Hoped for more based on the hype - just averaged :(

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2018)

This is going to be difficult, did I enjoy the film - yes. Did I think it was as good as the critics say - no. Do I think it's worthy of all the awards and plaudits it's received - no. Do I think it's been talked up due to the ethnic diversity contained in the film - yes (sorry).
Black Panther introduces the Marvel universe to Wakanda, the fictional home of the Wankandan people and their king/leader/superhero saviour -the Black Panther. In a nutshell the movie is this - a new king arrives home, he doubts himself, the crown is threatened, a new king emerges and dethrones the old king, the new king turns out to be bad, conflict ensues to the point of civil war, fights occur everywhere, the old king realises his worth, by the end of the film everything is ok again. Chadwick Boseman plays a decent role as T'Challa, but Michael B Jordan plays a better villain in Killmonger for me. The coolest things about the film were the weapons and tech, the best character was Shuri (Letitia Wright) because she delivered humour as well as action.
The plot was weak and it's been done before - I have an issue when superhero's fight practically identical carbon copy superhero's - the worst part of "Antman" for example was Antman fighting Yellow-jacket as they were practically the same. The worst part of the Iron Man films was when he fought against carbon copies of the Iron Man he'd made. I even hated computer games that did that - Ken/Ryu in Street Fighter - SubZero/Scorpion in Mortal Kombat - It's lazy and it's cheap! Black Panther sadly does exactly that. Throw together two black panther suits, identifiable mainly by the varying shades used on the trim - and then the action scene's just look like lazy CGI dancing, something you'd expect to see a college computer design student make.
I think this movie got the acclaim it did because 99% of the cast were black - for me I don't care what colour, race or religion somebody is - film is about the story, it's about losing yourself to something fun and exciting. There are some seriously great films out there with a black cast, but they didn't get the praise they deserved - I'm sure there will be excellent films in the future with black superhero's saving the day too. Unfortunately this film felt like it had already been done before a hundred times over. For me, it didn't live up to the expectation of hype I'd read into. I really wanted a lot more from Black Panther - I just hope that the next installment has a better and more original story line. I'd love to rate this higher but the best I can give it is 6 out of 10 because it didn't feel original or fresh.