Black Panther, y’all. Holy wow. HOLY WOW.
Potential spoilers below the Read More, I am too hyped to manage censoring myself.
I saw Black Panther, and it was so, so great. It was smart, and funny, and the characters were relatable, and it was just so damn beautiful, the technology was amazing, oh my gods. There were so many great moments and the actors were amazing, and just…HOLY WOW.
I spent a lot of the film with my hands over my mouth, gasping in awe. It was shot so beautifully, the set design was gorgeous. Birnin Zana, the capital city of Wakanda, is an wonderful example of the kind of Afrofuturism that has been sorely missing from the broader science fiction tableau. All of Wakanda is a beautiful blend of traditional and modern and futuristic living. You get the sense that Wakanda has found the balance between using technology and living in harmony with the world around them, and its the ideal that I hope Western civilisation can work to emulate in real life.
T’Challa is awesome. Chadwick Boseman is such a fabulous actor, he brings such emotion and strength and grace to the character. T’Challa’s arc is intensely personal, and especially fraught because the events of Civil War happened in-universe a week before Black Panther starts. T’Challa is a strong leader who wants to both honour his father and be better than his father, to not make the same mistakes, and Chadwick Boseman does an amazing job of conveying the rawness of emotion and the conflict.
Shuri is just…fantastic. Letitia Wright does such an amazing job, I would love to see so much more of her in the next Black Panther, and hopefully in Infinity War. She’s a whole person who is a little sister and a technological genius, who is smart and funny and has her own aspirations and is just delightful, OK, she is amazing. Her tech is elegant and innovative, and her delight in creating new things and seeing them work (and knock her brother on his ass) is beautiful.
Nakia, General Okoye, and the rest of the Dora Milaje were fierce and badass and so great. They…I just can’t do words. I love them so much. SO MUCH. Angela Basset as Ramonda, Queen Mother of Wakanda, was so regal and beautiful and I wish we’d gotten more screen-time with her, honestly, because what we got was awesome. All of the cast in general was fantastic.
Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger had an interesting arc. Killmonger’s motivation had a ring of truth to it, and a foundation in reality that I think a lot of people will be able to empathise with. Michael B. Jordan did a fantastic job of bringing humanity to Killmonger’s villainy, and had the aura of charisma and menace that made him a credible threat to T’Challa even before the two met in person.
I’m not going to lie, the fact that I can count the number of named white characters on one hand and still have digits left over is pretty fucking fantastic. The fact that this film passes the Bechdel Test, when so many Marvel films don’t, is pretty fucking fantastic.
I think Black Panther has done to the Marvel Universe what Iron Man did all the way back in 2008: revitalised and innovated the genre. Ryan Coogler has done an absolutely wonderful job, and I can’t wait to see this film again. The initial cut of Black Panther was apparently four hours long, and I would have happily sat in a cinema that long to spend more time with these wonderful characters and this gorgeous world.
Wakanda forever!
