Impressive visuals and an amazing film score

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2018)

First off I would like to say that I've deliberately put off writing this review. I was quite conflicted because of the overwhelmingly positive reactions that this movie managed to accumulate. I will preface this review with stating that it was a good movie but ... at the same time it felt like it was lacking certain storytelling aspects. But we'll get to that in a second.
Based on the fact that it is one of the highest grossing movies of all time some people made the assumption that it is a "monumental" superhero movie that is akin to "The Dark Knight". I disagree with that statement. The movie was fun to watch but it wasn't as "monumental" as the Dark Knight movie. Furthermore I'd like to point out that a movie's box office performance isn't necessarily a good indicator for its storytelling aspects. I personally like to believe that the movie seemed a little bit boring at times (especially during the middle segment). It only got really interesting when the villain finally showed up, which took some time. But then again, this is an origin movie so you have to expect everything to take twice as long as usual due to the limitations of the genre. And once the user is fairly accustomed with the origin story things can progress at a much faster pace. All origin movies have to struggle with this odd pacing. Which is also the reason why I'm not very fond of origin movies in general (despite their importance to new viewers).
The film score was amazing. Ludwig Göransson did a really good job composing it. It was super authentic due to its many ethnic elements and added a great deal of depth to the overall ambiance of the movie. The cinematography was also quite breathtaking. With those awesome aerial shots of the African landscape and the interesting camera angles. Like e.g. that one scene where the camera swivels horizontally as Killmonger walks into the throne room. That one was a pretty cool shot that you don't really see that often. Actually, now that I think about it the movie had a lot to offer but I simply feel like the story itself wasn't quite on the same level. Let me explain:
Out of all the protagonists it really seemed like T'Challa was the least interesting one, which is pretty weird considering that it's a movie about him, the Black Panther. Killmonger and Okoye e.g. were far more compelling characters, just to put it into perspective. My biggest criticism however concerns a pretty obvious storytelling flaw; the lack of character development.
Okoye was probably the only character that grew/"changed her ways" when push came to shove. The UN speech that T'Challa gave at the end made for the perfect ending but it also felt very forced to me. At no point did he even "consider" to metaphorically break bread with other nations. Not even when Nakia, his ex-girlfriend who he still has feelings for, suggested it. It just seemed odd for him to do a total 180 on a subject matter that he used to be so stoic about. So yeah, I would say it wasn't very believable.
A minor thing that I would also like to mention is M'Baku's demeanor. In the comics he's far more antagonizing. After all he's one of Black Panther's arch enemies. He definitely seemed a little too friendly in the movie (if you know the comics). And yeah, in the comics he goes by another moniker: "Man-Ape". The director however decided to simply go with M'Baku instead because it might be racist? I personally don't agree with that decision. Man-Ape isn't a racist name for a villain. Especially once you realize that M'Baku and his tribe are literally worshiping the gorilla gods in the comics. It makes perfect sense.
On a side note:
The Black Panther suit received a well-deserved design-upgrade and looks much better than the one from the comics. It's very aesthetically pleasing with all those streamlined metal spike adornments. I dare to say that it's arguably the best looking suit in the Marvel CMU to date (the only contender would be the "Iron Spider Man"-suit but we have yet to see it on Peter Parker).
At the end of the day the movie was more like an appetizer. That's at least what I took away from it. I'm convinced that the Black Panther and Wakanda will probably play a bigger role in the upcoming Marvel movies.
I'm also pretty certain that the sequels will be much better. Mostly because they won't be origin movies.
Final verdict: recommended