3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

2022, Ryan Coogler (Creed) -- Disney+ 

Just watched it, and in that disarray of thoughts stage. Phase Four of the MCU is a weird one, but not to be unexpected, as its all coming "out" of The Pause (we truly aren't out, but we are all in that big pretending mindset, like we are Back to Normal, which we aren't), which meant that most of this material was / is being produced during the height of it all. Much of the material for cinematic release seems like pushes to remind the public that the MCU is still around. Nothing is ground breaking, most is sequel-ish, and very little feels... fully invested. Its like they have intellectual property that they have to do something with, or they would lose it. The TV stuff has been more successful, from a creative standpoint, than the cinematic releases, which all feels like... filler... to me.

Now to this movie specifically, they were already crippled by the tragedy that was Chadwick Boseman's unexpected death. Unexpected by us, the public, but I am sure he and the Marvel team knew for a very very long time. Cancer is not a villain that even the Avengers can always defeat. How could they go on? How could they do a "sequel" if their main character actor is gone? Replace him? No, too disrespectful, but in Marvel comic tradition, you can just have someone assume the mantle. This entire movie could have been about that, been a small movie about tragedy and legacy and grief, but instead... they went typically bombastic, BIG ! Unnecessarily big ?

The movie does some nice MCU filler work. A year after Shuri (Letitia Wright, Black Mirror) fails to save her brother T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman, Gods of Egypt) from illness (cancer? purple flower withdrawal?) Wakanda is a now known world power, and still the only country with a source of vibranium, and that pisses off other governments. They aren't handling it well, and make mistakes, assuming T'Challa's death would destabilize Wakanda. They are wrong.

But one of the other countries actions awakens a previously unknown world power -- Atlantis. OK OK, I know the MCU wants to have the underwater kingdom establish its own identity, wrapped up in meso-American mythos, calling it Talokan and calling him K'uk'kulkan (each syllable strongly pronounced) and making it all a rather recently built nation, but I call a merman a merman, and an underwater kingdom, Atlantis. At least his personal name is Namor and he has little feet wings! Tee hee! Anywayz, they have their own source of vibranium, and when the US encroaches on their territory, they strike back harshly. Oh well, at least Lake Bell (Surface) got a bit part.

But Talokan also mixes Wakanda into their actions, basically extorting allyship through threats of attack. Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett, Strange Days) does not respond well to extortion. Shuri, still suffering her grief stricken guilt at not saving her brother, needs distraction and takes actions against Talokan, which essentially leads to her being kidnapped by their Asgardian power level blue skinned warriors, where she (and we) learns their somewhat sympathetic 400 year old history.  And infuriates Ramonda into response.

Meanwhile, the US represented by Agent Ross (Martin Freeman, Cargo), has no fucking clue what is going on and wants to blame Wakanda for all these nasty superpowered hijinx, likely just an excuse to take action to secure vibranium. Cross-over character Director de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep), seen before in a few Marvel TV shows, a secretive, deceptive CIA Director and Ross's ex-wife, continues to manipulate things, hinting through a megaphone how critical she will be in Phase Five. But the US, and the rest of the world, are incidental to this movie.

Ramonda's actions to get back her daughter enrage Namor (Tenoch Huerta, Tigers Are Not Afraid) and he attacks Wakanda with his whales and his water bombs. Beyond being physically more powerful than Wakandan humans, I don't understand why they are considered so undefeatable. If Wakanda was supposed to be such a world power as to make the US quake in its Avenger ** boots, surely they can defend themselves against a few hundred fish folk. I mean, Wakanda fought against the alien armies of Thanos. But it takes Shuri's genius and a bit of subterfuge to bring Namor down, forcing him to yield. And with this humbling, comes understanding.

** The last few movies have had me wondering, "But why haven't the Avengers taken part in any of these world changing actions?" And then I remember: Captain America OG is gone and his new one is learning the ropes, Iron Man and Black Widow are dead, Thor is off dealing with the destruction of his world and people, Spider-Man is dealing with his own messes, Wanda is a villain, Hawkeye is dealing with PTSD and basically retired, and Hulk is ... well, back to being a scientist? Not a lot of Avenger-ish superheroes to help deal with the world. And SHIELD remains disbanded, I guess?

Like Kent mentioned, this movie took its time for Shuri to be the new Black Panther, with a small subplot of her recreating the Purple Flower which Killmonger had destroyed, so as to properly juice up and don the suit. But it never feels truly invested in that mantle, never fully focused on the idea. The Wakandan idea is that the Black Panther leads the people, so King and Protector? But I truly believed the country would have been served better with Ramonda as Queen, Shuri as Chief Thinker, and Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o, Little Monsters) wearing the Black Panther armour, instead of her weird, blue, almost The Shape of Water fish-suit, armour.

In the end, we get an exciting, adventurous movie with great CGI spectacles (albeit, more than a bit of rubber balling) and massive set pieces. But the story itself is lacking and the execution is piece meal at the best. Too much is trying to happen, with not really much of anything really happening.