushed quality here and a lethargic one elsewhere, works against what the sequence accomplishes. We’re soon jettisoned into the thrust of the story (although thrust is perhaps too forceful a word to describe such an anemic film).
In the wake of T’Challa’s death from an unnamed illness, his mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), must help her empire navigate assaults from within and without. The true might of Wakanda is now widely known, and the film tries to spell out the geopolitical consequences of this new reality. In doing so, it turns to its lone white folks — Everett K. Ross (an annoyingly nondescript Martin Freeman functioning as living exposition) and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (a hard-edge but not altogether engaging Julia Louis-Dreyfus) — and screeches into the land of boredom and obligation. They soon learn that an even greater threat than Wakanda is Talokan — led by Namor, who is eager to fight against the surface world in order to protect his kingdom. (How many isolationist societies of magical, powerful people of color can one cinematic universe have?) Namor isn’t so much a villain as a misshapen antagonist forced into violence by a script that requires it to push the plot along, yet he cares deeply for the barely sketched supporting figures of his kingdom.
The beating heart of the film is meant to be Shuri, who is pulled in as many directions as the story itself: between grief-fueled vengeance and growth, between chaos and peace. The sharp-mouthed, highly intelligent younger-sister archetype that Shuri filled never quite worked for me, but graduating her to a character saddled with so much devastation doesn’t either. Wright can’t find the intensity required, and she lacks the physicality to stand out in frames filled with more forceful actors. Lupita Nyong’o fares much better. I’ve missed the sight of her onscreen. He brightness as Nakia infuses a few beautiful moments in the film. Other characters feel mostly surface-level in comparison: never fully rounded out with their own moments of bereavement or a fully rooted personality. Consider the spunky college student Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), who is weighted down by the clunkiest jokes of the film. Gurira and Bassett, however, when give the space to do so, capably provide the complex characterization that is otherwise sparse — as a stunning moment in the kingdom’s throne room, shot through with anger and deep longing, demonstrates.
There’s a lot of wasted talent onscreen. Michaela Coel’s character, Aneka, is missing the tricksy magnetism the writer-actor displays everywhere else. The look of Namor is beguiling — as are the ideas behind his Talokan lineage (he was born in the 16th century and witnessed, as a young child-king, the morally repugnant, heartbreaking violence of Spanish conquistadors). But despite the film’s nearly three hours, there is seemingly not enough time to flesh out his people and culture. It constructs a rushed origin story never focused enough on building out Talokan. Who are its people beyond their isolationism? What do they worship and delight in? What powers their beliefs in a world where a godlike being like Namor exists? Within this part of the film’s tapestry, no character possesses a hint of interiority. Rather than a sincere exploration of this Indigenous world, Namor’s character plays like a cunning decision to broaden Disney and Marvel’s target audience under the banner of representation (despite Huerta’s clear commitment and pleasure in the role). When Huerta is called to deliver lines with the word mutant, they land with a thud.
The action scenes provide little of the decadent thrills that can power even the emptiest of superhero narratives. In the first Black Panther, the action aims for a muscular kineticism that mostly succeeds when characters like Killmonger are unmasked or the camera is trained on Okoye and the Dora Milaje. The fight choreography of the original has clean, strong lines of action and emotional beats that bring with them a scintillating force that Wakanda Forever fails to achieve. Here, the muscular kineticism has been replaced with an ostentatious grandiosity. The final fight scene, in particular, is impressive in terms of the scope and amount of actors involved onscreen, but it lacks the precision and focus that would lead to standout moments. Scenes involving members of the Dora Milaje are blocked in ways that render their physical presence much less graceful, stifling any glimmer of characterization the movement of the first film provided. The choreography of the Talokan fighters isn’t distinct enough either — save for in fits and spurts like during a fight with Okoye on a city bridge. Namor is powerful, to be sure, but his introductions in scenes lack the regality that could make an undersea king feel fantastically unreal. The new Black Panther is meant to flex their muscles in the back half, but by then, an overstuffed quality has set in. The dexterous bliss that comes with the sudden explosion of superheroic energy is crowded out. Ultimately, Coogler and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw lose sight of the rich color and minute detail that make this comic world alluring and, instead, allow their picture to feel as busy as the gold-and-black costume of the new Black Panther.
