Black Panther
Synopsis: After the death of his father, T'Challa returns home to the African nation of Wakanda to take his rightful place as king. When a powerful enemy suddenly reappears, T'Challa's mettle as king -- and as Black Panther -- gets tested when he's drawn into a conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Faced with treachery and danger, the young king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people.
Movie Review:
"Black Panther" is the 18th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and they have once again knocked it out of the park with "Black Panther". This movie is phenomenal, engaging and a fun ride from start to finish. However, this film is not without some flaws that affect the movie from being great. This movie takes place a week after where "Captain America Civil War" ended and it finds T'Challa, the king of Wakanda, rising to the throne in the isolated, technologically advanced African nation. But his claim is challenged by a vengeful outsider who was a childhood victim of T'Challa's father's mistake. I really liked this movie because the world building of Wakanda was fascinating and it made us care about the characters involved. Chadwick Bosman plays T'Challa (Black Panther) and he is definitely the standout character of this movie. He is the reason why this movie works. Bosman portrays Black Panther as a wise, intelligent man who needs to find out how to become a king like his father and at the same time shows his internal struggle of how to protect his country from war. This film felt like Game of Thrones meets a spy film which makes the comic book genre fresh and new; Marvel is great at mixing other genres to the MCU films. The other supporting characters that I liked in this move is Shuri (Letitia Wright) who is T'Challa's/Black Panther's sister. She is probably one of my favorite MCU characters because she was funny and she stole every scene she was in. And the relationship between her and her brother was believable. The other female characters that I loved are Nakai (Lupita Nyong'po) and Okoye (Danai Guria); they are the strongest female characters I have seen in any MCU film to date and they were great in every action scene they did. Every time I watch a Marvel film, the villain is one of the weakest parts, but not this time…Eric Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) is one of the best MCU villains since Loki in "The Avengers" because the writers gave Killmonger a backstory and the audience understands why he wants to over throw T'Challa. I believe Michael B. Jordan gives his best performance as this intimidating and menacing villain. This film is full of action scenes. Some of my favorites were the casino fight and the car chase scenes. The one shot editing action sequences were amazing, exhilarating and exciting to see on the big screen. This film isn't perfect. There are flaws to some of the action scenes like the opening act where Black Panther rescues Nakai from soldiers — it was too shaky, badly edited and too dark to see what was happening. The other mistake I didn't like about this film was the pacing was off — some scenes move too slowly while others are rushed. Ryan Coogler has done it again; he is 3 for 3. Coogle made a fun, action packed film that is ground-breaking to the comic book genre that any person from any background can enjoy. I am giving "Black Panther" a 4 out of 5 stars.
Director: Ryan Coogler
Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Guria, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Sterling K. Brown, Angela Basset, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis
Runtime: 134 minutes