Black Excellence

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2018)

Another installment from the marvel comic book series: the latest installment brings to the big screen Black Panther played by Chadwick Boseman who in it plays the newly minted King T'Challa of a mythical, uncolonized Central African country named Wakanda. His ascendance to Kingship comes as the result of his father, T' Chaka, being killed in a terrorist attack by the antagonist (#1) Ulyssess Klaue who we soon find out is a South African jewel thief in pursuit of the mineral Vibranium to presumably make huge profits off of on the black market. Wakanda is rich in Vibranium that is exclusive to and the life blood of the country and has made it the most technologically advanced country in the world.
The film stays true to the origin of the comic book series while managing to include bigger yet subtle overarching themes such as black cooperation or the lack thereof, moral ambiguity, and isolationism vs black global solidarity for the greater good. Ryan Coogler is able to visually shatter and debunk the real life age-old myths perpetuated by white historians that Africa was/is a continent bereft of traditions and cultural achievement comparable to that of Europe thereby justifying colonialism. From the onset we see that this is a country steeped in rich traditions, pageantry, and government structure, and more advanced than much of the western world beyond just technology. While the movie is very much present-day and futuristic, it also at the same time pays homage to the best of an Africa past that has been written about and celebrated extensively by the John Henrik Clarkes, the Walter Rodneys, and WEB Duboises and so on of the world to counter the racist stereotypes of white historians.
The most compelling feature of the film for me was that this may have been the 1st time I can recall where a film of this magnitude (and enormous budget) didn't subject the beautiful black women characters to ancillary roles in relation to their male counterparts. Without having to mention it, the audience was able to see that Wakandans understood in order to have a progressive society, the women must be equally empowered as the men. All these women's characters had weight to them. Now, what I also found fascinating was the director's deviation from most comic book movies in its portrayal of the villain, Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan. It has been commonplace for a great deal of the comic book movies to typically establish what the villain's character arc and motives are which enables audience members to see a clear dichotomy between "good" vs "evil" but this film takes a detour from this cinematic comic book trope midway through by creating a moral dilemma that somewhat makes the villain a sympathetic character or at the very least a misunderstood antagonist (#2).
This movie was a success on so many levels; if I were absolutely compelled to nitpick anything I didn't like about the movie perhaps it would be the CGI that has become a bit overused for my personal taste in big budget super hero comic book movies but that was by no means enough for me to say it interfered with my view of the film overall. The movie was 2:15 minutes but the pacing was really good with no real lulls in it; I was left wanting more and can't wait to see if Marvel/Disney/Coogler can top this.