I was quite surprised by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but not necessarily in ways I thought I would be, some good, some bad, but at the very least, it’s interesting. First off, I’ll just start off by saying the movie is pretty good! It’s not on the same level as the first film, though moments in this do reach those heights – I’ll get more into that in a bit. But I also want to mention that this being even barely watchable considering the circumstances that Ryan Coogler found himself in, is nothing short of miraculous, and really speaks to his talents as a storyteller and director, though having the resources of a multi-billion dollar company to support you probably helps.
I finally got around to seeing the film yesterday, after not being able to do so on opening night. I am somewhat curious if the lack of that enthusiastic opening night crowd affected my viewing experience in any way. It was a fairly quiet Wednesday afternoon matinee, a handful of people, and I was sitting in the far back corner. I thought I was prepared for whatever the film was going to throw at me, but it turns out, I wasn’t really. At least, not to the extent that I usually am when it comes to these kinds of movies.
The first thing that surprised me was how little the movie itself felt like an extended tribute to Chadwick Boseman. Yes, that theme does bookend the film, and there are a handful of conversations scattered in the film that get into the loss of T’Challa (though, I am surprised by how little The Blip is mentioned). It doesn’t come up as much as you might think. It does clearly weigh heavy on a couple characters, particularly Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and Shuri (Letitia Wright), and is reflected as such in their performance, but everything outside of that doesn’t feel all that different from how some of these MCU movies talked about Tony Stark’s passing.
A lot of this weirdly plotty story is actually typical superhero business, or rather typical MCU business. There’s a machine used by Americans made to detect vibranium in the ocean, and the site is attacked by a mysterious group of people. Naturally, Wakanda is seen as the source of this attack. However, it turns out to be water based warriors led by their King who goes by K’uk’ulkan, otherwise known as Namor (Tenoch Huerta). He gives Ramonda an ultimatum, to find the scientist responsible for designing the vibranium detecting machine and deliver them to him, or risk an attack from his army, who are also armed with vibranium. That scientist turns out to be a young tech student, Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne).
That’s basically just the jumping off point for the plot really, and there is a lot more going on, including a whole search for Riri led by Shuri and Okoye (Danai Gurira), we have to then learn about her (unfortunately, Riri gets the America Chavez in Doctor Strange treatment to where she’s basically a walking McGuffin), a rescue mission led by Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), then we get into Namor’s whole backstop and a look into his kingdom, and for some reason, we also check up on CIA Agent Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and his ex-wife/current CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) every now and then. Then there’s all the big spectacle and action that you want from a movie like this on top of all that. It’s no wonder this got itself to a runtime of two hours and 40 minutes.
And it’s clear that this came after trimming as much as they possibly could. While you can definitely feel Ryan Coogler’s touches, this doesn’t feel like his other films. It’s missing his patience. He isn’t afraid to linger in moments, about sitting with the characters for a while. This film is not patient at all, except for maybe one or two scenes, it is eager to move from one moment to the next. It is filled with so many harsh cuts that felt like they were trying to shave as many seconds from each scene as possible. It’s not really a rushed film, but it does feel jam packed with stuff, even things that don’t seem necessary at all.
Like, for example, all the stuff with Agent Ross. I have no clue why he’s in this film. What little he contributes to the plot could easily be rewritten to be more efficient without him. I’m assuming that all his scenes are set up for a future MCU project, given how it concludes. But again, a quick rewrite could not only make the film more efficient, whatever project his story was setting up could very easily summarize his journey without the need of showing it to us in the manner that it did. Also, there’s a weird bit of casting here where Lake Bell shows up as an official on the site that gets attacked by Namor in the beginning. I legitimately cannot remember if she dies or not, and what I remember from the scene does not make it clear. Which is a weird choice, considering she doesn’t show up for the rest of the film. If she was just stunt casting, I feel the death would be more obvious, right? But whatever, I’ll consider that a nitpick.
Thankfully, there’s a good chunk of this film that works like gangbusters. Namor. Anything involving Namor is fantastic. Not only is it a really cool reimagining of the character, Huerta kills it, and his origin story sequence is easily among my favorite moments in the MCU. It also feels like his material has been mostly untouched following the changes made to the script after Boseman’s passing. It’s the most cohesive element of the film, they move more smoothly. I like that, similar to Killmonger, you have a solid understanding of his motivations, and in some respects, sympathize with him, despite his antagonistic methods. It all just comes together so well while almost everything else feels like it’s being held together by duct tape and some strong, charismatic performances. I am legitimately excited to see more Namor in future MCU movies.
On a technical level, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is fairly well assembled outside of the issues I’ve previously brought up. Specifically, the cinematography from Autumn Durald Arkapaw and the score from Ludwig Göransson, the both of which are doing some serious heavy lifting. I know a lot of this probably sounds like complaints and backhanded compliments, but the things that do work in the film work really well, and the emotional beats do land, I was deeply moved quite often. And for me, they do overcome most of the issues. Not that grading movies on a curb should be a common habit, but given how much of an international phenomenon the first film was, trying to follow that up under pandemic restrictions, delays, the passing of Chadwick Boseman, and all the necessities in the “grand Marvel plan,” that’s not the kind of pressure I would wish on my worst enemy. That pressure is felt in the film, but it almost makes it feel all the more human when you do start seeing the seams as opposed to just another corporate product. I like that it builds on Killmonger’s philosophy, exploring the lengths a people can – and maybe should – take to avoid being exploited. Coogler is still aiming for big ambitions, big ideas, and big themes on the giant canvas that he’s been granted when he could easily phone it in. I think he’s earned a well deserved rest.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now out in theaters.