Wakanda Forever is too drab to work as a capable sequel, too unfocused to feel wholly consequential among the spoiling bombast of the larger MCU, too surface-level in its characterization and thematic entanglements to function as a worthy memorial to a star gone far too soon. It is neither developed enough narratively nor complex enough politically. It is a film not about Blackness or Indigenous identity, though it hides behind the sheen of both. Coogler is a strong director still relatively early in his career, but his voice isn’t evolving as much as it’s rattling inside the morass of the ever-growing MCU. Who does Coogler want to be as an artist? What does he have to say about humanity? Black Panther: Wakanda Forever doesn’t have the answers.
I am FAR from impartial and even without seeing the movie?
This review is bulllsh*t
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Doesn’t Have the Answers
How can any one film manage the expectations put on Ryan Coogler’s sequel and make space for grief? It can’t.
www.vulture.com
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Doesn’t Have the Answers
By Angelica Jade Bastién@angelicabastien
Angelica Jade Bastién is a critic for New York’s Vulture focusing on pop culture. She was once described by a close friend as “deliciously vulgar.”
How can any one film manage the expectations put on Ryan Coogler’s sequel and make space for grief? It can’t. Photo: Marvel Studios/Disney
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever carries a series of burdens no one film could ever bear. Its director, Ryan Coogler, must grapple with the challenges and expectations born and influenced by the tragic death of star Chadwick Boseman. Coogler must craft an entertaining sequel to a billion-dollar blockbuster while working within the constricting Marvel Cinematic Universe. He must carefully balance the expectations of Black folks who have elevated the film to a celestial status — a pinnacle of Afrofuturism-tinged desires for a specific kind of Black power and representation onscreen. The film is called to respectfully introduce a new Black Panther and push the MCU forward with the introduction of Namor (Tenoch Huerta), an Indigenous Mesoamerican king-god figure of the undersea, isolationist kingdom Talokan — which has its own cache of vibranium and superhuman strength that makes Wakanda buckle. Perhaps most crucially, the film’s cast must act out grief while being mired in the experience themselves, which is especially true for Letitia Wright’s Shuri, who is tasked with shouldering the film’s most dramatic moments.
To say the film is overtaxed is an understatement. Regrettably, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever tries to do so many things that it comes across as threadbare and pallid — less a failure of imagination and more of circumstance, time, and narrative constraints.
I have complicated feelings around the original Black Panther, which was released to great acclaim in 2018. I’ve never gravitated to the mythos, primarily because T’Challa is a character of such noble stature that he can come across as uncomplicated, too perfect, and lacking the human foibles that make a character root themself in your memory. (In a surprising moment of self-awareness for the franchise, a cameo in Wakanda Forever says as much.) But Boseman rounded out T’Challa with a sweetness he aimed toward the character’s loved ones, which makes the actor’s absence in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever even more profound. Without him, the sequel struggles to hit the graceful emotional frequencies of its predecessor. The Marvel framework tends to falter when it comes to portraying genuine, complicated feelings, and what is more complicated than grief? It lacks a linear quality. It isn’t something you can overcome with a magic spell or godlike abilities. It breaks against the form and function of a Marvel property.
Wakanda Forever begins with the funeral of T’Challa — a sight tinged with joy and sorrow. Here, the film is at its most vivid and visually intriguing. T’Challa’s coffin is carried through the capital of Wakanda by the tearful Dora Milaje led by Okoye (Danai Gurira). The cortege and people of Wakanda are dressed in all white — a striking touch from costuming legend Ruth E. Carter. While the faces of T’Challa’s closest loved ones are solemn, the people of Wakanda move their bodies in an ecstatic dance slowed down to the speed of molasses. But the scene is all too brief. The editing, which gives the film a rushed quality here and a lethargic one elsewhere, works against what the sequence accomplishes. We’re soon jettisoned into the thrust of the story (although thrust is perhaps too forceful a word to describe such an anemic film).
