A Breath of Fresh Air for the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2018)

Black Panther was pretty great and it avoids most of the problems that plague many of Marvel's other movies. It has a unique story to tell and does the best it can to tell that story instead of wasting its time serving as a trailer for future Avengers movies. It uses humor wisely and does not kill several dramatic or intense scenes by throwing in a cheap joke. It lets the emotional moments sink in, and does not try to undercut them.
The villain is a fully realized character with an understandable motivation, and he has personal ties to our hero. Great. We need more believable antagonists like this! In fact, pretty much all of the characters - even the supporting ones - were fleshed out and given time to shine. The worldbuilding was also well done and most people will leave the movie wishing they could go to the country of Wakanda. 8/10.
Black Panther does not reach the heights of comic book masterpieces like The Dark Knight or Logan, but I'd say it's a cut above most of the superhero movies that came out last year, including Thor Ragnarok, Spider-man Homecoming, Wonder Woman, Gaurdians of Galaxy 2 and the horrid Justice League (hatethatmovie).