Semi-Enjoyable Action Flick

Rating: 6/10 (25 April 2019)

"Black Panther" relies on it's cool title character and somewhat interesting fight scenes in order to reach success.
-Analysis of Notable Work- *Writing/Directing: The script is poorly written, simply put. The pacing is terrible and the story is uninteresting. Give it a few decades when Marvel has completely lost its control of the general populous, and nobody will be talking about this film. Its very foundation is problematic. It was supposed to be a fantastic film raising up Black Americans (and black culture in general). However, it made the main villain a Black American. This is a serious issue for a film that is supposed to be inclusive and bring people together. It does have a cast of mostly Black actors, which is fantastic, but as far as storytelling goes I think the Black community deserved a much better film. And Marvel fans in general deserved a better film. Ryan Coogler completely missed the mark on this one. *Cinematography/Editing: The film looks a little bit too digital, as do most Marvel films. This causes me to get taken out of the film a bit. It feels more like a video one would find on YouTube, and not a film coming from a massive studio. I'm not sure how much say cinematographer Rachel Morrison had over the look of the film, but it is not her best work. It all feels a little cheap and gimmicky. The editing is sub-par. Action sequences that are not CGI are full of quick cuts which doesn't allow us to see much action actually happening. There is one long-take fight scene but it looks very sloppy. *Dialogue/Acting: The dialogue is incredibly lacking and cringe-worthy. Many lines produced a large number of eye rolls. "What are those!?!" comes to mind. The acting was less than impressive. Boseman doesn't have enough charisma to lead a film. Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman phone in their performances, as does Michael B. Jordan. Jordan's performance feels terribly flat and unemotional. The rest of the actors are not very talented. Although Forest Whitaker does relatively well for his part. *Music/Sound: The soundtrack is fine, although I personally found it to be uninteresting and did not add much to the film. The Academy Award was grossly undeserved. The sound design was quite awful. Lots of cheap sounds and much of the film felt empty in terms of audio. *Production Design/Special Effects: Again, terrible decision by the Academy to award this film. The sets, costumes, and practical effects are not bad by any means, but they feel incredibly ordinary. They are not very dynamic or original. Many of the sets (especially CGI sets) felt incredibly bland and uninteresting to look at. As far as CGI, this film looked terrible and there is no getting around it.
*Conclusion: "Black Panther" may be a decent film to pass the time if you want something to watch, but it is by no means life changing. It is one of the worst Marvel films and leaves much to be desired.