Black Panther: A mediocre phenomenon
I saw Black Panther, the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, on opening night. I loved Black Panther in his appearence in Captain America: Civil War, and I was truly looking forward to seeing a great superhero film. Depsite the oversaturation of super hero films over the course of the last ten years I have still found enjoyment in their repetitive nature. When I started to do some research into what kind of film Black Panther would be I was really excited. I wanted to explore the fictional nation of Wakanda and get to know its charecters. Mostly, I was very excited about the idea of Michael B. Jordan playing a merciless villian. I loved his role in Creed and I think he is a great actor.
Additionally, Black Panther was a pretty groundbreaking in a sense that there has never been a movie directed by, acted by and brought to the world with such a large number of African Americans. True this is no where near the first superhero movie with an African American lead see Hancock, Steel, CatWoman and of course, The Blade Trilogy. However, this film is truly a first in many ways and that should be seen as a good thing. All this being said, at the end of the day the only thing that truly matters about the film is whether it was good, or bad. As I walked out of the film there were only two words that came to my mouth and they were “meh”, and “fine”.
Black Panther is not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. It has decent acting, a coherent plot and presents intresting social issues. Is the movie one of the best of the year? No. Is the film one of the best superhero films? No. In fact I would not even put the film in my top ten Marvel Films list. So lets talk about the positives, the negatives and the politics of Black Panther.
The Good:
The acting- Chadwick Boseman is one of the more intresting actors in Hollywood and I truly hope that he gets more roles in future films. He plays T’challa as a man with dignity, who truly tries to do what is best for his nation. The supporting cast around him also does a decent job, but the standout of the film is Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan.
Wakanda- The world that these filmakers created is truly awesome. A lot of the architecture, culture and dress of the people that inhabit this imaginary place is super interesting. Wakanda looks cool and is a place that I would love to visit.
Andy Serkis- Hollywood needs to cast this guy in more than just motion capture roles. He is a brilliant actor and at times he is Joker-esq in this film. The only thing lacking in his charecter was screen time. I wish his charecter played a more prominent role in the film.
The Bad:
The CGI- There were alot of times in this film where it was painfully obvious that you were looking at a green screen. For a film with a 200 million dollar budget you would expect that some of these scenes would be better rendered.
The action- Though there were political messages throughout the film, usually the main reason that people go to see a Marvel Superhero film is to see some cool action sequences. Often times the action scenes take place in dark places and you cant really see what is going on. Other times the use of CGI or Computer Generated Images is so obvious. Black Panther looks like a piece of rubber flying through the air.
The Politics:
The message of the story is essentially based on the theological arguments between Malcom X and Martin Luther King. I wont go to in depth with this but my main issue with the politics presented in the story is they dont seem willing to condem the actions and thoughts of the Killmonger. The screenwriters and the performance of Michael B. Jordan lead the audience to feel sympathy not only towards Killmonger the person, but his cause as well. This is something I found particularly disgusting.
The Conclusion:
Black Panther is not bad, Black Panther is not great. To believe with any serious level of scrutiny that it deserves its hefty score on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic is ignorant. Its great that a movie in Hollywood has been delivered to audiences by a largley African American cast and production team, but at the end of the day much of the product is mediocre. Black Panther will be remembered, but its plot, action, special effects and politics will not be apart of that discussion.