Black Panther was great. The world needs more Michael B. Jordan in the MCU. I really hope they bring him back which would cheapen the impact of his death but enrich all of our lives.
I've been reconsidering this. Black Panther was... fine. I would liken it to the original Iron Man. Overall, it has one really amazing thing going for it, but overall, it's good, not great. The first half of Iron Man is excellent. Ignoring the fact that Tony probably should have just created some kind of radio transponder instead of a weaponized power suit, the scenes in the cave are among my favorites in the entire MCU. Jeff Bridges carries the second half, just not enough to hold the candle to the first half. In Black Panther, just about everything Killmonger did was awesome. I give Iron Man a little more leeway because it kicked off the entire shared universe. Black Panther had nearly a decade's worth of said shared universe to learn from to be better, and it just wasn't.
Like Wonder Woman, it's important to acknowledge Black Panther's cultural significance. Ignoring Meteor Man, Spawn was the first black superhero movie (though Michael Jai White spends most of it in bad burn makeup after Simmons returns from actual hell). Blade was the first decent black superhero movie. There's like 20 years of nothing (yeah, yeah, Blade's bad sequels) then Black Panther. Inclusion is important.
Michael B. Jordan's performance and overall screen presence aside, Black Panther is as by-the-numbers as comic book movies can be. The plot is the tried and true Marvel Formula which has been showing its age for a couples years now, and is hard to defend in 2018. As part of a shared universe, I suppose the verdict is out on whether it changes the MCU in a meaningful way like how Captain America: The Winter Solider basically said, "Well, **** SHIELD! Hail Hydra!" The action scenes didn't bring anything particularly new to the table either. The last time I felt this way about a Marvel movie was Dr. Strange... until the last 20 minutes.
In Black Panther, Ryan Coogler wasted the rematch on a bad CGI fight. Come on, man. It's even more of a letdown because T'Challa and Killmonger's first fight is excellent. The only thing that strikes me as truly unique about the movie is that Killmonger is kind of right. That's part of the reason he's among the bvest rogues in the MCU. Killmonger is undoubtedly the main antagonist, but T'Challa and Wakanda in general are the villains if that makes sense. I wish that was explored more. That plot thread just resolves itself in about half an hour of screen time.
I don't mean to **** all over the movie. The performances range from good to amazing. The art direction is so good. Wakanda is undeniably cool. Black Panther isn't remotely close to being objectively bad; it just isn't great especially next to so many great movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The comparison may be unfair depending on how you look at it.
Ultimately, I'm excited for Avengers: Infinity War. I'll watch Ant-Man and The Wasp though I'm not hyped yet. Captain Marvel is still the Phase 3 movie I'm looking forward to most (she's supposedly Marvel's Superman so I'm in). However, Black Panther raises some red flags for the future of the MCU. Marvel kept raising the bar that when it doesn't continue the trend, I'm actually disappointed.
Topic: IT'S MAHVEL BAYBEE!! [OT] for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Movies & TV) (Read 1170113 times)
