183.
Black Panther
6.5/10
Time for one of the most hyped Marvel Cinematic Universe films in a while, apart from the big on that came out this year. Because I am catching up on reviews having been travelling for a month, I have already seen Infinity War by now. The trailer was quite usual for a Marvel movie, colourful and full of music to accompany the action and style of movie. We have already seen Chadwick Boseman kick some ass as the Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War, but this would be a solo movie. Michael B. Jordan is fresh off the back of some success with Creed and a couple of other faces, familiar and not, are along to join the ride. The only question that needs answering, would be if it is going to live up to all of the hype that surrounds it and what is the real reason that it has drawn so much attention?
I've decided not to fly into too much detail about the movie plot, but mainly give an outline of the important factors and my opinion as each one happens. I've no doubt that nearly everyone would have watched this movie. We are given some background on Wakanda as a nation, as centuries before when our movie will be set five tribes started a war over a meteorite that contain the alien metal that we know as Vibranium. One of the warriors takes in a 'heart-shaped herb' and becomes the first Black Panther after gaining superhuman abilities. He unties four of the tribes, as another refuses and heads to the mountains. They use the Vibranium to create highly-advanced technologies and isolate themselves from the world, posing as a third world country, so that the technology never falls into the wrong hands. We move on through time, into the 90's and a young Prince N'Jobu is working undercover in Oakland, making himself convinced that the fact that they have hidden the tech, has done more harm than good around the world, as everyone else is suffering. He vows to share it all with people of African descent around the world. He enlists the help of a black-market worker, played by Andy Serkis, to help him steal a crate of Vibranium. 92' draws in and King T'Chaka learns of his brother's betrayal. He confronts him and when he is simply rebuffed and N'Jobu threatens to kill T'Chaka's best friend, the King kills his own brother, leaving his nephew to fend behind, so that Wakanda will never know what happened. Erik, the boy, is expected to either die, or never find a way to Wakanda alone.
We final come to present day and after the death of T'chaka, which we witnessed in Civil War, his son, T'Challa, has returned to take his place on the throne. He works with Okoye, the leader of the all-female army, to save his ex-missis from an undercover mission which had gone wrong and it's our first taste of some action in this movie. Moving exactly like a cat, we don't catch a full glimpse, but sort of like a horror film, where a lot happens within the shadows. T'Challa is also reunited with his mother and his sister Shuri, who embraces him with a handshake and greeting that you'd expect in a playground. At his Kingship ceremony, he is challenged for leadership by the leader of the fifth, mountain tribe, and M'Baku loses, with T'Challa letting the man live after becoming King. In London, Serkis' character, Klaue, has a gang, which contains Jordan's character, called Killmonger and they all enter a museum, stealing an old Wakandan axe. The axe contained Vibranium and the news instantly reaches the King. The tribal elders learn that Klaue has moved to South Korea, so the King's friend urges him to bring the man to justice. He, Okoye and his ex-missis, Nakia, who we have already met from the rescue, move to intercept Klaue at an underground casino. He's there to sell the axe to an unknown buyer, but the plan doesn't go through as we find out that the buyer is Everett Ross, who once again we have met in another movie or two and is played by Martin Freeman. This leads Klaue to thinking the whole thing is a set-up and fighting begins. A car chase brings some pretty cool scenes and effects as they chase through some pretty colourful streets, which ends with the dealer in custody. Whilst he is in custody though, an explosion comes through his wall and Killmonger has come to free him. Ross gets injured pretty badly in the crossfire, as he saves Nakia from being shot and instead of chasing the prisoner, T'Challa takes Ross to Wakanda, knowing that Shuri can save him.
In the meantime, Killmonger has lived up his name and killed Klaue, taking it to Wakanda as a kind of offering token for the Elders. When they ask how he got there and who he is, he explains that he is the son of N'Jobu, to everyone's shock. His first instinct is to challenge for the throne and this time, T'Challa is defeated. He hurls the ex-King over a waterfall and leaves him for dead. His first plan of action is to carry on with his father's plan, getting shipments of weapons ready to be delivered to Wakandan operatives around the globe. Meanwhile, Shuri, Nakia, a healthy again Ross and T'Challa's mother have escaped and headed for the mountains to find help from M'Baku and his men. They find out that this tribe have found T'Challa washed up and are caring for him, but he's in a coma. Nakia decides to head out and get some of the heart-shaped herbs to cure T'Challa and on arrival and capturing some, she sees Killmonger's men advancing, heading to burn the herbs so that no other man can use them. On T'Challa's return, he challenges Killmonger as he never died or conceded in the fight and when he is refused, the female army turn on him. He now has his own Black Panther armour, which is probably the coolest out of the lot. A massive battle ensues, as half of the tribes' side with Killmonger and others with T'Challa, along with the army. Ross is flying a jet, with the help of Shuri and shoots down the planes carrying the shipments, before they can make it out of the city. The battle goes poorly for the T'Challa side but it's easy to see what is coming. The mountain tribe will end up coming and saving the day to a sort. Here they come and the battle starts to shift sides. The fight between the two wannabe King's leads them into the heart of the Vibranium mine and with the use of a lot and I mean a lot, of CGI, Killmonger is stabbed by his cousin. T'Challa takes him to see the sunset of Wakanda, offering to help him, but Killmonger refuses and pulls the knife from his chest, ultimately killing him. With the victory, T'Challa returns to the throne and M'Baku is granted a seat on the council. T'Challa's next step is to establish and embassy with the USA, which wouldn't be happening with Trump! The movie ends as he makes a press conference, in a mid-credit scene, revealing Wakanda's true nature. In the post credits scene, we catch a glimpse of Shuri helping a woken Bucky Barnes, the White Wolf.
My opinion may be a little tough for some people to take, but everyone is entitled to their own. Mine is that this is nothing more than a 'mid-table' entry in the MCU for me. I don't think that the hype before or the hype afterwards has been anywhere near warranted. Not only did this have a weird Lion King feel to, with the dad dying, people challenging the kid in charge, a darker villain taking over and the child being sent away. Then comes the child's return, the fight and back to happiness. But I can see past that, many movies have similarities these days. One disappointment was the fact that Marvel have given us another villain, which was a very good character and killed him off yet again, without making him a recurring thing. But fine, we should be used to that now. When it comes down to it, this movie seemed to be a decent storyline but for it to be considered outstanding is simply too far. It seemed society needed this movie to work and it was the same effect with Wonder Woman. That gave us a lead female role and, in my opinion, a match better movie, that afterwards, was far from up its own arse. That gave the sense of 'Girl Power' and obviously, without wanting to offend people, this movie was all about 'Black Power'. Because of the racism in society and the history of how people from ethnic background have been seen in society, it seemed that people were too afraid of wanting to say anything bad about this movie. The accents were awful, the over the top reviews sometimes even state this but if they wanted people to see this movie, surely the culture relates more towards the villain? A guy who is struggling and wanting the government to do something about it so plans on fighting to get to the top and give everyone the same advances in culture. He was probably the best thing about this movie and he is up there with some of the better villains in the franchise. For people to say that they never see a black character on screen, haven't they noticed Sam Jackson as Nick Fury? he's in charge of the god damn Avengers. What about Cyborg being part of Justice League? OK, so I got shot down using those examples, mainly because they, 'weren't leading roles'. Let's mention Blade then. Not only is he a leading role, with his own trilogy of movies, but this guy is also part of the Marvel universe and comics. It seems to be the society that we live in now, were the message carried by a movie seems to be bigger than the enjoyment of it. That, for me, ruins it leading to seeing and hearing too much about this mediocre movie.
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