Film review: ‘BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER’, by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

Director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever faced an unusual challenge in that it’s star Chadwick Boseman, who played the title character, tragically passed away in 2020. This left us with the question, without Black Panther himself, is there enough in the world of Wakanda to really engage audiences? The answer is yes (just) but at 161 minutes, this convoluted film sure takes its time convincing us of this.

Understandably, given the powerful emotion attached to Chadwick Boseman in this role, Ryan Coogler hasn’t tried to replace him with another actor.  Instead, he begins the film with Black Panther’s (aka King T’Challa) death from a mystery illness. Stepping up to rule the kingdom of Wakanda is Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) aided by arguably the film’s central character, the scientific genius Princes Shuri (Letitia Wright). They have to face the fact that the world has now peered behind their powerful secretive nation’s protective forcefield and wants a piece of them. In particular, the world’s nations are salivating over the prospect of getting their mits on Wakanda’s vast reserve of the near-indestructible metal Vibranium. At the same time, Wakanda faces an unexpected challenge in the form of Prince Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) the mysterious ruler of Talokan, an Atlantis-like undersea kingdom born from ancient Aztecs.  He wants Wakanda to join him in destroying surface-dwelling humans whom he sees as the descendants of the colonisers who brought slavery and genocide upon his people when he was a child. When Wakanda resists, a conflict between the two nations erupts.

While ostensibly about the war between Wakanda and Talokan, this film is really an extended eulogy for the original Black Panther and for Chadwick Boseman himself. The flashback scenes depicting Boseman are genuinely moving and the most affecting aspects of this film.

Otherwise, though, this is an erratic film. There are some epic, spectacular and inventive action sequences but also plenty that are so messy and confusingly shot it’s hard to tell who’s attacking who.  Some also feature unusual character movement that too easily reminds us we’re watching images cobbled together on a computer. It also doesn’t help that half the action sequences are filmed either in the ocean’s murky depths or at night.  While the CGI action isn’t always appealing, the production design, including the Wakandan architecture and Talokan artwork, is stunning.  Special mention should also be made of the film’s wonderful costuming from designer Ruth E Carter.

The film’s mid-section is a bit of a slog, though, with some very long slow patches filled with characters wearing stern facial expressions and delivering stilted dialogue and pompous speeches.  It’s certainly admirable that the film makes some attempt to address the effects of colonialism and its damage to indigenous cultures but this is a hardly a nuanced sociological essay on inequality and discrimination; it’s a special effects action film with some more thoughtful touches than we normally find in a superhero movie.

With Shuri grieving the loss of King T’Challa and fighting pangs of guilt about not coming up with a cure to save him, Letitia wright is forced to switch from the wonderfully perky, feisty person we saw in the original Black Panther to a more serious figure. While still delivering a mostly strong performance, Wright struggles to completely sell this side of Shuri and at times just comes across like a petulant grump.  Angela Bassett has an appropriately imperious quality as Shuri’s mother and Wakanda’s Queen although she’s called upon to deliver some of the more po-faced speeches.  As Namor, Tenoch Huerta Mejía effectively captures both a violently vengeful and a more reflective side to the character although he’s not quite the compellingly conflicted anti-hero of the comics.  Winston Duke almost steals the film with his mix of physicality and acerbic wit in the role of M’Baku the warrior king of the mountain tribe the Jabari.  Julia Louis Dreyfus and Martin Freeman also appear as CIA director Allegra de Fontaine and CIA agent Ross respectively but they seem to be there to simply connect to other parts of the Marvel universe and have very little impact on the plot.

Like most of the Marvel films, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever provides an at times intriguing and occasionally exciting clash of science, magic and muscle but a little too much of the energy and excitement is lost in the film’s plodding middle section.  Its tribute to Chadwick Boseman, however, is wonderful.

Nick’s rating: ***

Genre: Drama/ Action/ Adventure/ Superhero.

Classification: M.

Director(s): Ryan Coogler.

Release date: 10th Nov 2022.

Running time: 161 mins.

Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.

 

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