Marvel's groundbreaker...

Rating: 5/10 (7 December 2019)

BLACK PANTHER is well known as the first Marvel film featuring a black superhero, well supported by an almost all-black cast. Whether it stands up on its own as a decent film is another matter, however. In fact, I found this quite sloppy at times, despite all of the effort and talent involved with its conception. I liked the idea of the hidden African kingdom well enough, although too much time is spent on set up and I think they should have just hit the ground running as they've done in other Marvel movies.
The film is replete with action scenes, from hand-to-hand combat to a big car chase through the streets of Busan. The cast put in assured performances and can't really be faulted either. However, I was expecting more from the special effects, which aren't so special at times; the climactic scenes of the fighting rhinoceri reminded me unfavourably of the STAR WARS prequels at times. The writing is also a mixed bag, moving smoothly in Bond-style man-on-a-mission scenes but otherwise stalling, never quite achieving the gravitas it so desperately wants. It feels very much like Marvel knew they were taking a gamble with this one, so tried very hard to please everybody, but the end result is merely perfunctory.