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

Picture an imagined realm of magic and majesty, a prince who is to inherit the throne, a flawed Father/King who is revealed to have have wronged a family member who becomes the central opponent. This is not Asgard, the prince is not Thor, the King is not Odin and the wronged family member is not Loki. Aside from a retread origin story, I also had issues with the tempo of the film. There are long spots where the plot drags and the dialogue seems to repeat itself and declare the obvious. Anyone paying attention would be able to keep up with the fairly simple premise and yet we keep getting exposition like the director doesn't trust the viewers to follow along. But my biggest complaint is the Disney Parks & Resorts TM version of Africa that we are presented with. This fictional Wakanda may as well be Austria with snow capped mountains. Animal Kingdom, Fort Wilderness, and Epcot must have been inspirations for the visual design and while it is gorgeous at times, it is not at all authentic. This is the Africa that many of us WISH was real; an Africa of wealth and technology, not war lords, slavery, disease and famine. The movie suggests that if Africa only had a natural resource like oil, over the centuries it would have had a different trajectory and would stand shoulder to shoulder with first world countries. This grossly simplifies and extremely complicated region of the world. I know missionaries and peace corps personnel who have described in detail the challenges that Africa faces and they are not something you can just throw money at for mosquito netting.

Black Panther offers an amazing vision of an advanced city and culture where tech and magic coexist and the people of different tribes live in peace and harmony, (until they don't).

This is the Disney view of Africa, it is shiny and clean and hopeful and a lie that has nothing at all to do with the documentary on rhino, lion and elephant poaching on Netflix I watched a few nights before.