Black Panther

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2019)

Black Panther has become such a contentious issue on the internet. Many people seem to be butt-hurt that it got an Oscar nomination and most people find it overrated. I swear I sometimes think overblown media hype can ruin a perfectly good movie. And I want to preface my review by saying this: if you're white and you did not like the movie that's perfectly fine I do not think you're racist. And if you're black and you did not like the movie, I don't think you're an uncle tom. Yes, as a black man I enjoy seeing myself on-screen that's a given.
But I'm still going to talk about it as a movie because this is my review. I want to start with the positives: I love the world-building of Wakanda it's fascinating for me to see an African nation unfettered by European Imperialism. And Ryan Coogler gets a lot of mileage out of playing with the Afro futurism aspects of Wakanda. You get a sense that each African tribe in Wakanda has their own history and culture, which adds a lot of texture to the movie. On the character side, you have T'Challa and Suri who have a great dynamic as brother and sister.
Suri is essentially Black Panther's Q designing his gadgets for his various missions. The film also addresses the isolationism of Wakanda and T'Challa debates with his colleagues about whether Wakanda should open its borders to countries in need. In terms of the villain the film also shines with the character of Killmonger. Killmonger is essentially a tragic Magneto figure that's been twisted by racism and turned into a monster. And I appreciate that the film doesn't shy away from the systemic racism Killmonger endured in America. However, if I find any fault with the film is that Killmonger didn't get any kind of redemption arc, he's just vanquished like any other MCU villain and that's a shame. I would have love to see T'Challa and Killmonger as allies in the sequel. There's also some spotty CGI in the last battle between Black Panther and Killmonger. For the life of me, I don't understand how a 200 million dollar blockbuster has CGI that looks like a cut-scene from a PS2 game. But small quibbles aside, Black Panther is a remarkable achievement in cinema, it made a cultural statement and was entertaining at the same time which is no easy feat.