In the wake of T’Challa’s death from an unnamed illness, his mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), must help her empire navigate assaults from within and without. The true might of Wakanda is now widely known, and the film tries to spell out the geopolitical consequences of this new reality. In doing so, it turns to its lone white folks — Everett K. Ross (an annoyingly nondescript Martin Freeman functioning as living exposition) and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (a hard-edge but not altogether engaging Julia Louis-Dreyfus) — and screeches into the land of boredom and obligation. They soon learn that an even greater threat than Wakanda is Talokan — led by Namor, who is eager to fight against the surface world in order to protect his kingdom. (How many isolationist societies of magical, powerful people of color can one cinematic universe have?) Namor isn’t so much a villain as a misshapen antagonist forced into violence by a script that requires it to push the plot along, yet he cares deeply for the barely sketched supporting figures of his kingdom.
The beating heart of the film is meant to be Shuri, who is pulled in as many directions as the story itself: between grief-fueled vengeance and growth, between chaos and peace. The sharp-mouthed, highly intelligent younger-sister archetype that Shuri filled never quite worked for me, but graduating her to a character saddled with so much devastation doesn’t either. Wright can’t find the intensity required, and she lacks the physicality to stand out in frames filled with more forceful actors. Lupita Nyong’o fares much better. I’ve missed the sight of her onscreen. He brightness as Nakia infuses a few beautiful moments in the film. Other characters feel mostly surface-level in comparison: never fully rounded out with their own moments of bereavement or a fully rooted personality. Consider the spunky college student Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), who is weighted down by the clunkiest jokes of the film. Gurira and Bassett, however, when give the space to do so, capably provide the complex characterization that is otherwise sparse — as a stunning moment in the kingdom’s throne room, shot through with anger and deep longing, demonstrates.
There’s a lot of wasted talent onscreen. Michaela Coel’s character, Aneka, is missing the tricksy magnetism the writer-actor displays everywhere else. The look of Namor is beguiling — as are the ideas behind his Talokan lineage (he was born in the 16th century and witnessed, as a young child-king, the morally repugnant, heartbreaking violence of Spanish conquistadors). But despite the film’s nearly three hours, there is seemingly not enough time to flesh out his people and culture. It constructs a rushed origin story never focused enough on building out Talokan. Who are its people beyond their isolationism? What do they worship and delight in? What powers their beliefs in a world where a godlike being like Namor exists? Within this part of the film’s tapestry, no character possesses a hint of interiority. Rather than a sincere exploration of this Indigenous world, Namor’s character plays like a cunning decision to broaden Disney and Marvel’s target audience under the banner of representation (despite Huerta’s clear commitment and pleasure in the role). When Huerta is called to deliver lines with the word mutant, they land with a thud.
The action scenes provide little of the decadent thrills that can power even the emptiest of superhero narratives. In the first Black Panther, the action aims for a muscular kineticism that mostly succeeds when characters like Killmonger are unmasked or the camera is trained on Okoye and the Dora Milaje. The fight choreography of the original has clean, strong lines of action and emotional beats that bring with them a scintillating force that Wakanda Forever fails to achieve. Here, the muscular kineticism has been replaced with an ostentatious grandiosity. The final fight scene, in particular, is impressive in terms of the scope and amount of actors involved onscreen, but it lacks the precision and focus that would lead to standout moments. Scenes involving members of the Dora Milaje are blocked in ways that render their physical presence much less graceful, stifling any glimmer of characterization the movement of the first film provided. The choreography of the Talokan fighters isn’t distinct enough either — save for in fits and spurts like during a fight with Okoye on a city bridge. Namor is powerful, to be sure, but his introductions in scenes lack the regality that could make an undersea king feel fantastically unreal. The new Black Panther is meant to flex their muscles in the back half, but by then, an overstuffed quality has set in. The dexterous bliss that comes with the sudden explosion of superheroic energy is crowded out. Ultimately, Coogler and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw lose sight of the rich color and minute detail that make this comic world alluring and, instead, allow their picture to feel as busy as the gold-and-black costume of the new Black Panther.
