Black Panther (2018) Review

Holy crap.  We're on the 18th Marvel film already?  




A week after the death of his father and the events of Captain America: Civil War, T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is crowed the new King of Wakanda.  Soon after, he gets a lead on the location of Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis), an arms dealer who stole some of the valuable vibranium from Wakanda, and murdered many people in the process.  This leads T'Challa and his allies on a collision course with Erik Stevens (Michael B. Jordan), a very dangerous man who plans on taking the throne of Wakanda for himself.


What Works:

Apart from Loki himself, Black Panther has the best villain the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen. Michael B. Jordan gives an excellent performance as *Spoilers...


...Killmonger.  The name may not be the best, but man this guy is a great villain.  He has great motivation, you can empathize with him, and understand where he is coming form, and he poses a legitimate that to T'Challa.  Plus his plan is much more sophisticated than shooting a laser and destroying the Earth or anything.  Jordan's performance is the highlight of the movie.

But, that's not to say it's the only good performance.  Almost everyone really brings it to their role.  Andy Serkis is having a blast.  Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, and Letitia White play T'Challa's ex-girlfriend, bodyguard, and sister, respectively.  All three of them are great.  They have funny moments, badass moments, and great chemistry with Chadwick Boseman.  Finally, I have to give credit to Winston Duke as M'Baku.  He has a small role, but he is unexpectedly hilarious.

The action is good as always.  There is plenty of CGI action extravaganzas to go around.  But more importantly, I want to bring attention to the two barebones fight scenes at the top of the waterfall.  These are very basic fights.  T'Challa is drained of his Black Panther powers and is forced to fight with nothing but himself to rely on.  These scenes are fantastic and show we don't need headache-inducing CGI to have a great fight scene.


What Sucks:

First of all, not all of the comedy works.  There are a couple of jokes that feel more like pop culture references that fall flat.  

Secondly, as much as I love Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Sicario), he isn't given enough character development or motivation.  I simply don't understand why he makes the choices he makes in the movie.  Every other character is fleshed out and I understand why they are doing what they do.  So this makes the lack of motivation for Kaluuya really stand out.

Finally, the 3rd act final battle is a bit of a let down with way too much CGI.  It's just not as interesting as everything that came before it.


Verdict:

We have another winner from Marvel.  Black Panther takes a step back and tells a smaller, more personal story, and it's all the better for it.  Great action, great actions, and a phenomenal performance from Michael B. Jordan tells me that Black Panther has got it going on.


 8/10: Really Good




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