The Marvel Cinematic Universe was left with a gaping hole with the sudden passing of Chadwick Boseman in 2020. As T’Challa the Black Panther, he was charismatic, compelling, and exciting to watch, and inspired viewers with his portrayal. I’m sure Marvel had high hopes to make him a centerpiece of future films à la Thor or Iron Man. With his death, Marvel had to go back to the drawing board, and the resulting sequel is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
I had high hopes for this film. Marvel returned director Ryan Coogler, most of the same production team, and all of the remaining actors are back as well. The story begins with other countries, notably USA and France, who are hunting for vibranium to use for their own weapons and research. Wakanda has always thought they were the only source for the rare otherworldly metal, but some is located deep in the Atlantic Ocean. On a retrieval mission headed by the CIA, the ship is attacked by a mysterious underwater people. No one survives, so the higher-ups in the country think that Wakanda is behind the attack, in order to keep vibranium to themselves. Unfortunately Wakanda doesn’t know who the blue water-breathers are either, until their leader, Namor, comes to Wakanda with a proposition: find and turn over to them the scientist who built the vibranium-finding machine, or the water people will attack Wakanda. And they have vibranium too, so it would be a bloody battle on both sides.
T’Challa’s surviving sister, Shuri, who has been trying to recreate the herb that granted Black Panther powers after Killmonger destroyed it all in the first film, heads to the USA to find the scientist, who turns out to be a 19-year-old prodigy named Riri. Before they can return to Wakanda, they are attacked by Namor’s warriors, who kidnap them down under the sea. Namor shows Shuri why he needs vibranium-hunting machines silenced: their entire underwater city is built on the technology, so any such machine will lead other nations straight to them. They’ve been hiding underwater for hundreds of years, and Namor isn’t about to let his people become enslaved. With veiled threats, Namor tells Shuri that Wakanda can either be for or against his people. This is all leading to Shuri picking up the Black Panther mantle, and ultimately a big battle between her people and Namor’s.
As I said in the beginning: high hopes. While the film does delivery some exciting moments, there are plenty of rough spots that hold it back. For one, the camera work is choppy and stilted almost entirely throughout. Coogler hardly ever lets a scene breathe, preferring instead to bounce around from closeup to closeup. Far be it from me to criticize a professional, but it had an amateurish feel to it. And while the film has a decent story, it doesn’t feature great storytelling. Really dumb dialogue at times, full of clichés (“We’ll fight until we can’t fight anymore”), and plot holes abound. The big climactic fight should be the height of the film, but it had long since fizzled before we got there. And, while I understand it is a comic book world, why is that we have Iron Man and War Machine, 2 supposedly unique mech-warriors, and suddenly in the end of this film we get 4 more supersuits seemingly out of nowhere. C’mon Marvel, you can do better than this. I liked the movie, but felt let down. ★★★½
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