Wakanda Forever is too drab to work as a capable sequel, too unfocused to feel wholly consequential among the spoiling bombast of the larger MCU, too surface-level in its characterization and thematic entanglements to function as a worthy memorial to a star gone far too soon. It is neither developed enough narratively nor complex enough politically. It is a film not about Blackness or Indigenous identity, though it hides behind the sheen of both. Coogler is a strong director still relatively early in his career, but his voice isn’t evolving as much as it’s rattling inside the morass of the ever-growing MCU. Who does Coogler want to be as an artist? What does he have to say about humanity? Black Panther: Wakanda Forever doesn’t have the answers.
Does Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Match Up to Its Predecessor?
By Zoe Guy
Reviews for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are here, and critics can agree on one thing alone: The loss of Chadwick Boseman weighs heavily on the film. After the man who carried the original film on his shoulders unexpectedly died from cancer in 2020, director Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole had no choice but to craft a world without the charm and grace of Boseman’s T’Challa, who gets a proper send-off in the beginning of the film. Wakanda Forever considers grief, but it must also navigate an ever-sprawling cinematic universe that prioritizes the mechanical storytelling requirements of the brand over its individual entries. Based on first reviews, some critics found the globe-trotting plot to be simultaneously overwrought and anemic, though others found it an interesting allegory for contemporary geopolitics. While critics appreciate Coogler’s tale about two isolated utopias in the Global South, reviews vary on whether or not the film dives beyond the surface of these themes and captures the political fervor of the original. Below, the early takeaways from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
“To say the film is overtaxed is an understatement. Regrettably, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever tries to do so many things that it comes across as threadbare and pallid — less a failure of imagination and more of circumstance, time, and narrative constraints.” —Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture
“Although the sequel’s running time is more sprawling and its narrative goals more diffuse than its predecessor’s, it shares the same strengths. Wakanda Forever is fueled by intricate world-building, stunningly designed sets and costumes, and an interest in the geopolitical implications of superheroism that’s far more nuanced than most Marvel movies allow.” —David Sims, The Atlantic
“It turns out that the rest of Wakanda Forever will be one long eulogy as well, with the next 2½ hours toggling between overbusy storytelling and coping with sadness and loss. Wakanda Forever winds up feeling hopelessly stalled, covering up an inability to move on by resorting to repetitive, over-familiar action sequences, maudlin emotional beats and an uninvolving, occasionally incoherent story.” —Ann Hornaday, the Washington Post
“The hulking script is chock-full of ideas and themes. Rather than fighting their common enemy (white colonists), two kingdoms helmed by people of color are pitted against each other (an idea that never thematically lands), and the film must delve into the cultural pain that still exists from the historical annihilation of Central and South America’s Indigenous kingdoms. It must also contend with a bevy of other requirements: setting up the Marvel TV series Ironheart (which Dominique Thorne will star in), acknowledging The Snap, grieving Boseman’s death, and finding a new Black Panther. These competing interests are no less smoothed out by MCU’s blockbuster demands (that this must be a mainstream hit and usher in the next phase of the cinematic universe) and the weight of satiating Black folks who feel seen by the fantastical confirmation of Black regalism. It’s too much for one movie. And you get the sense that this should’ve been two.” —Robert Daniels, Roger Ebert
“For all of its blockbuster bombast and globe-trotting conflict, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is, in a sense, framed around just one person: Chadwick Boseman. The loss of the Black Panther star, who tragically died in 2020, isn’t just taken as a logistical problem for the franchise to fix. There’s real pain behind this film. In addressing Boseman’s passing, returning director/co-writer Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole movingly and tastefully blur the lines between the real and the fictional.” —Kambole Campbell, Empire
“Wakanda Forever is overlong, a little unwieldy and somewhat mystifyingly steers toward a climax on a barge in the middle of the Atlantic. But Coogler’s fluid command of mixing intimacy with spectacle remains gripping. He extends the rich detail and non-binary complexity that distinguished Black Panther in sometimes awkward but often thrilling ways. Wakanda Forever, grappling in the aftermath of loss, ultimately seeks something rare in the battle-ready superhero landscape: Peace.” —Jake Coyle, Associated Press
