High Expectations with a Bad Delivery

Rating: 6/10 (5 May 2019)

Black Panther was released in January of 2018 and is the sixteenth film in the Marvel Comics film series that originated with Captain America: The First Avenger and has progressed through to Avengers: Endgame. I expected Black Panther to be a face paced action packed film with a countless amount of physical actions shots but ended up having a surprisingly slow to start to the film. In comparison to its predecessors in the Marvel series, I expected a great film but was let down and only got about fifty percent of what I had hoped the film would be.
Black Panther was written by Stan Lee, directed by Ryan Coogler, and produced by Kevin Feige being released in the United States by Marvel Studios. Chadwick Boseman played the main character T'Challa or better known as the Black Panther, and his rival Erik Killmonger who was also his cousin was played Michael B. Jordan. Throughout Black Panther, Killmonger and Black Panther had a disturbed complex human relationship because Black Panther's father T'Chaka played by John Kani abandoned Killmonger after his Uncle Zuri played by Forest Whitaker killed Killmonger's father.
The conflict between Black Panther and Killmonger was not immediately recognizable but became the focus of attention when Killmonger returned to Wakanda to challenge King T'Challa for the throne to rule over the five tribes of Wakanda. Another integral character throughout the film was General Okoye played by Danai Gurira who was the leader of the Dora Milaje Tribe who was responsible for the guarding and protection of Wakanda and the royal family.
During the film, it was very prevalent that a decent amount of the action sequences was set during the nighttime or indoors with dark and shadowy backgrounds and the slower paced shots were filmed in a bright and colorful setting. Being that the movie is titled Black Panther, I expected a darker scene setting but the amount of dimly lit scenes detracted from the overall colorfulness that Wakanda presented. Black Panther had a short timespan with the cutting speeds between the shots and utilized the parallel cut to bounce back and forth between the action scenes. This took place during the car chase scene alternating between the lab in Wakanda and the South Korean streets. The parallel cut was utilized during the flying towards the back half of the film. The longest cutting speed during the film was the slow-motion scene when Killmonger was watching the ship disappear with the killers of his father. The slow-motion aspect of the scene was important to show the abandonment of the young Wakandans child by his fellow Wakandans.
Overall Black Panther was a necessary part of the Marvel Film Universe, but it lacked the excitement and action pack sequences of the films in the series. Another downfall of Black Panther was the lack of explanation of how the berries and flowers gave him his powers. I am not a reader of comic books, and this could be why I did not understand the little nuances of the film.