A classic example of reach exceeding grasp

Rating: 3/10 (1 September 2018)

The hype surrounding this movie was incredible. I have never seen a movie so inflated before it even hit theaters. It was supposed to be some ground-breaking and awe-inspiring collection of actors in roles that were implied they were made for. A cast that perfectly fit the story line and would elevate this movie beyond mere Marvel offerings. What we got however, was a movie that wasn't even worthy of the source material.
I've been a huge fan of Marvel and have read the comics since I was a boy. I am fairly familiar with T'Challa and the Black Panther character. Captain America and he worked together on many missions protecting Wakanda and the United States against evildoers. T'Challa has a great backstory to his character. I was really hoping that this movie would showcase some of that so that we could appreciate the uniqueness in the Black Panther character. Sadly it did not. I wanted to see some of the hardships he faced as king. The warring between the tribes and how he manages to balance being a king and being the Black Panther. Instead we got a CGI heavy movie that lacked any sort of heart or fondness for it's own protagonist. The CGI wasn't good either. I expected more from a Marvel movie.
One of the reasons why a good hero is so important is that you have to have a good bad guy to go along with it. This movie did not. Killmonger's character was deluded down to an angry punk kid who just wanted to look cool and have power. The scenes with T'Challa and Killmonger would have been so much more meaningful had they taken advantage of the relationship they had together more. I felt no connection to the Killmonger character. They could have spent more time showing the conflict within T'Challa having to fight his own family just to stay alive. With the backstory of Killmonger, we should have felt a lot more sympathy towards him but the foundation just wasn't there. More time should have been spent on the conflict between the family and less time on CGI and bragging about the technology they had. Such a disappointment.