The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C
I seemingly wrote the world’s only negative review of the first Black Panther back in 2018 and I’ve suspected that that review is one of the main reasons why my applications to monetize my website have been denied. Well, I’m still not making any money off of this, so I might as well double down on it: Black Panther sucks. Given that unpopular opinion, I expected the worst from this sequel and I’m happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised. While I think that the first movie is hot garbage, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever merely embodies Marvel’s current policy of making everything as bland and forgettable as possible. That’s quite a step up, really.
Due to the sudden death of star Chadwick Boseman, the film opens with the death and funeral of Black Panther. Somewhat surprisingly, his death plays very little role in the film’s plot and is dealt with entirely in the pre-title sequence. While Wakanda is grieving, we are introduced to our new villain, Namor, who is king of an underwater society that, like Wakanda, also wields the power of vibranium. Namor seeks Wakanda’s help in locating a scientist that has created a device that will allow other nations to locate vibranium supplies, thus leading them to Namor’s kingdom. Wakanda and Namor don’t get along, eventually (and I mean “eventually,” this movie is painfully long) to a battle between the kingdoms and the emergence of a new Black Panther. In case you’re wondering, yes, the new Black Panther is exactly who you think it will be. No, not Martin Freeman; the second most obvious person.
For a film with a painfully obvious plot, the biggest issue with Wakanda Forever is the unmerciful running time of 2 hours and 41 minutes. That’s a lot of time to not do anything new or remotely interesting and I started to interpret the title as a threat. This is another McGuffin-based plot and, just like in the most recent Dr. Strange, the McGuffin is a young woman with a special ability. This time it’s a college student that is apparently the world’s greatest engineer and designed the vibranium-finding machine as a class project (considering that Mr. Fantastic designed a fucking teleportation device for a high school science fair and nobody was even impressed, I guess this is relatively low on the bullshit meter). Meanwhile, without Black Panther we are left with his sister, Shuri, as she struggles with her brother’s legacy and must choose if she will follow the way of the jedi or the sith….sorry, she must decide if she will follow in the path of Black Panther or his nemesis Killmonger. The suspense was killing me.
Although this entry doesn’t copy any single film as blatantly as the first Black Panther ripped off The Dark Knight Rises, it does often bear a striking resemblance to Aquaman in terms of effects, settings and character motivations. Namor is a rare case where a Marvel character predates their DC counterpart, having premiered in Marvel Comics #1 in 1939, published by Timely Comics, the predecessor of what would become Marvel Comics decades later (Aquaman made his comics debut in 1941). However, his mistrust of the surface world and railing against colonialism is highly reminiscent of Ocean Master in the Aquaman film and also of Killmonger’s arc in the first Black Panther, meaning that there is absolutely nothing new here in terms of character or aquatic effects. If there is a third Black Panther movie, and the box office receipts indicate that there will be, then I hope the writers can finally come up with a villain that isn’t just an embodiment of white colonialism. I get it. We all get it. For the love of god, do something else.
The performances are pretty strong, though, and stronger than warranted by the material. Tenoch Huerta Mejía take on Namor is sophisticated, threatening and calculating and probably would have been an effective villain if he was allowed to do anything new. Similarly, the principles of the Wakanda cast (Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o and Angela Bassett) also treat this with the seriousness of a Shakespearian drama and really do try to elevate the generic material to another level. They don’t succeed, but the effort is appreciated. Martin Freeman is also back for some reason and has very little impact on the narrative, as if there was a contractual obligation to have his character return regardless of if he has anything to do. His boss and Director of the FBI is played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who has made small appearances in a couple of Marvel movies now and I get the impression that she will be the Marvel equivalent of Amanda Waller and assemble the Marvel equivalent of the Suicide Squad. Is that where we’re going with this?
I’m honestly at the point where I dread the release of new Marvel movies because it is frigging impossible to come up with things to say about these movies at this point. There are only so many ways to say “meh.” So this is fine. It will kill way too much time, you won’t be too engaged with it and then you will forget about it. Modern filmmaking, everyone. Yay.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther%3A_Wakanda_Forever#/media/File:Black_Panther_Wakanda_Forever_poster.jpg