“Some will no doubt miss the tight focus and energy of Black Panther. This sequel is more scattered, a vast expansion with a hole at its center. In their mourning, the film’s characters are tossed to the wind, atomized on their own sad trajectories. But so, it seems, is the film itself, keeping busy so it doesn’t get dragged down in the undertow of its despair. One wishes that Coogler and company had more time to process, to collect themselves and figure out the truly best way forward, rather than grafting different characters onto a story once meant for T’Challa. But economics waits for no period of reflection, and so they have done their timely contractual duty in as noble a fashion as, perhaps, was possible.” —Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“There come moments in Wakanda Forever when it feels fair to wonder who we’re really rooting for. Never is this more apparent than in scenes involving the CIA (embodied by a returning Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross, as well as by a surprising, funny cameo that I won’t spoil). Here, Wakanda Forever stumbles; the relationship between Wakanda and its “favorite colonizer” veers a little too close to cute, a little too buddy-buddy, without anywhere near the same level of thoughtfulness that the movie brings to bear on the rest of its story.” —K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone
“Watching Wakanda Forever, it’s almost unavoidable that we feel the absence of Boseman’s heroic dramatic center of gravity. The movie doesn’t have the classic comic-book pow of Black Panther, and it’s easily 20 minutes too long (we could probably have lived without the Talokan backstory). Yet Wakanda Forever has a slow-burn emotional suspense. Once the film starts to gather steam, it doesn’t let up.” —Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“In T’Challa’s absence, Wakanda has become, at least for the moment, a matriarchy, and Wakanda Forever displays a matter-of-fact superhero feminism grounded in the personalities of the performers and their characters. Bassett, Wright, Gurira, Williams and Coel — rejoined by Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, who shows up a bit late in the action — form the kind of fractious, formidable ensemble that should be a franchise in its own right. And quite possibly will be. It’s called Wakanda Forever, and in the Marvel Universe that sounds less like a slogan than a terms of service guarantee.” —A.O. Scott, New York Times
“Despite the culture-shaking impact of its predecessor and the tragic context of Boseman’s death — both of which this film tackles head-on — Wakanda Forever is almost by nature more conventional and less exultant than Black Panther. Its highs are lower, its lows are more exasperating, and its oceanic undercurrents of loss and healing can be hard to feel amid a cluttered story that spends too much time on the surface.” —David Ehrlich, IndieWire
www.vulture.com
By Zoe Guy
Reviews for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are here, and critics can agree on one thing alone: The loss of Chadwick Boseman weighs heavily on the film. After the man who carried the original film on his shoulders unexpectedly died from cancer in 2020, director Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole had no choice but to craft a world without the charm and grace of Boseman’s T’Challa, who gets a proper send-off in the beginning of the film. Wakanda Forever considers grief, but it must also navigate an ever-sprawling cinematic universe that prioritizes the mechanical storytelling requirements of the brand over its individual entries. Based on first reviews, some critics found the globe-trotting plot to be simultaneously overwrought and anemic, though others found it an interesting allegory for contemporary geopolitics. While critics appreciate Coogler’s tale about two isolated utopias in the Global South, reviews vary on whether or not the film dives beyond the surface of these themes and captures the political fervor of the original. Below, the early takeaways from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
“To say the film is overtaxed is an understatement. Regrettably, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever tries to do so many things that it comes across as threadbare and pallid — less a failure of imagination and more of circumstance, time, and narrative constraints.” —Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture
“Although the sequel’s running time is more sprawling and its narrative goals more diffuse than its predecessor’s, it shares the same strengths. Wakanda Forever is fueled by intricate world-building, stunningly designed sets and costumes, and an interest in the geopolitical implications of superheroism that’s far more nuanced than most Marvel movies allow.” —David Sims, The Atlantic
“It turns out that the rest of Wakanda Forever will be one long eulogy as well, with the next 2½ hours toggling between overbusy storytelling and coping with sadness and loss. Wakanda Forever winds up feeling hopelessly stalled, covering up an inability to move on by resorting to repetitive, over-familiar action sequences, maudlin emotional beats and an uninvolving, occasionally incoherent story.” —Ann Hornaday, the Washington Post
