REVIEW: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Pays Tribute to Chadwick Boseman
Audiences find themselves returning to Wakanda in Ryan Coogler’s new movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the follow-up to the successful 2018 hit, Black Panther. This new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe finds Shuri (Letitia Wright), Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Okoye (Danai Gurira), M’Baku (Winston Duke), and the people of Wakanda facing the death of King T’challa. As the country tries to move forward without its protector, Black Panther, other countries around them begin to try an seize an opportunity to take Wakanda’s precious Vibranium for their own. As the nation tries to carry on, and our core characters try to process their grief and anguish, an even more dangerous threat makes itself known, Namor (Tenoch Huerta). Known to his people as The Feathered Serpent God, Namor is desperate to keep Vibranium out of the hands of those from the surface word, and will do anything, even kill to keep it that way. When the Wakandan’s discover that Namor is looking to kill a young scientist, after it is discovered that she created a Vibranium detector, the Wakandans must do everything in their power to protect her, even if it means bringing their own country to war.
Wakanda Forever, from start to finish, is a beautiful tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. Director Ryan Coogler has created a story that not only honors Boseman’s legacy, but the impact he made on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the beauty does not stop there. From the costumes to the set, the entire crew put their hearts into bringing this story to life. Each costume, each set, each piece of music was chosen to help elevate the story. To remind the audience that Wakanda is a place that not only honors its past but embraces its future. Add in the new city that was brought to life in the movie, Namor’s Talokan and you are guaranteed a cinematic experience that will be a delight on your eyes.
Unlike the first Black Panther movie, Wakanda Forever lacks in the action scenes. There are three big action scenes, but for a movie that’s runtime is 2 hours and 41 minutes, I was hoping for more. There are a number of scenes that I felt could have been cut from the entire movie and nothing would have changed. These scenes mainly featured Martin Freeman’s Everett Ross, which is a shame because his humor was one of my favorite parts featured in the first Black Panther movie.
Letitia Wright takes center stage in this movie. She is the clear lead of this movie, though maybe not the best choice. She gave a good performance, but I don’t think the movie should have been mainly focused on her. Angela Bassett gives a superb performance as Queen Ramonda while Lupita Nyong’o continues to prove why she was a great pick to play Nakia.
Even though Winston Duke and Danai Gurira had more dialogue in this movie, I felt M’Baku (Duke), and Okoye (Gurira) had more importance in Black Panther. They felt more like plot pieces rather than major players in the story. Newcomers to the series, Tenoch Huerta (Namor) and Dominique Thorne (Riri Williams) were bright additions to the MCU. Tenoch was the perfect casting to play the villain of this story, even though I didn’t agree with Coogler’s choice to try and humanize the character. Sometimes it is okay for the villain to just be a villain. Thorne will leave every audience member chomping at the bit for her 2023 Disney+ series, Ironheart. The character was fun, comedic and will be a bright light to the future of Marvel.
With Phase 4 finally coming to a welcomed close with this release, the movie doesn’t exactly set the stage for Phase 5. Besides the introduction of Riri Williams, there is really nothing to connect this movie to the next phase. That’s not to say it doesn’t lay the groundwork for more Black Panther content, but it doesn’t exactly setup what’s to come in the next Phase, which I kind of preferred. This allowed Coogler to tell the story in his own way without having to force pieces into it that didn’t quite make sense.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever does not exactly live up to the first movie, but it is a solid follow-up. After losing its lead, Coogler took the movie in a direction that made sense for, almost, all the characters. Fans will be satisfied with the movie, but where he takes the world after this will be interesting. However, I am confident in saying the legacy of Black Panther is safe in Coogler’s hands and will be fun to watch evolve as they MCU continues to grow.
Grade: B