Another day, another marvel movie.

Rating: 5/10 (1 March 2018)

Black panther's reception from the audience and critics seems to be more focused on the 'representation of black people" than the actual movie. And before going deeper in the review, I want to respond to the "black representation" overhyping the movie. Since a lot of people praise the movie for positive portrayal of the black race, as if its the only AND first one to do so, have people forgot about previous movies that portray black heroism? Hidden figures, mandela, long way to freedom, shaka zulu, get on up, 42? How about south African art cinema to appreciate and know the real culture? Nope? Just a mediocre superhero movie? Do people want to stay away from the African culture and act like black panther is the real deal? It doesn't even reflect Africa except in the most superficial ways (costumes, traditions etc). Now I have nothing against African culture of course, but people should stop treating this as some sort of a savior for the black people. A super technologically advanced FICTIONAL African country won't help save anyone. Its just fantasy empowerment, nothing else. Now that I have rambled enough, It's time to talk about the movie itself:
The movie by no means is bad, but its not great as critics say imo. It lacks depth and interesting layers. It lacks emotional investment like let's say winter soldier, logan and iron man. I simply don't care about the story or the characters. They fall flat and one note that I become bored, save for few characters (Killmonger, Shuri) despite the cast doing the best they could. Chadewick Boseman, Michael B Jordan and the rest of the cast are all perfect choices and they do their best to make the characters engaging, but only Michael B Jordan succeeds the most out of them.
The movie in the first act suffers from boring exposition and poor characterization, where it simply introduces these characters and the world of Wakanda but its not very interesting until the ritual and fighting begins. (Although Killmonger's backstory contains interesting points. Speaking of killmonger, he is easily the best character in the movie. He is interesting, you sympathize with his ideals even though his methods are questionable. He's a great villain who is a good challenge to the king
The cinematography and CGI in this movie can sometimes be good, but other times it can be horrible. The best bits of it are in the hand to hand combat on the mountains, the ritual scenes etc. Other times it feels bad like the car chase scene where it lacks levity, creativity and erotic actions sequences. It becomes even worse in the third act, with the rhinos, and the train fight scene, which yes is as bad as people say. In fact, it looks straight out of a ps2 video game.
Overall, the movie is not bad, but its also not great. Would I recommend it? Mostly to the MCU fans and those who love black panther, but its not a great movie. It lacks depth and interesting drama.