'Black Panther' Review: In A Word, Amazing

Normally this would be included as another Matt’s Movie Monday entry, but I couldn’t wait even just one more day to get this out. I could have done it as a special “Sunday Edition of Matt’s Movie Monday” but as someone who hates when that happens with day-specific events (I’m looking at you, NBC, and your “Thursday Night Edition of Sunday Night Football” bs) I felt morally obligated to go a different route. Anyway, enough rambling, on to the review. The first part will be spoiler-free, followed by a few spoiler-full comments at the very end.

There’s no point in burying the lead with this one. Black Panther is so good on so many levels. Well, actually, it’s so good on all the levels. Where so many previous MCU movies have gone wrong, Black Panther goes oh so right. A great supporting cast? Check. Powerful female characters? Check, check, and check again, and then a few more times. Strong black characters, male and female? Super check all over the place. That one may seem obvious, given the featured superhero, but doing it and doing it well aren’t always one and the same. And one of the big ones, one that is seemingly a universal complaint about MCU movies, a great villain. Finally, a big, fat check here as well. Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger is a truly great villain. I know many people might point to Loki as the baseline for great Marvel villains, but I would argue Loki is a great character, but not a great villain. As much fun as he is, his motives come off as selfish and whiny. Killmonger, on the other hand, is fighting for what he truly believes is right for the greater good. And in this case, as violent and horrible as his methods may be, the general idea of what, and who, he’s fighting for, is a cause anyone could find themselves getting behind. Some of what makes a villain great is getting those around them (viewers included) to question whether or not they’re actually in the wrong.

The rest of the supporting characters are also astounding. Nakia (played by Lupita Nyong’o) is excellent as T’Challa’s former lover and current undercover Wakandan spy, called a War Dog. Okoye (Danai Gurira) is the head of the Dora Milaje, the all-female warrior unit who serve as the king’s bodyguards. There’s Shuri (Letitia Wright), T’Challa’s genius 16 year old sister, possibly the smartest person in the world, yes, including Tony Stark. Each is dynamic and awesome in their own ways. They’re all strong, smart, bad-ass women but they don’t blend together. They each have their own unique and fully fleshed out identity.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Every single character is great. Daniel Kaluuya, Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Andy Serkis, and Sterling K. Brown all give star performances as well. And that still doesn’t even cover every good character in the movie. It’s amazing what they were able to accomplish with their collection characters.

Going beyond the story and characters, the technical aspects are great as well. The costume design, the set pieces, the music. Be sure to check out the soundtrack album, “Black Panther The Album” featuring music from, among others, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Schoolboy Q, and Jay Roc. Seriously you guys, this movie is simply amazing.

Director Ryan Coogler gave us the best entry into the MCU yet, sliding in ahead of Captain America: Winter Soldier. I would also say this takes Marvel’s overall top spot, moving past Logan and Deadpool (Marvel movies but not part of the larger MCU). That would put it near the top for all superhero movies. But Dark Knight still remains untouched and the unquestioned best ever superhero. Black Panther is great, no question, but it doesn’t hold up to Nolan’s masterpiece. Even though Dark Knight is the gold standard and got left out much of the Oscar fun, it will be interesting to keep an eye on the Oscar buzz for Black Panther. With all the superhero movies, the only major nomination (and win) has been Heath Ledger for his acclaimed performance as the Joker in Dark Knight. No Best Picture, no acting nominations other than Ledger, no Best Director. That could change with Black Panther. It would come as no surprise to see if nominated for some of the technical categories (Costume Design seems like a good bet). But I could see it getting in as Best Picture nominee and I could also see Coogler scoring a Best Director nominee. But those are still months away with tons of movies left to be released. But Black Panther started 2018 off strong and will be tough to match or beat.

Spoiler-Free Notes

I’ll get my one spoiler-free complaint out of the way at the top. Shuri’s What are those?! joke. The one and only thing I would remove from the movie.
Loved the scene in Shuri’s lab, showing T’Challa her new tech and suit. Strong vibes of a James Bond scene in Q’s lab. Don’t know if that was intentional or not but big James Bond guy over here so I was all about that.
Again, the music, both the soundtrack and the score.
- Personal favorite song is “All the Stars” but the whole soundtrack is great.
- I don’t necessarily have a favorite scene with the score, but the part in “Ancestral Plane” that first comes on from about 1:20-1:40 gets repeated throughout the movie and I can’t get enough of it.
Shuri giving T’Challa the finger was great. She didn’t care that he was about to be crowned King. He’s just her older brother, and she’ll always treat him as such. A great introduction to a great character.
I’m formally requesting we get a Shuri solo movie.
The same goes for a Killmonger prequel.
Maybe not a formal request, but I could get behind a War Dogs spin-off.
The remote access of vehicles was awesome. We saw a similar idea in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 but this was a different take and, like most things in this movie, was cooler.
Michael B. Jordan: Just need to say it one more time. The guy crushes it. Electric in every scene.
Black Panther definitely benefited from being able to stand on its own, a common theme for the MCU’s most popular movies. Check out the top five MCU movies (as ranked on Rotten Tomatoes) in this list. Four of them functioned more or less as a standalone film, with the fifth, The Avengers, the final team up of what the previous movies had been building up to.

Movie: Black Panther
Genre: Superhero, Action, Adventure
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright
Rated: PG-13 for violence, language, and a brief rude gesture
My Rating: 9.2/10
Should you see it? In case the rest of this review wasn’t clear enough, YES. Go see it now. Then see it again and again Then buy it when it becomes available for purchase and watch it many more times. Even someone who hasn’t seen one MCU movie before would be able to fully understand and enjoy the movie.

