Review of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) by Dw98 — 11 Nov 2022

I won’t simply dismiss this movie because of “woke” **** Actual history isn’t woke people. Where this movie falls short is much more disappointing.

To start, the stakes are incredibly low. It’s hard to become invested in a story and the idea of Namor as a villain when there are no consequences whatsoever. Everyone knew Wakanda wasn’t going to fall, or that no notable characters were going to die, or suffer any tragedy that could be used as character development. This saps the life out of the movie, and makes it seem pointless.

My second gripe is Namor himself. The writing really fails to cement him as a true villain. Somewhere in the underwater scene his motivations suddenly shift from “I just want to protect my people”, to “I want to watch the world burn”, with no real catalyst. This relegates IronHeart’s purpose in the movie to another half-baked character in a suit of armor with no real purpose. This also makes Namor’s subtle amicability seem laughable. You want to watch the whole world burn, but you’ll half heartedly kill the queen, and be so cordial as to give the resourceful Wakandans a week to reconsider, and then throw your motivations in the trash simply by getting bested in combat? Seems like his heart was never in it to begin with. The third area this movie falls short in is the combat. The choreography here is desperately lacking, and the constant camera cuts are dizzying, and seemingly wants viewers to fill in the gaps on what’s happening between cuts. The side boss given to Okoye is insipid and unimposing as well. Marvel seems to be heavily regressing in the action department instead of upping the ante . It doesn’t even surpass the original Black Panther, nor does it even crack the top 10 in terms of action. Other gripes:

- cliche “revenge isn’t the answer,” storyline straight from The Last of Us Part 2.

-Power scaling is all over the place and further diminishes The Hulk. Ok, Namor is as strong as The Hulk, but buddy from the mountains took a punch from him and was better within a day.