“The hulking script is chock-full of ideas and themes. Rather than fighting their common enemy (white colonists), two kingdoms helmed by people of color are pitted against each other (an idea that never thematically lands), and the film must delve into the cultural pain that still exists from the historical annihilation of Central and South America’s Indigenous kingdoms. It must also contend with a bevy of other requirements: setting up the Marvel TV series Ironheart (which Dominique Thorne will star in), acknowledging The Snap, grieving Boseman’s death, and finding a new Black Panther. These competing interests are no less smoothed out by MCU’s blockbuster demands (that this must be a mainstream hit and usher in the next phase of the cinematic universe) and the weight of satiating Black folks who feel seen by the fantastical confirmation of Black regalism. It’s too much for one movie. And you get the sense that this should’ve been two.” —Robert Daniels, Roger Ebert
“For all of its blockbuster bombast and globe-trotting conflict, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is, in a sense, framed around just one person: Chadwick Boseman. The loss of the Black Panther star, who tragically died in 2020, isn’t just taken as a logistical problem for the franchise to fix. There’s real pain behind this film. In addressing Boseman’s passing, returning director/co-writer Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole movingly and tastefully blur the lines between the real and the fictional.” —Kambole Campbell, Empire
“Wakanda Forever is overlong, a little unwieldy and somewhat mystifyingly steers toward a climax on a barge in the middle of the Atlantic. But Coogler’s fluid command of mixing intimacy with spectacle remains gripping. He extends the rich detail and non-binary complexity that distinguished Black Panther in sometimes awkward but often thrilling ways. Wakanda Forever, grappling in the aftermath of loss, ultimately seeks something rare in the battle-ready superhero landscape: Peace.” —Jake Coyle, Associated Press
“Some will no doubt miss the tight focus and energy of Black Panther. This sequel is more scattered, a vast expansion with a hole at its center. In their mourning, the film’s characters are tossed to the wind, atomized on their own sad trajectories. But so, it seems, is the film itself, keeping busy so it doesn’t get dragged down in the undertow of its despair. One wishes that Coogler and company had more time to process, to collect themselves and figure out the truly best way forward, rather than grafting different characters onto a story once meant for T’Challa. But economics waits for no period of reflection, and so they have done their timely contractual duty in as noble a fashion as, perhaps, was possible.” —Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“There come moments in Wakanda Forever when it feels fair to wonder who we’re really rooting for. Never is this more apparent than in scenes involving the CIA (embodied by a returning Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross, as well as by a surprising, funny cameo that I won’t spoil). Here, Wakanda Forever stumbles; the relationship between Wakanda and its “favorite colonizer” veers a little too close to cute, a little too buddy-buddy, without anywhere near the same level of thoughtfulness that the movie brings to bear on the rest of its story.” —K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone
“Watching Wakanda Forever, it’s almost unavoidable that we feel the absence of Boseman’s heroic dramatic center of gravity. The movie doesn’t have the classic comic-book pow of Black Panther, and it’s easily 20 minutes too long (we could probably have lived without the Talokan backstory). Yet Wakanda Forever has a slow-burn emotional suspense. Once the film starts to gather steam, it doesn’t let up.” —Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“In T’Challa’s absence, Wakanda has become, at least for the moment, a matriarchy, and Wakanda Forever displays a matter-of-fact superhero feminism grounded in the personalities of the performers and their characters. Bassett, Wright, Gurira, Williams and Coel — rejoined by Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, who shows up a bit late in the action — form the kind of fractious, formidable ensemble that should be a franchise in its own right. And quite possibly will be. It’s called Wakanda Forever, and in the Marvel Universe that sounds less like a slogan than a terms of service guarantee.” —A.O. Scott, New York Times
“Despite the culture-shaking impact of its predecessor and the tragic context of Boseman’s death — both of which this film tackles head-on — Wakanda Forever is almost by nature more conventional and less exultant than Black Panther. Its highs are lower, its lows are more exasperating, and its oceanic undercurrents of loss and healing can be hard to feel amid a cluttered story that spends too much time on the surface.” —David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Does Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Match Up to Its Predecessor?
