Jump to content

Black Panther


ShadowDog
 Share

Recommended Posts

Seriously? Not a single word about this movie? Until I created this thread we had a freaking She Hulk thread on this first page. I knew Nightly was white AF but DAMN.

 

Anyway, this movie was excellent and the last 3 movies (including Spider Man in that) have really pushed the envelope for great villains.

 

This movie made me super excited for Infinity War.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As far as the standard Marvel formula goes, I thought they did an awesome job. As always with Marvel films, they can take an average plot and elevate it with a cast you just have no choice but to love. All the supporting cast killed it. Probably in my top 5 of Marvel films, mostly due to, as many have pointed out, Killmonger.

 

A villain with actual motivation to do something that relates to his character is so much better than the usual "wants to take over the world" type villain most Marvel movies are populated with. I mean-- YES, Killmonger wanted to take over the world, but his motivations and plan were grounded. Makes a huge difference.

 

As for the racial politics I see a lot of sensitive republican white people complaining about on social media-- I don't think it was any more heavy handed than any of the Captain America movies (which touch on fascism and a corrupt American government), the running theme of Tony Stark having been a weapons manufacturer, or Magneto's Nazi revenge quest in Days of Future Past. They are using real world drama to make the stories more legit, Marvel has always done this with their comics, so it makes sense it carries over into the films. It's not like T'Challa was the one that wanted to over-throw white countries-- that was the villain. T'Challa's father wanted to hide from the world, Killmonger was radicalized and wanted to strike out against the world-- T'Challa found the middle of the road like a real hero would. THAT'S the take-away theme. Our hero did not support revenge or racism of any sort-- but those things were what gave Killmonger what I think is arguably the best villain backstory in the MCU-- because it made him seem legit.

 

I will say this, my 12 year old son loved it, and he asked after why Shuri called Ross a Colonizer. I told him that Killmonger was misguided but the things he was mad about actually happened. So, to somebody having lived in a country that was secure and untouched by British colonization, seeing a white person, especially a shifty CIA agent, may not be not be their favorite thing. He got it, and didn't think it was racist or wrong. He thought about it from her point of view and got it.

 

The only other thought I have is that I wish Angela Bassett hadn't played T'Challa's mother if only because the MCU acquires and reboots the X-Men someday I still want her to be Storm... like I have pretty much for the last 25 years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hadn't seen Age of Ultron since it first came out, but this movie gave me a MCU jones so I rewatched it ... And was astonished that Klaue was in it! That was an awesome surprise. (like I said, it'd been four years and I only saw it once)

 

I love these little connections between the movies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

It was fine. It felt different enough and it's more interesting than the average origin/first solo Marvel movie. I like the sort of Shakespearean quality of it. The periphery characters were great. Black Panther as a character fell a bit flat for me. The actor is fine, but other than the usual "how shall I use my responsibility!?" angle he doesn't really have any defining aspect to his personality. Yes, he falls under the "boy scout" category, which is fine, but you have to push it into an interesting direction like Winter Soldier did. This didn't really accomplish that for me. I understand he was forced to reevaluate his personal principles (regarding Wakanda's responsibility) but the combination of writing and direction didn't sell the inherent drama that such a decision would bring.

But yeah, it's above average, I had fun.

Some various points of interests:
I'm glad I wasn't directing or writing this because I wouldn't have been able to resist inserting a Bilbo/Gollum reference/nod.

The green screen work was really bad. It almost ALWAYS looked like they were standing in front a green screen. I don't know if it was bad lighting or what, but it was so noticeable that it almost seemed purposeful... like was this SUPPOSED to look like a stage play or something?

I'm glad there wasn't an overtly silly comic relief character (even Martin Freeman was pretty restrained)
Martin Freeman's accent threw me for a loop, lol.
Yay! An antagonist with a motivation, finally.
Battle rhinos was stupid.
I've heard other criticisms mentioning that Black Panther was too invulnerable. I thought it was fine. He has to be powerful enough to fight "cosmic" threats, but he also has to tackle more home-grown ones in this film. The balance is fine. They found reasonable ways to make him vulnerable when needed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finally got a chance to see this yesterday. It was great. I liked that it still had connections to other MCU movies, but very much held its own. My girlfriend likes the Marvel movies, but hasn't seen many of them, yet she was still able to follow everything in this easily. That hasn't been the case for some of the other recent solo movies, like Spider-Man. It covered the only aspect of Civil War that was really needed in showing the death of his father.

 

The characters and actors were all great, too. I loved every second either Shuri or Killmonger were on screen. Danai was also fun to watch. The others were all great, too, but those ones stood out to me the most.

 

The one storyline aspect that confused me about this movie and how it connects to Civil War is why T'Challa was already the Panther in Civil War when his father was still alive. I don't know how much of that is due to choices made for this movie and how much of it carries over from the comics, though. I have been reading the current series by Coates ans have come across lots of T'Challa in the last ten years or so, but I haven't seen much about whether he was the Panther before his father died in the comics, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That makes sense. The main thing for me is that he had already taken the herb, which would seem to have already taken him to the ancestral plane. It just dawned on me now, though, that his wonder at that experience wasn't likely about being there at all, but about seeing his father again. So, I guess I cleared that up for myself*. hahaha

 

*with an assist from Tank

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Killmonger, despite having a terrible name that should belong to a forgettable Iron Man villain, was great.

 

But did anyone else notice that the last act was almost a repeat of TPM?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

Best Picture huh?..............okay sure.

 

For the record I really liked Black Panther. Best Picture worthy? At least I can say that I saw it. I usually haven't seen most of the movies nominated for best picture until after Oscars. To me however, it is one of those Marvel movies that doesn't hold up to repeat viewings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best Picture huh?..............okay sure.

 

For the record I really liked Black Panther. Best Picture worthy? At least I can say that I saw it. I usually haven't seen most of the movies nominated for best picture until after Oscars. To me however, it is one of those Marvel movies that doesn't hold up to repeat viewings.

Its not worthy of a Best Picture nomination--not as a basic film, or as a fantasy film. I believe there were other motivations behind the nomination, but I will let others debate that within their various echo chambers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest El Chalupacabra

Black Panther is a fine film, but if they were going to nominate a MCU film, it should have been Infinity War, which I think blows Black Panther out of the water. But I think BP deserves some kind of award for FX or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Black Panther is a fine film, but if they were going to nominate a MCU film, it should have been Infinity War, which I think blows Black Panther out of the water. But I think BP deserves some kind of award for FX or something.

The only MCU film I would even dare say that about is Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but even that film is not up to Best Picture level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest El Chalupacabra

Black Panther deserves it as much as Avatar or Return of the King.

It's all relative. I liked BP, just not as much as Infinity War. Infinity War was the movie all preceding MCU had built up to, and it paid off. Never understood the hype for Avatar, but to me ROTK was the second best LOTR movie (first being FOTR), but I don't know if ROTK or Avatar were best picture worthy. Certainly best FX, best directed, maybe best actors, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.