Entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2018)

I feel somewhere between a 6 and 7 on this one. The costumes, sets, and music are great, the action is good, but the script itself is a little wanting. Frankly, I could scrap the whole first 45 minutes of the film. Other than the action scenes the first 45 minutes are a bit flat, meandering, boring, and the story doesn't really begin until 45 minutes in. That's just bad scripting. I'm willing to forgive it's the same plot as the Lion King, 'cause it manages to be entertaining, but, it would have been nice if they'd stretched their imagination a bit further. There aren't many movies set in Africa, let alone commercial films, so, come on, give it a little more thought.
The side characters, like his sister, girlfriend, main guard, and ally/adversary were the highlights for me. The Black Panther character was a bit...bland. Kind of like a boring Batman. Likable, but not much to him. The sister is the most likable. Honestly, I would have rather seen a movie about her. The women really steal the show in this film, along with the big dude from the neighboring tribe who challenges BP in the beginning.
Maybe now that the world of BP has been set up the next one will be better? The writers don't seem to be particularly seasoned, so, I'm willing to cut them a little room, they just seem like they need to brush up on their plotting skills a bit. The whole, two bad guys thing just didn't work. It was like the first 45 minutes was practically a different film and totally unnecessary, other than the 3 minute scene to give the bad guy a reason for why he was bad. Other than that, the entire 45 minutes were utterly useless. The object they're trying to get ahold of isn't even relevant or necessary to the plot. All it does is lead the BP to the villains. In Raiders of the Lost Ark the Ark is relevant even until the last shot of the film which is why there is so much tension and it keeps you following along the whole way. The Wakanda axe was sort of like a weak Indiana Jones plot thrown in there that soon became irrelevant.
If they cut out the first 45 minutes and tidied it up I probably would have given it an 8. That was the movie, the rest was just a loooong, drawn out filler. The female guards were awesome. The main one, and the whole battalion. I preferred them to the Amazons in Wonder Woman. Actually, throw the Wakanda women in a movie with Wonder Woman and the Amazons and I will totally watch that. I know, they don't do DC and Marvel crossovers, but that would really make the best of those two worlds. Okay, how about the Wakanda women and the Valkyries from Thor? There should be a good Marvel team-up of the ladies. Really, all the straight, white dude, superhero stuff is pretty stale. I only went to see BP 'cause the costumes and sets looked great and I had hopes, but wasn't exactly holding my breath given the way Marvel and DC just churn them out with only a few good ones that stand out from the mass of mediocre and bad.
Anyway, worth a viewing in the theatre since this movie won't really hold up on the small screen.