Black Panther review- by Chris Stuckmann

Full text transcript of Black Panther  review

Black Panther was directed by Ryan Coogler and stars Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan and an amazing cast of characters and tells the story of Takala played by Boseman, who’s about to be crowned king of Wakanda, a secret city in the middle of Africa that’s completely shielded, that’s thriving, and yet no one knows about his existence and what at first seemed like a responsibility he could easily step into. He eventually learns there’s a lot of hardships with being a king of this nation and a lot of problems arise when his kingship is challenged by kill. I was excited for a Black Panther for a lot of reasons, but specifically because Coogler directed it. I really liked Fruitvale Station and I thought Creed was one of the best films of the past few years for a seventh film in a franchise to be that good. And the fact that Ryan Coogler is basically my age is hugely inspirational to young filmmakers out there. It’s so cool that someone who is my age has already done what he’s done in Hollywood. His future is so bright and he proves that he is once again a very good director with this film. He’s three for three now. Black Panther is a really good time. I had a blast with it. However, I do not think it is a flawless film. And we’re going to talk about some of the issues I have with the movie.

That being said, there’s a lot of praise and I’m very excited about the fact that this film did not just make another superhero movie. Marvel didn’t just take this material and say, OK, we’re going to make a movie where some people fight and stuff blows up. There’s a message behind this film and one that’s very relevant. The best Marvel movies thus far have all been like that. For instance, Winter Soldier is not just about Captain America fighting the Winter Soldier. It’s about war. It’s about the differences between freedom and fear and what the implications of that could mean for humankind, which is one of the reasons Black Panther stands out as special, because this is also not a movie about characters just fighting. It’s a film that has very relevant social commentary. Sure, there’s a lot of action sequences and stuff goes boom, and there’s cool costumes and gadgets. But I also don’t like when a film preaches to me. I don’t want to go to a movie and necessarily be taught a lesson that the film assumes I didn’t already know, which is why I was so relieved to find out that this film’s commentary relies on the characters in it. Looking inside themselves, the characters in this film are really thinking about their viewpoints and what was wrong about their lives or their nation before to Cholla took the crown because almost all of technology development relies on him realizing the sins of the previous generation and how he can make them better.

It’s not just about walking into this perfect nation where his kingship is unchallenged and everything’s thriving and amazing. It’s actually about how damaging his previous generation was and all of the problems that came from that. This is not something I expected. And by far my favorite aspect of this movie is how these characters eventually get to the point where they are looking at themselves and trying to figure out how they can make their lives and their friendships and the world better as a result. And a lot of that has to do with this film’s villain. It’s one of the reasons why Michael B. Jordan’s character Kill Mongar is so damn good because his appearance in this universe is what starts this needed change for this nation. And although he’s a villain and he’s doing things like killing innocent people, and you look at him and you think, no, I don’t agree with that, you can almost side with kill mongers beliefs because you understand where he’s coming from. He’s someone who wasn’t raised in this protected, shielded environment. That is Wauconda. He was raised in the United States. He dealt with all of these problems as a youth and now as an adult. He’s standing there like, hey, you guys have all of this technology.

Why aren’t you sharing? Why aren’t you helping everyone else? And these characters have to stand back and think about that. And that’s one of the reasons why Kill Mongar is such a great villain beyond the fact that Michael B. Jordan gives a charismatic performance. That’s one of my favorite Marvel villains thus far and the best since Loki. The reason his villain is so good is because just like all great movie villains, their appearance in the film is what causes the heroes to look within themselves and realize their weaknesses. The worst villains in films are the ones that are just the evil guys, and you got to stop them because they’re going to blow up the world. Kill Mongar is not like that. He’s the type of person who comes on the scene. And it’s like I have these beliefs and I hope you all understand that they’re totally relevant. I might be kind of evil and I might be killing innocent people, but listen to what I have to say. And they do. And it’s one of the reasons why Kill Mongar is such a great villain. So beyond the thematic issues that are prevalent in Black Panther, I also like a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. KUEBLER Once again, unless the same composer from Creed who makes a fantastic score, I loved in particular the percussion, the color in this movie is vibrant.

