Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) Review

 "You bald-headed demon."

-M'Baku 

After the death of King T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), the kingdom of Wakanda struggles through the grieving process and with their international relations.  To make things more complicated, another hidden nation makes itself known, and they also have a seemingly unlimited source of vibranium.  And to them, everyone is either an ally, or an enemy.

I'll be getting into spoilers below, just a heads up.

What Sucks:

I'll start with what sucks because there is a major reason I wasn't able to fully get into this movie.  I have zero patience for anti-vaxxers.  I was incredibly disappointed when I found out Letitia Wright was one, as I loved her in the first Black Panthers.  I though Shuri would be the perfect character to become the new Black Panther after the death of Chadwick Boseman.  When I found about her stance on vaccines, I changed my mind.  I don't want anti-vaxxers getting rewarded.  So while watching this movie, I was hoping that anyone besides Shuri would become the new Black Panther.  That was no to be.  It was a major bummer because there were plenty of opportunities to either kill Shuri off or simply let someone else step into the Black Panther role.  Instead, she is the main protagonist of the movie.  I understand the filmmakers were in a tough position and it makes narrative sense, but they could have made it work with someone else.  It just made it hard for me to enjoy the movie as I realized Shuri was the lead.  I just couldn't bring myself to root for her.  If you can separate the actor from the character like that, good for you, but I usually can't.

This movie is also way too long and was overstuffed with storylines and characters.  Riri (Dominique Thorne) and Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) really didn't add anything to the film.  Both of their storylines could have been cut completely.  They were just there to set up for future MCU media and it was obvious.

At 161 minutes, you can really feel the runtime of this movie.  The above characters should have been cut, but I also think the structure of the movie could have changed.  The final battle at sea didn't do much for me, but I did really enjoy Namor's (Tenoch Huerta) water assault on the streets of Wakanda.  That was a fun sequence that should have been the final battle.  Have that sequence go on for longer and have the characters have to come together to survive and fight back.  I think that would have been more exciting and trimmed the narrative down to a much more manageable runtime.

Finally, I wish we had spent more time developing Namor and the citizens of his kingdom.  Namor gets some development, but none of the rest of his people do.  It would have made the stakes of the war feel higher.  Namor is the villain of this movie, when I think he would have worked better as an opposing antagonist who simply wanted to protect his kingdom.  They had pieces of that, but not enough.

What Works:

As I mentioned, I really liked the attack on Wakanda.  Water stunts can be tough and I enjoyed the sequences of the streets being flooded.  

There are a lot of really good supporting characters that return from the first Black Panther.  Okoye (Danai Gurira), M'Baku (Winston Duke), and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) are all awesome and each of them have memorable moments.  I wish they gotten more however.  I would have been very okay with either Okoye or M'Baku becoming the new Black Panther.

Angela Bassett does a great job as Queen Ramonda.  She gives a really badass performance in her speeches at the United Nations and in her throne room.  She gives my favorite performance of the movie for sure.  Hell, I would have been very okay with her becoming the new Black Panther.  That would have kicked a ton of ass.

The music is pretty spectacular.  I especially liked the synth music they used for Shuri's theme.

Finally, the opening of the movie is T'Challa's death and funeral.  It hit hard and I definitely felt the tears welling up.  Watching these characters and actors mourn made it really sink in that Chadwick Boseman and T'Challa are gone.  It's a beutiful tribute and a powerful way to start the movie.

Verdict:

There are some strong perfromances in Wakanda Forever, one really solid action sequence, good music, and a well done tribute to a talented actor the world lost far too soon.  However, I really wish someone besides Shuri had been the main character.  Plus the movie is very bloated and has antagonists that are underdeveloped.  I wanted to like this movie a lot more than I did.  It's fine, but definitely lower tier Marvel.

 6/10: Okay