Across-the-board amazing - deeply resonant, iconic and generational, with great cast and score

Rating: 10/10 (14 February 2018)

Black Panther is one of the most incredible things I've ever, ever seen. The women are AMAZING. The score and sound design are incredible - it's the best score I've ever heard in any film. It's visually beautiful beyond description. I didn't feel like I was watching a Marvel film, and I like Marvel films. It has IDEAS, political thought and a worldview in a way that no other Marvel film has attempted, and is meaningful and resonant in a way blockbusters almost never are. It's deeply non-western. The villain's motivation is understandable and relatable, overcoming the MCU villain problem for probably the first time ever. The cast are tremendous. It's an afrofuturist dream and is, throughout, deeply moving. It's transformative not feelgood, deep not glib, unifying and courageous not divisive. It's better than Harry Potter, better than LOTR, better than The Hunger Games, better than the entire MCU. It takes everything tired about the superhero/epic fantasy/"hero's journey" genre and transcends/ reconceptualizes it in a way that's never expected and consistently thrilling and gripping. It's impeccably paced and structured and flows completely naturally (in a world where blockbusters are so often a series of setpieces bridged by interstitial dialogue) - it's logical and coherent with plot and character in perfect harmony, nothing feels contrived, committee-written, focus-grouped or market-tested. I'm in absolute raptures over it. It kicks its entire genre out of the park.
This is a film that says you don't have to give up your traditions to be modern and developed. That non-westerners shouldn't be ashamed of their culture and give up their customs, their dress, their music, their dances, everything that gives their culture an identity and that's grown up over hundreds of years, in the rush to westernize. That allows its characters to debate the merits and drawbacks of isolationism versus outreach. This is a revolutionary film that should and will have a huge cultural footprint lasting decades and mean a lot to so many young people. It not only articulates debates between constructive activism and destructive activism, hard and soft power, but has the conviction of its principles to come down on one side of them. It deserves to have a cultural impact as big as the original Star Wars.