Everyone in the city of. A condo has amazing costumes. It’s a gorgeously shot movie, it looks incredible and wants to Charla’s starts to look within himself and realize the change that has to happen. I thought Bowsman did a really great job leading up and so that he’s a very kingly presence. He purposefully does not have a lot of charisma necessarily, although he is really great in this role. The character of Tuscola is one of the most intelligent in the Marvel universe and he carries himself that way. He’s not an asshole. He’s not some cocky, annoying guy like, say, Dr. Strange or Tony Stark. He’s an extremely intelligent person and that can make some of those earlier scenes with him feel a little bit dull because you’re waiting for him to realize some things, because from the very beginning of the movie, you recognize that eventually some development is going to occur within this world. And once it starts to occur, the film becomes very interesting. Leading up until that development, though, the film does feel unfortunately a little bit like your normal superhero movie, which was something that was a disappointment for me. Yeah, I do have some flaws with Black Panther and we’re going to get into some of those now. This film is surrounded by an almost impenetrable hype to the point where people who say anything negative about the movie, it’s almost like a crime.

The very few rotten reviews that are on Rotten Tomatoes ended up trending on Twitter, which is just crazy. But I’m someone who reviews movies and naturally, I’m going to try to do my best to be realistic about that. This film has issues. It felt like instead of hitting us right off the bat with some of the deeper issues in the film, they made a normal superhero movie for a while to get everyone else sort of into it, which was disappointing. I wanted this type of stuff from the beginning. Yes, the opening scene is awesome and from the beginning I was pretty riveted. But then it becomes a Marvel movie for a while. There’s a chase scene involving SUVs. That’s well done enough, but it just sort of feels inconsequential. There’s a lot of action scenes that are a little bit too dark and not quite as fluid as I was expecting from a director who made one of my favorite fight scenes in recent years and creed that one take boxing match. But there is a point in this movie where the film absolutely changes and becomes a much more interesting film. And it’s right around when Kyle Mongar rears its head once again towards the middle. Also, that was a disappointment I had. He shows up in the beginning in a really cool scene, and I was instantly hooked with his character and then he’s gone.

I mean, I’ve only seen it once, but I would say he was gone for maybe 50 minutes to an hour almost. And I was like, where the hell did he go when he shows up? I was almost like, oh, I forgot he was in the film. I loved his villain so much. This movie needed a lot more of it. There were also some CG elements that looked unfinished. There’s a shot early on when Takala is about to receive his crown and he looks up at a cliffside that is filled with people of various tribes of Wauconda, and they almost look like copy and pasted elements that were just put on the frame. It looked unfinished. And if it was just that one shot, I would have been like, OK, whatever. But they show this cliff side many more times. And each time I kept thinking, that doesn’t look real. There’s a climactic fight towards the end that begins with a shot that look like it was right out of Spider-Man three with the two characters falling down, tumbling over each other in the sky. And then they fight in a very dark, cavernous area and they have very dark suits on. And it was hard to see what was going on. And it looked like a lot of CG. This was a major disappointment of a final fight for me.

A lot of people will probably be fine with it. But pushing that aside, what’s really honestly amazing about this film is that looking back on it, I am not thinking about the action like I do with some Marvel movies and not thinking about all of those cool, epic moments. I’m thinking about the things that shaped these characters into who they become, the things that affected them, the aspects of their life that caused them to have the beliefs they have. So I have to commend Black Panther because it stands out as a superhero film where I’m not thinking the most about all of the superhero stuff. I’m thinking about the characters. I’m going to give Black Panther A B plus I’m buying the Blu ray. I’m going to see the movie again in theaters. But it’s not a film without flaws. And I think it’s important that we are able to discuss those flaws without fearing repercussions, because the hype, as I said, surrounding this movie is impenetrable. It’s almost like it’s wrong to say anything bad about it. But in the end, it is a movie made by people and it’s got a few issues. But I really enjoyed myself and I think most people will. Guys, thank you so much, as always, for watching. And if you like this, you can click right here and get stuck magnetised.