Culturally important, solid entry into MCU

Rating: 8/10 (20 April 2019)

I worked at a theater when Black Panther came out. We thought it would be big as most Marvel movies are, but it ended up being 10x bigger that we planned on.
This movie is for sure one of the most culturally important movies to be released in the MCU. I will admit that aspect caused it to be a bit overrated in the long run, but it is still as great and solid entry into the MCU.
Black Panther was introduced in Civil War as a side character. It was clear he was going to have his own origin movie and Wakanda was finally going to appear in the MCU. This movie starts not too long after Civil War as T'Challa returns to Wakanda to be crowned King of his nation.
For a movie called Black Panther, honestly the lead is probably one of the weaker aspects of it. It's really his allies and the villain that shine in this movie. His sister and the head of the King's guard are easily the best two characters in the movie. They're really fun and lighten the mood what could be a painfully boring movie. The villain when he comes into light is probably the 2nd best MCU baddie after Thanos. Even Andy Serkis as Ulysses Claue makes a return from "Age of Ultron" and is so much damn fun to watch. It's really all the characters surrounding T'Challa that make this movie so entertaining. Without them, this movie would have been much worse off.
It has some really stellar action scenes, especially the casino/car chase in the middle. It's a shame that the final battle is so poorly done. I'm not sure if it was because Marvel wasn't sure if BP would do well, so they cut the budget on the CGI for the final battle, but it just wasn't up to snuff with other movies like Winter Soldier or Civil War. The CGI battle between Killmonger and T'Challa on the train tracks looked really bad.
Besides the lackluster finale, Black Panther is still a really great movie and a welcome change of pace in the MCU. It has a villain with real conviction and a great cast of side characters. Culturally, this movie was probably even bigger than Infinity War and it makes sense. It was just missing something to make it as top notch as Winter Soldier, Civil War, or Infinity War. I do hope for a sequel to improve upon this. Maybe a quality bump similar to Captain America 1 to 2.