@MattHambidge

So that’s it for the spoiler free section. Below will be a few comments and the few, very minor complaints (almost not even worth mentioning, but no movie is perfect)

—————————————————————-SPOILER ALERT—————————————————————-

Spoilers - Click to expand

As awesome as Jordan’s Killmonger was, I could have used more of him. He was so good in every scene, who wouldn’t want more of that?
Andy Serkis as Klaue was mostly great, but was just a tiny bit over the top. But that was somewhat negated since he was only in the movie for such a short time. Which leads to my next point…
They killed Klaue. Based on his two brief appearances in the MCU, it would seem Marvel didn’t view this character as someone who could be a movie’s main villain, which I guess made him expendable. Still, he was great in the little bit we got of him, and he could have been a fun addition to any number of future MCU movies.
Could have used more Sterling K. Brown as well. His role was small but pivotal and of course he killed it. Like Jordan, why wouldn’t we want more?
This wasn’t the movie for it, there was no time to fit it in, but I would have loved to learn more about Wakanda’s history. Lots of good story there.
How good does a movie have to be for the biggest complaints to be wanting more of already awesome parts of the movie?
With Killmonger and Klaue dead, they should stay dead. Marvel has shown a fascination with resurrecting dead characters. I could probably come around on Klaue coming back, though he shouldn’t. But Killmonger, absolutely not, especially with how well done his death scene was. Bringing him back would wipe that out completely.
The two ritual combat fight scenes were awesome. So raw and brutal, no superhero powers needed. Fantastic.
When T’Challa is healed by the heart-shaped herb, did that only restore him back to normal human levels, or did it give him the full power of the Black Panther again? Unless I missed it, that was never made explicitly clear. It might not come up again, but I’ll be watching for that in the upcoming movies.
I know there were a few other “problems” that caught my attention while watching the movie. But the fact that I can’t remember them tells me they would have amounted to nothing more than nitpicking. The more I think about this movie, the more impressed I am with it.
War rhinos. I need more war rhinos. Many more.
Black Panther’s suit might just be my favorite superhero suit up until this point. And by might be, I mean definitely is.
One of the best parts about this movie was seeing part of Killmonger’s vision being carried out by T’Challa. He is going to reveal the true Wakanda to the world with the hope of being able to help on a global scale. Sure Killmonger wanted to reveal themselves by arming the oppressed to help them rise up, but the general idea is still there.
It’s finally time. Infinity War is next up. And we still have yet to see the Soul Stone, the last of the Infinity Stones. It will almost assuredly show up in Infinity War, the only question is when. Thanos hunting it down could be the main plot point of the movie, with Avengers 4 serving as the ultimate showdown. Or he could find it sometime during the movie, and the final battle begins, and then carries over into Avengers 4. Or the Russo brothers could do something completely different and blow our minds in an awesome an unexpected way.

As awesome as Jordan’s Killmonger was, I could have used more of him. He was so good in every scene, who wouldn’t want more of that?
Andy Serkis as Klaue was mostly great, but was just a tiny bit over the top. But that was somewhat negated since he was only in the movie for such a short time. Which leads to my next point…
They killed Klaue. Based on his two brief appearances in the MCU, it would seem Marvel didn’t view this character as someone who could be a movie’s main villain, which I guess made him expendable. Still, he was great in the little bit we got of him, and he could have been a fun addition to any number of future MCU movies.
Could have used more Sterling K. Brown as well. His role was small but pivotal and of course he killed it. Like Jordan, why wouldn’t we want more?
This wasn’t the movie for it, there was no time to fit it in, but I would have loved to learn more about Wakanda’s history. Lots of good story there.
How good does a movie have to be for the biggest complaints to be wanting more of already awesome parts of the movie?
With Killmonger and Klaue dead, they should stay dead. Marvel has shown a fascination with resurrecting dead characters. I could probably come around on Klaue coming back, though he shouldn’t. But Killmonger, absolutely not, especially with how well done his death scene was. Bringing him back would wipe that out completely.
The two ritual combat fight scenes were awesome. So raw and brutal, no superhero powers needed. Fantastic.
When T’Challa is healed by the heart-shaped herb, did that only restore him back to normal human levels, or did it give him the full power of the Black Panther again? Unless I missed it, that was never made explicitly clear. It might not come up again, but I’ll be watching for that in the upcoming movies.
I know there were a few other “problems” that caught my attention while watching the movie. But the fact that I can’t remember them tells me they would have amounted to nothing more than nitpicking. The more I think about this movie, the more impressed I am with it.
War rhinos. I need more war rhinos. Many more.
Black Panther’s suit might just be my favorite superhero suit up until this point. And by might be, I mean definitely is.
One of the best parts about this movie was seeing part of Killmonger’s vision being carried out by T’Challa. He is going to reveal the true Wakanda to the world with the hope of being able to help on a global scale. Sure Killmonger wanted to reveal themselves by arming the oppressed to help them rise up, but the general idea is still there.
It’s finally time. Infinity War is next up. And we still have yet to see the Soul Stone, the last of the Infinity Stones. It will almost assuredly show up in Infinity War, the only question is when. Thanos hunting it down could be the main plot point of the movie, with Avengers 4 serving as the ultimate showdown. Or he could find it sometime during the movie, and the final battle begins, and then carries over into Avengers 4. Or the Russo brothers could do something completely different and blow our minds in an awesome an unexpected way.

@MattHambidge

‘Black Panther’ Review: In A Word, Amazing

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