Solid but nothing more

Rating: 6/10 (26 February 2018)

The real star in the movie "Black Panther", as I took it, should have been Wakanda. You have this super-powerful but cloaked little technology empire inmidst of Africa. Sure this movie is about Black Panther but it is also a lot about questions like those: should Wakanda be isolated since this worked, or open up its technology to other countries? Should it help out expat Wakandans or weaker countries or refugees? Unfortunately, this movie fails to really sell those points. The characters talk about it, but fail to show it.
On the pro-side of "Black Panther", there is mainly the stellar cast. Chadwick Boseman, Forest Whitaker, Lupita Nyongo, Martin Freeman, Serkis, all great actors. The discovery here is Letitia Wright as T'challas bubbly sister.
The movie plays it pretty straight and thats unfortunate. There is nothing really bad about the plot except that Killmongers story does at parts not fit perfectly in.
But as hard they tried to sell Wakanda as amazing place, its somehow unimaginative especially when this movie is pitted back to back with Thor 3. It never comes to live the same way as the Grandmasters Junkyard/gladiator planet.
They fall short also to sell Killmonger as villain. Its a tragic character, he has his birthright and his life was taken away by the "good guys". But they miss the opportunity to give him he more leverage; he longs to see Wakanda but when gets there he just does run-off-the-mill evil villainry. It would be much more interesting if this was a guy who would be actually hard to fight for Black Panther.
Also, Serkis has the time of his life playing a wacko gangster and he gives a scene-chewing performance in the style of guys like Christopher Walken or Nicholas Cage which makes Michael B. Anthony almost look bland in comparison.
Surely, Black Panther suffers a bit from Marvel oversaturation. The origin story was a bit similar to Thor I; the action scenes don't offer much new against the amazing fights in "Winter Soldier"; and even the stakes are not so high, there is no "aliens or a super weapon" are destroying the world. It says something if even the typical Marvel spoilers in the end credits are relatively un-revealing.