Black Panther: A Review

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Black Panther: A Review
By Jenna (.:Bibliophile:.)

This article will contain spoilers:

On February 16th 2017, Marvel’s Black Panther movie premiered in theaters. The movie has generated quite a bit of buzz and plenty of people are saying that it is one of the best Marvel movies to date. While I can see why so many people liked the movie I do not feel that it was the best Marvel movie that I have seen.

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The movie centers on T’challa who is from the African city of Wakanda. He is dealing with the death of his father, as well as with the fact that he will be king now that his father has passed away. Wakanda is a very technologically advanced city but the rest of the world is not aware of this since they view Wakanda as nothing more than a small African town. The story goes on to detail T’challa’s struggles with being king and also details how he is able to be the superhero known as Black Panther.

One of the things I did not like about Black Panther was that it was quite slow. There was a period during the movie where it didn’t seem like too much was going on and I felt myself losing interest. The reason I enjoy Marvel movies is because they are fast paced and it’s rare that I end up bored while watching them. The only other Marvel movie I recall being bored while watching was the first Captain America movie. I also didn’t really feel that Black Panther came off as a superhero movie because it had slower pacing than the majority of the other Marvel movies that I have seen and it didn’t seem like it had a lot of fighting scenes. I know that some of the reason for this is because it was an origin story and so we were being given the basics of how Black Panther came to be. However, there have been other Marvel movies that were origin stories and still depicted a superhero movie full of action and adventure with only a few slow parts. I have heard a few friends who don’t tend to like Marvel or DC movies admit they liked Black Panther because it did not come off as a superhero movie. It seems to me that if you are someone who doesn’t typically like superhero movies you might end up enjoying this movie.

I know that reviewers are also trying to compare Michael B. Jordan’s performance as the villain in Black Panther to Heath Ledger’s performance as the villain in the Dark Knight. I do not agree with this assessment because I did not feel as though Michael B. Jordan’s character was as developed as Heath Ledger’s character. I think that the people who wrote Michael B. Jordan’s character didn’t do enough to bring him to life. I do think Michael B. Jordan did a great job with the character but due to him not being fleshed out enough and being missing from the movie for a long period it doesn’t seem like anyone can accurately compare Heath Ledger and Michael B. Jordan’s performance. I think that if Michael B. Jordan had been given more to work with he might have been comparable to Heath Ledger’s performance in the Dark Knight. He is definitely a talented actor who could end up going far with his career. It is possible that I am the only one who feels like Michael B. Jordan was not given the best material to work with. I know there were one or two scenes that I was watching and waiting for something more to happen but the writing fell flat, which led to the character also falling flat. For example, there was one particular scene where Killmonger who is portrayed by Michael B. Jordan was having a vision where he was discussing things with his dead father. The acting in that scene was absolutely phenomenal. I felt all the emotions that Killmonger was feeling and I was enjoying the moments he got to spend with his father. The scene ended in such an abrupt manner that it felt like the entire moment had been ruined. There were a few other moments like that as well. They were moments where the writers didn’t take time to expand on the character or they didn’t write the scene to fully bring out the acting. I was definitely let down by this because of how much potential I saw in Michael B. Jordan’s portrayal as Killmonger.

Even though I did not think this movie was the best Marvel movie there were plenty of things that I did like.

It did seem like the people that worked on this movie did research on African culture and they included some bits of that. I thought it was great how the creators highlighted that even different groups in Africa have different beliefs and cultures. Some of the groups that were portrayed in the movie were more of a patriarchal society and some seemed as though they could have been a bit more matriarchal because there were women who were leading. T’challa seemed to come from a society where women and men worked equally beside one another. He had a group of women who were considered his protectors and they would perform a lot of different roles for the city of Wakanda. There was a general by the name of Okoye, who was played by Danai Gurira, with whom he consulted and seemed to trust quite a bit. It seemed that the women in this movie were not created or used as ‘eye candy’ either. They seemed to have a part to play and they were all quite strong characters. There was definitely a character who was developed to play T’challa’s love interest but it did not seem like that was her only role in the movie. It is rare for Marvel to include a female character whose sole purpose is not to play the love interest or be ‘eye candy’. The females not being used as eye candy is probably one of the things that will lead to me continuing to watch the Black Panther sequel. I also hope Marvel will continue giving female characters better leads. It also seemed as though the people who worked on the production of the movie designed outfits that were meant to portray different African cultures. The outfits seemed pretty authentic.

I also enjoyed that the movie touched a bit on colonization and the impact it had on people of color. I think addressing the impact colonization had on these groups was something that doesn’t tend to get addressed a ton so it was surprising to see in this movie.

I think the thing I liked most about this movie is that the entire cast was people of color with a few minor characters who were not. The reason I did appreciate this is because I think that representation is important and it is great to see them get representation in the media. There are times when there is a character who is not white but in a lot of instances that character does not have a huge role. I know that there are a lot of people who are acknowledging how important this movie was to them because of that. I hope that this movie will lead to other movies being produced that have a cast that is made up entirely of people of color.

This movie also had a lot of the same humor that other Marvel movies had and I always tend to enjoy the humorous aspects they include.
While I may not have enjoyed Black Panther to the extent that a lot of other people did, I do think it was a great installment to Marvel Cinematic Universe and I look forward to seeing more of the characters that were introduced in that movie. I also think that there were a lot of important aspects to the movie and I am happy that they decided to produce it.

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