An excellent movie that happens to be about a superhero

Rating: 9/10 (9 April 2018)

First off, as a superhero movie, an action movie, a mass entertainment, it works like gangbusters. It is fun, never feels boring, is consistently surprising and inventive in its action sequences and introduces a lot of really cool stuff throughout the movie. But the reason that this movie is going to be so important, why it has become a cultural milestone before it ever was released is where this movie really shines. Ryan Coogler could have been buried under the weight of the expectations of making the first true big-budget superhero movie lead by an almost all black cast, but instead he made a movie that embraces and subverts those expectations and he has delivered an absolute triumph that celebrates the fact that it is an African movie, set 95% in Africa, with 99% African characters. It embraces the traditions, the culture, it does not apologize for its blackness because it is organic to who the characters are. The female characters in this movie are equals to the male characters in combat or even often superior, superior in intelligence, funny, independent and just alive in a way that most movies, but especially superhero movies, rarely allow them to be. And the villain, wow, Killmonger is a true villain, but he is one of the greats because his motivations are understandable, his motivations even make sense, but his solution to a real problem is where he is wrong. The final scene between Black Panther and Killmonger is brilliant, truly. This is clearly just the beginning for these characters, as all of Wakanda looks to play a major part in Infinity War and I for one can barely wait to see it, but in the meantime I plan to return to Wakanda at least once more.