Black Panther Review: Reviewing Every Marvel Movie #39/76:
A solid film with good characters, a well-structured plot, and awesome worldbuilding. Despite all the cool action sequences, this film is about the politics of how Wakanda should interact with the world. The first half of the film is a cautionary tale about what could happen if Wakanda exposes itself to the world and the second half is the reality of what happens when Wakanda sits back and does nothing, with each anchored by their villains Klaue and Killmonger, respectively.
Spoilers Below:
This transition is a little abrupt since Killmonger just kills Klaue, but it also feels inevitable. Killmonger could be an example of what Wakanda could do if it interacted with the rest of the world, but it’s important that he was created by Wakanda’s inaction instead of their action. He was left abandoned in the outside world and turned into a living weapon by the US government, growing to resent both being left behind and the world he was left behind in, because all he knows is war. To top it off, the only reason he’s able to amass so much power is because of Wakanda’s traditions of letting royalty and clan leaders engage the current king in ritual fights to the death. In order to prevent another Killmonger, Wakanda’s traditions need to change, and that means reaching out to the world to ensure that no black kids are left alone on the streets to be used and abused by the world’s governments. Killmonger is a force of nature, but he’s about as complex as a puddle of water, pretending to have deep philosophical motivations to mask the fact that he’s nothing more than a well of hate. He doesn’t care about Wakanda like he says, because if he did, he wouldn’t burn their heart-shaped herb. It’s not only one of their oldest traditions, but it’s one that represents unity; you can’t unite the world by destroying the herb that brought it together in the first place. Killmonger ultimately loses because he doesn’t understand Wakanda’s tech as well as the natives he’s trying to take it from. It’s beautiful that in Killmonger’s dying moments, T’Challa lets him see Wakanda for the beautiful place that it is as opposed to the instrument of war that he has always seen it as.
T’Challa himself is a good protagonist. He’s clearly conflicted about what the right thing is, whether that’s to keep Wakanda in the shadows or enter the rest of the world, especially since that world killed his dad. But he’s also in love with Nakia, the literal embodiment of “Wakanda should do more”. T’Challa and the movie are able to take Killmonger’s point that the outside world sucks and funnel it through Nakia’s altruistic worldview to create something that can actually help people instead of killing them all. She sees everyone as people, even outsiders like Ross, and it’s that love that makes her different from Killmonger. Nakia is the real hero of this movie, basically, even if T’Challa is king.
The plot is also really tight. Killmonger just killing Klaue and also his own girlfriend halfway into the movie is definitely the weakest part, but it’s also the moment when the film itself goes from good to great. Killmonger is straight up terrifying as he makes his way into Wakanda and uses Wakanda’s past mistakes coupled with his own strength of will to brute force his way onto the throne. I also love all the callbacks to earlier parts. T’Challa sees his dad, so Killmonger sees his dad, but the environment and conversations are different. M’Baku comes in clutch when he saves T’Challa and then the Dora Milaje, accepting T’Challa’s implicit offer that since Wakanda is going to de-isolate itself, M’Baku’s tribe can be a part of Wakanda if they wish to be. Killmonger gets the other version of T’Challa’s suit that Shuri made, and Ross gets to re-use the remote pilot car for a plane. Even the sonic train that the final fight takes place on was shown off earlier as part of the reveal to Ross that Wakanda is way more than he believed.
Also, of course the tribe that agrees with Killmonger is the border tribe, since they’re the ones who have to deal with the aggressions of the outside world all the time, meaning they’re the least insulated from the cruelty it has to offer. Them all standing down when they realize that they are destroying Wakanda from the inside instead of saving it is also such a good moment.
This film takes itself pretty seriously, although there are still moments of levity. Klaue in particular is delightfully insane, and Shuri’s enthusiasm is infectious. You know things are serious when even she gets scared. The action scenes are also really solid, if nothing special. The highlight is definitely the car chase in Busan, but I also like T’Challa defeating Killmonger by exploiting a weakness in the armor that Killmonger effectively stole. The worldbuilding is really good too, and makes Wakanda feel like a real place with a storied culture, even if we don’t see most of it.
As an MCU film, there isn’t much to say. This film incorporates the backstory from Civil War pretty well, showing us the flashback at an appropriate time early on. Aside from that, this film is pretty much standalone, with the only real reference to the rest of the MCU being Bucky showing up in the post-credit scene. It makes the film feel isolated in a good way, since it helps the movie feel complete. It also meta-narratively ties into the film’s story: Wakanda/Black Panther is isolated from the world/MCU, and then at the end, they join it. It’s a good movie, whether you like superheroes or not.
