Black Panther claws itself to a hit

Black Panther is the latest in a (now) long line of Marvel movies in their shared universe. Having said that, this movie stands well on its own and is a great film for newcomers. It doesn’t rely on any past knowledge of the series, and is a fantastic movie by itself.

The Black Panther, T’Challa, was first introduced in Captain America: Civil War, and this film picks up where that one left off. T’Challa’s father, the king of Wakanda, has just been killed, making T’Challa the new king. Wakanda is a technologically advanced country in Africa, who uses their tech to hide from the rest of the world, who thinks it is instead a poor country of farmers and herders. Their entire technology is based on the metal vibranium, the same metal used in Captain’s shield. When a few criminals, who know the secret of Wakanda, steal a piece of vibranium from a museum, a sequence of events set off, with dire consequences for T’Challa and his whole nation.

This movie features some truly outstanding acting by all of the leads, an impressive list including Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan (scintillating as the evil Killmonger, with an ulterior motive), Lupita Nyong’o, and sci-fi film legend Andy Serkis (in human form without his usual computer-generated masks). This film has it all, from the expected big action scenes to endearing, heartfelt moments. The characters are fully fleshed out and far from one dimensional. At some point the serious awards shows are going to need to actually watch one of these films and see what they are missing.

A lot has been said of the correlation between the plot that develops in this film, and how it relates to our current political climate. I’m not touching that at all, but the film can definitely leave you thinking about a whole lot of stuff, most notably the rights and responsibilities of powerful nations, and as in real life, there are often no clear and right answers, as each side has strong points. Whether you want to delve into all that is up to you, but just taken by itself, the film is still a wild ride.