In a word: bland.

Rating: 4/10 (26 February 2018)

Full disclosure: I'm not a fan of Marvel films. I haven't watched a film in this series since Guardians of the Galaxy, and my reactions to the few I've seen have generally ranged from indifference to hatred. If you consider yourself a fan, feel free to take my thoughts with a grain of salt or just ignore me completely.
With that being said, the best I can say about Black Panther is I didn't actively dislike it as much as I have some other Marvel films. I mostly just found it incredibly lifeless and boring. There is a pervasive feeling of blandness and inertia that plagues this film from beginning to end. Nearly the first full hour feels like an exercise in directionless wheel-spinning. On paper, it makes some sense to spend the first chunk of the film world-building and introducing us to the new environment and characters before the plot kicks in, and I guess the film attempts that? Kind of? But sadly, sweeping, panoramic, CGI vistas of the city don't really count as "world-building" in my book. And almost every scene in Wakanda that isn't a CGI flyover takes place on a small greenscreen-shrouded soundstage. It all has a sterile, artificial, and clinical feel and the culture of the city simply doesn't translate into something tangible.
The characters don't fare better. For all of the buzz about this being Marvel's "character-driven" film, what really surprised me the most was just how uninspired these characters were. The villain is the only one who rises slightly above the pack, but he's really only interesting in a relative sense given that every other character here is flat and generic. Andy Serkis as the side-kick villain was ok too I guess; he was one-note, sure, but at least he had a note. In a particularly eye-roll inducing scene, we see the "elder" Wakandan (Forest Whitaker's character) killed off by the villain in melodramatic fashion. Am I supposed to care? This "character" had literally no establishment, personality, or stake in the film whatsoever. He's the older dude with the long robe who's probably wise or something. He died now. Feel something.
At least the film had a message though, right? It was about something more than a good guy fighting a bad guy! In the most superficial of senses, yes. But the fact that this film is being seen as some sort of political statement heralded for its cultural insight is ridiculous. The "substance" of this film is essentially a sprinkling of heavy-handed dialogue which references topical issues like immigration and identity politics. It amounts to an illusion of depth to distract you from what is, at its core, another standard and vapid comic book film.
Strong 2/5