Tries to be different, but keeps pulling back to the same.

Rating: 6/10 (20 February 2018)

I want to start this review saying that I think it's really silly that this movie has caused a political discussion. Not because the movie and marketing didn't ask for it, but after watching the film, the movie is really nothing more than another marvel film. The movie does things better and worse compared to other marvel films, but as it stands outside of the spectrum, it's predictable and isn't anything more than a superhero film. I'm very glad we have a superhero film that is this heavy in the representation of the black community during this age of popularity in superhero films, but that's really as far as any "political stance" should go into this film.
As a movie, it's fine. There wasn't any moment in the film where I felt impressed from what I was looking at, and there were times where I know Marvel can do better. Lets start with what I think it did superior to other marvel films.
1. The music. I think this is hands down the best original soundtrack we have gotten from a marvel film, and this is easily on par with the actual usage of their soundtrack outside of the guardian movies. Instead of being generic samey orchestra music that is used in every marvel film, we now have a soundtrack that sticks out from others in the franchise.
2. The villains. Marvel has been getting better with their villains since Guardians Vol 2. And this movie has two. Both of which were my favorite performances in the film, being Michael B Jordan and Andy Serkis respectfully. It's really refreshing also seeing a villain you can root for this time around.
3. The designs of the characters, world and weapons. How the CGI looked is a topic for later, but i loved the world of Wakanda and watching the characters walk around it. And every character had something in their design that felt right for the character they were playing.
And that's really about it. And those things listed above aren't anything real impressive, just good. Now for the negatives.
The CGI and all the effects were horrid. And I can't believe some people are trying to say it was passable. Every time the camera was zoomed out and black panther was on screen he looked straight out of a video game. It was superman in Justice League levels of bad. This goes for most of the environments, spaceships, animals etc. I know CGI is necessary for this movie and I'm not bashing CGI, but when you film outside couldn't you just use the outside? what's the point of the green screen and why does it look so bad? Anytime they were in a room that didn't have anything more than 1 level, it was clearly CGI city.
Also the jokes. Marvel movies are known for being pretty funny and generally I agree even when the jokes ruin perfectly good scenes, (cough cough Ragnarok, cough cough Guardians 2) the jokes in this movie gave me a smile at most. And I think a dreamworks executive might of mixed his script into this one because there is a "what are those" joke, a "I make it rain" joke, and a "whip her hair back and forth" joke. Way to slap a stamp on this movie that says "this was made in the 2010's"
While the negatives of this film affect my overall score pretty greatly as they are significant parts in the film, the rest of the film is very okay. The story and plot is okay. The dialogue outside of the jokes is okay. The action is okay. If it wasn't for the original setting and feel of the theme in the music this movie would be right alongside Doctor Strange and Ant Man as just another stepping stone for the marvel franchise. I'm glad I watched it, I still enjoyed it, I'm just really not rushing at all to see it again.