What is it?
In Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba) fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda. Introducing Tenoch Huerta as Namor, king of a hidden undersea nation, the film also stars Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livanalli.
Quick Review
Black Panther Wakanda Forever obviously feels the weight of the death of Chadwick Boseman hanging over it, from the very first scene, to the Marvel logo intro and throughout the entire story. It follows the aftermath of T’Challa’s death from an undisclosed illness and while every character has their own chance to deal with and talk about his death, it hits Shuri the hardest, as she’s dealing with the loss of her brother, and feeling responsible for creating tech to protect Wakanda since there’s no heart-shaped herb to create a new Black Panther.
The actual plot of the film however felt muddled, confused and unsure of itself, perhaps stemming from no one actually taking the Black Panther mantle until the third act. We bounce around from Wakanda, to Boston, to Langley, to Haiti and to the new underwater kingdom of Talocan - a place which was hard to see as they seemed to have lit the underwater scenes very dimly, and without big, epic wide shots of the city like DC did in Aquaman (something this will no doubt be compared to). There were some odd character decisions which felt forced and the action set pieces also failed to live up to the creativity, excitement and epicness of the original Black Panther.
The entire cast delivers absolutely powerhouse performances and the score hit perfect note after perfect note.
Overall, a fitting, emotional and satisfying tribute to Chadwick Boseman, and too-long, overstuffed story with a little too much talking and exposition in between action scenes.
See it or skip it?
Skip it.
Check out the Black Panther Wakanda Forever trailer below.
- Matt