Critics agree the loss of Chadwick Boseman weighs heavily on the sequel.
www.vulture.com
Damn right
@raze
I am FAR from impartial and even without seeing the movie?
This review is bulllsh*t
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Doesn’t Have the Answers
How can any one film manage the expectations put on Ryan Coogler’s sequel and make space for grief? It can’t.
I haven't read it yet, but I recognize the writer. She gave a needlessly harsh review for Candyman. It doesn't mean she's wrong here, just giving you an idea of where her head is at as a critic.
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appreciate that.
Her review tonally just seemed OFF to me and even kinda personal.
I am NOT a fan.
I actually get invited to survey reviews often for that site.
I am going to be sure to mention that.
If you expect any cac or cac loving critic to speak well of this movie it ain't happening. Go see it and be your own judge. I liked it
Overall, the numbers are good.
According to folks in the thread, those other films had previews and Wakanda Forever did not. Take out previews and it's the 4th highest opening of the year.
For whatever reason, it's not clicking with South Korean audiences
South Korean redditors are saying mixed word of mouth, complaints about the action and VFX. But Black Panther (and some questionable visuals) made $45M over there so...
It was off the chain.
It was long, but it was 'filled in plot gaps' long, you know?
Some movies are unnecessarily long where the person is just trying to be creative and artistic and they could have easily cut out 15-20 minutes (think Wonder Woman 2), but this one was very well written. Everything made sense as far as the motivations of the characters and the character development
No spoilers, but bring your tissues. That theater dusty than a motherfucker
It was long, but it was 'filled in plot gaps' long, you know?
Some movies are unnecessarily long where the person is just trying to be creative and artistic and they could have easily cut out 15-20 minutes (think Wonder Woman 2), but this one was very well written. Everything made sense as far as the motivations of the characters and the character development
No spoilers, but bring your tissues. That theater dusty than a motherfucker
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Great film! Definitely worth the $ and wait. Wakanda Forever!
^^^ Co-Sign.
Absolutely.I saw the 3PM show today... and I still can't even explain 'how good' this movie was.
All of the people saying the movie is mediocre... are FULL OF SHIT.
- Because the whole storyline is FANTASTIC.
- The Villain is a MAJOR THREAT.
- He's honorable, but at the same time..... HE's DANGEROUS AF.
- And his whole backstory + main purpose was very well thought-out.
- As you watch the movie, you quickly realize the trailers do not do Namor any justice.
All of the acting performances are TOP NOTCH.
It's equal parts a "character study" + a traditional "plot-driven narrative".
Ssshhheeeiiiitt........ Ryan Coogler made ONE HELLUVA Superhero Movie.
Trust.He accomplished SOOO MUCH with this movie... It's very impressive.... On MANY DIFFERENT Levels.
I give this movie at least a 9/10 (or a 10/10).
Easily.IT WAS OUTSTANDING!!!!!
I don't know what the reviews are saying but I just came back from seeing it and this is a damn good movie. I can't find anything wrong with this movie. It gave us everything we wanted, needed and expected. I think someone was cutting onions in the theater too
Before I engage with you on that level, I have one question. What are your thoughts on the first movie?
It was aight
Not fucking with the original
Again with the dodgy cg
BP not same without Chadwick
Lupita was looking thick
Not fucking with the original
Again with the dodgy cg
BP not same without Chadwick
Lupita was looking thick
Imagine having to tell a brother to not listen to his oppressor.If you expect any cac or cac loving critic to speak well of this movie it ain't happening. Go see it and be your own judge. I liked it
I absolutely loved the 1st one. This one isn't better than the 1st one but was still a very good movie.
Stone cold moron.
Anyone looking for or expecting this to exceed the 1st movie has some really high expectations and will be disappointed. I think they knew this coming in and made sure to temper their approach in trying to outdo themselves and focused more on making this a good overall movie.
The first movie was plagued with bad story telling and terrible CGI.
This one has some bad cg too
This movie was superior to its predecessor in every metric imaginable.
In the first movie where BP was talking to his father about the American Child, you weren’t distracted by the CGI?
I was distracted in this one with the
final boat battle and the fight on the sand
Movie was lit to me.