Review of Black Panther (2018) by Mrmoviebuff — 16 Feb 2018

I'm not going to praise 'Black Panther' for its diverse cast and social relevance (since that's not how movies should be reviewed), I'm giving it high praise because it was very well directed, solidly acted, strongly structured and entertaining.

This is how any comic book movie should be made, in fact, it's how most good or great comic book movies like; 'Spider-Man 2' (2004), 'The Dark Knight' (2008), 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (2014) and 'Logan' (2017) were made.

Under the direction of Ryan Coogler ('Fruitvale Station' and 'Creed'), this movie draws on deep themes, is filled with emotion, and has some of the most well-developed characters in the Marvel Universe.

This movie depends more on substance than it does on style. The movie takes place not long after the events of 'Captain America: Civil War' (2016) and we see T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) preparing to return to his home, Wakanda, after the civilians mourn the death of their former King, T'Chaka (John Kani), it is now T'Challa's place to take the throne and be the rightful king.

We get a very well detailed glimpse into the somewhat advanced world of Wakanda and the culture. Despite it being a fictional location, Coogler, along with his usual collaborators of production designers and cinematographers, make Wakanda feel real.

You feel like this is an actual location filled with people who have a belief system. Our main villain is Eric Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) who has an agenda against Wakanda, and what they do with the rarest metal on earth, the vibranium (same metal used for Black Panther's costume and Captain America's Shield).

He gets help from Klaue (Andy Serkis) to steal an artifact and travel to Wakanda and take what he thinks was stolen from him. 'Black Panther' is one of Marvel's best films alongside; 'Iron Man' (2008), 'The Avengers' (2012), 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (2014) and 'Captain America: Civil War' (2016).

Ryan Coogler does an impressive job to develop the Black Panther's story well and show his arc and what he learns. Boseman once again, proves he is this character, and shares some terrific chemistry with Lupita Nyong'o and Letitla Wright who play his love interest and sister respectively.

Also, a lot of the supporting cast do a fantastic job at contributing to the movie. Not one of them feel as if they were wasted. Some of the final battle scenes do suffer from an overabundance of CGI which does make the film - or those scenes in particular - feel incomplete and animated.

But, the engaging story and emotionally investing characters are enough to make this worth the Marvel formula. Also, thankfully, the humor is kept extremely minimal. It's not one-joke-a-minute like 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.

2' (2017), where when a dramatic moment happens, it's cut off by comedy. Here, Ryan Coogler allows all of the emotional and deep moments to sink in and stick with you. Also, Killmonger is one of the best MCU villains since Obidiah Stane and Loki, simply because he has an agenda, and there is a good amount of screen-time devoted to developing his character and his reasons for what he does.

Coogler has made one of the most interesting entries in the MCU, and right now, 'Avengers: Infinity War' (2018) is even more exciting than ever.