So predictable that the adrenaline never kicked in

Rating: 6/10 (4 April 2018)

Black Panther directed by Ryan Coogler is Marvel's latest film, and is marketed as being a unique take on the cinematic universe. And to a certain extent it is, in terms of setting and characters. But ultimately the action set pieces and story structure is basically exactly what we would expect. Black Panther sadly has many issues in my opinion. Firstly the pacing is slow and ultimately boring. The endless expository dialogue cannot be justified as something that is necessary for character development. In fact the characters were my second major issue. Killmonger's revenge story doesn't even pick up until halfway through the film. Yes they gave him a back story, but it's so basic I could describe it all in a sentence. His lack of development made it really hard to care in crucial moments, such as the climatic battle which didn't feel climatic due to the lack of emotional attachment I had to the characters. I never felt an authentic connection to the story because all we are given for our villain were forced emotional flashbacks. Furthermore, for a film with a $200 million budget the level of CGI was pretty unacceptable. It wasn't unbearable, but for the most part every CGI aspect was noticeably CGI. The animated scenery of Wakanda didn't blow me away in the slightest. The comedy in the film was so weak. Every joke was completely out of place. The film seemed scared to let scenes build in intensity. We didn't need a dumb joke about vegetarians to mess up the tone. Another issue was the lack of suspense and anticipation I felt throughout the entire runtime. Any life threatening scene for T'Challa became incredibly dull with zero emotional impact simply because I had just seen him in the Avenger's trailer literally right before the movie started. All in all, Black Panther is a perfectly enjoyable action film and I'm glad so many people felt satisfied by it. The movie presents such important ideas surrounding social justice and racial equality, although putting that aside and looking at the film I was very disappointed. By the end it was so predictable that the adrenaline never kicked in. So therefore I give Black Panther a