BLACK PANTHER

“It is difficult for a good man to be King.”

Marvel movies are everywhere these days. Love them or hate them, we’re getting multiple every year. Last year we had two good ones and ended things with the utterly disappointing Thor: Ragnarok. Kicking things off this year before May’s Avengers: Infinity War is Black Panther. And, to be perfectly honest, I’m completely indifferent towards it.

Black Panther takes place shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War. T’Challa is now King of the immensely advanced Wakanda, and the film is basically here to detail his first days/weeks on the throne. The plot is solid enough, but there was nothing that really jumped out at me. There were good scenes, but nothing from the plot is anything new. To put it as simply as I can, if you’ve seen The Lion King, you’ve seen this film. It’s the same, just not as interesting as watching two animated lions clawing each other. That sounds harsh I know, but I view films based on how much they do something new and how much they entertain me. Black Panther did little that I hadn’t seen before, but it did entertain me. Sometimes.

The views I have about this film are somewhat similar to what I feel about the original Blade Runner. The concept and the environment of the film are superb, but the delivery of those ideas is poor in comparison. Take a look at Wakanda, for example…

The setting of the film is one of its best aspects, but after a while, it’s just not focused on. We get a good amount of time at the start of the film to explore this African nation that holds a brilliant mix of African tribalism and uber-advanced technology. And while those aspects are brought back here and there, once the plot gets going, which by the way is another generic revenge story, these aspects are pushed aside, and that did a lot to lessen the film in my mind.

Onto the cast, and Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa/Black Panther was the obvious stand out.

His portrayal of the troubled yet burdened King was spot on, and he delivers his scenes with style. We got a taste of his character in Civil War, and this film does a lot to advance that. But with all that being said, there comes a point in the film where he no longer feels like the main character. A lot happens in the second and third acts that goes on without T’Challa. This takes away from his character and what he could’ve done in the film’s story.

The other stand out of the cast was Andy Serkis’ Ulysses Klaue, who returns from 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.

It was Serkis’ lines that brought the laughs in this film and he delivers them perfectly. You get a very good sense of his complete insanity, but also the fun he brings with him. He plays the part of his villain very well and he gets some very good scenes. But, as with the rest of the film, the unfortunate moment came where Klaue was moved aside, and for me personally, it was the low point of the two hours.

The main antagonist of the film, Michael B. Jordan’s Eric ‘Killmonger’ Stevens was somewhat of a disappointment.

Leading up to this film, all the reviews I’d seen were highlighting Killmonger as the MCU’s greatest ever villain and Jordan’s portrayal on the same level as Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. Knowing this was a Marvel film, I went sceptical to this, and I was right to be. His villain makes sense for the plot, but he doesn’t stand out beyond it, and that’s the classic Marvel problem. Jordan’s portrayal was ok at best, but he never grabbed my attention or empathy. He has a backstory, but I just didn’t side with it. Every villain should be the hero of their own story, and while Killmonger might have been, I just never felt that. He takes away from the far more interesting Klaue, and that doesn’t help the film.

In all honesty, I know this review is probably sounding quite negative, but I’m not meaning it to be. The truth is that Black Panther was a movie I watched. That’s as far as my feelings for it go. It’s got an ok enough story to keep it afloat and enough action scenes to keep it moving, but it’s for from Marvel’s best picture. The plot is one we’ve seen a million times before and the true gems of the film lie in the world behind the story. Wakanda, it ways of life and its technology are all fascinating, but the film stops showing these off after the half way point, and that’s when, for me at least, things began to get average.

The cast does a good job but its two stand outs don’t get the attention they deserve, and one of them is the titular character. As Killmonger’s plan kicks into action T’Challa stops being the main character in the hopes of adding shock factor, and it just doesn’t. The jokes fell flat every time, unless they came from Andy Serkis and the CGI was nothing better than average for a big budget blockbuster. It has the advantage of being its own film, meaning it can tell its own story without setting up a sequel, but it also has the disadvantage of being completely skippable. You may watch this film and love it, but for me, it didn’t give Black Panther the film he deserved after his debut in Captain America: Civil War. And honestly, a few small changes here and there could've dramatically changed things for the better...