Not my favorite Marvel film

Rating: 7/10 (17 May 2018)

I had heard that Black Panther was supposed to be excellent so I was excited to see it. I think I can understand, having a movie about Africa that ISN'T about slavery, genocide, apartheid, AIDS, war lords, or child soldiers is kind of unheard of ... and in that light this film is awesome. I applaud the long list of strong female characters present in this film. And they got the freaking A-List for this film, the acting talent was unimpeachable.
My issue with this film is the story: they used such a generic and overly used storyline which was DEEPLY disappointing. The plot is just a superhero version of the Lion King which we all know got its plot from Hamlet. It made me feel like a movie I'd already seen 15 times before and that really bummed me out.
Meanwhile the film is populated with all these interesting characters and a new country and culture that we never find out much about. Who are the Dora Milaje? How did it come to be that Wakanda is protected by a group of badass bald females? What's with the hand to hand combat to determine the next king? What's the significance of the masks? Why does that mountain tribe worship Hanuman (whose roots are Hindu)? Why is the mountain tribe all trouble-making? What's the deal with the Wakandan spy missions all over the world? What's with the lip tattoos? Why do they glow like that? How do they get them? Are they hereditary or what?
Or how about just more history on the relationships between the primary cast? What's the story between T'Challa and Nakia? Was Shuri born a child prodigy or was she trained to be head of technology? What's the deal between Okoye and W'Kabi? Are they lovers? Married? What? And what's T'Challa's relationship with W'Kabi? Did they grow up together? Are they best friends? We're told extremely little about any of these people and we're just supposed to infer everything based on a few random interactions.
So I was left not feeling very much for these characters as they jump from action scene to action scene to action scene to ... yawn. Plus, there was nothing new to the action sequences ... and it's just all been done before so many times I got bored.
THEN, add to that, I'm not even sure WHEN this movie is supposed to be taking place. During Civil War? After Civil War? Because if it's during Civil War ... like after the father was killed and before Bucky was brought to Wakanda ... then it blows the big is-T'Challa-dead part of the film because we know he has to live to go after Bucky. If it's after Civil War then why did they say in Civil War that T'Challa was king? It's sloppy stuff like this that makes me crazy.
And lastly, the film felt tonally off from the other films ... and not in a good way like Thor Ragnarok. It's like this film couldn't decide what tone to take, so it was part storytelling/fantastic/mythology ... then part gritty/urban/dark ... then part glossy/tech-heavy/action flick. If it had just picked ONE of those and stuck with it I probably would've loved it but instead it was a mishmash and didn't do any of them well and left the whole thing feeling off.
I give it a 7 because I didn't really dislike the film, and for me even a so-so Marvel film is still way better than most movies Hollywood makes today. But I was disappointed. I wanted better and it's a shame that this film didn't get a richer, unique story to do credit to the acting talent and overall opportunity that existed in the making of this film.