great world-building

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2018)

This is a solid superhero movie. It's entertaining all the way through, with action, humor, plot, character, and most of all great science fiction futuristic world-building using various African cultures which remained identifiable and individual in their dress, music, etc. while participating in a super-modern society. I loved the African music. If I had been watching this at home instead of in a theater I would have gotten up and danced. In think the animals were CGI but I liked them anyway. I would have liked to see more of them. I hope there will be a battle rhino sequence in Infinity War. I liked that the people of Wakanda are openly pagan, worshippers of Bast, the Egyptian cat goddess, and I would have liked to see more about that, too. I would have liked to see more of a lot of the world-building elements of Wakanda, in fact, and I hope there is more in Black Panther 2. And if that's not already in development, get on that, Hollywood. Next time, more cats, please.
The hero
I like that this superhero has a completely different reason for wearing a mask and superhero suit than the standard superhero. Black Panther is not trying to hide his identity. He is more identifiable as the King of Wakanda when he's in the suit than when he's not. He wears a mask because the Panther mask is his crown. It's part of his culture, rooted in African customs around ritual masks. There's even a part of the movie where African ritual masks in a museum are glossed with their ages and cultures of origin.
It might be a little odd for an ultramodern society with really advanced science to still pick their leaders through ritual combat, but it definitely worked as a plot device and an excuse for action and for showing ritual and having great ritual dress and songs. This is not the only story where an advanced society still does that; it's one of the fundamental plot elements of the Pride of Chanur series too. That's about lions, though, which actually do have pride males that challenge for dominance of a pride. Panthers don't actually live in packs like that. Oh, well, that's a really minor quibble. I could say more about T'Challa but I don't think I could come up with anything else that would be original, that other reviewers haven't already said, so I'll just say I am looking forward to seeing him again soon in Infinity War where I expect he will be working with Capt. America (and according to the second after credit scene-- spoiler alert! With Bucky / Winter Soldier, too.)
The villain
I like that they gave us a "villian" so relatable that a lot of people think Killmonger is the hero. His view that Wakanda should help the less fortunate black people of the world is a view shared by Black Panther's love interest, and (spoiler alert!) Black Panther softens his stance in this area at the end of the movie. (There's another villain who is more villainous, Klaue the arms dealer, but he's a small-timer whose corpse Killmonger stands on, on his way to the top of the heap.) I also liked that Killmonger only remained true to his principles until he actually got power, and then basically turned into a colonizer, with his "sun never sets" line that echoes the famous line about the British Empire. This not only showed that Killmonger was in fact the bad guy in this story but also is true to human nature in that way that, as they say, power corrupts.
On the Nature of Good and Evil
One expects a superhero movie to have its good guys all good and its bad guys all bad, and this one breaks that expectation in many ways. Not only is the main villain not really evil, but the same characteristic is present in some of the good guys and bad guys. For example, the first scene that shows Killmonger is supposed to be a bad guy is when he is willing to kill his lover to achieve his goal, which he of course believes is a noble goal. Later, the general of the Doras displays this exact same characteristic, willing to kill her lover for Wakanda in their civil war, and she is one of the good guys. This makes these characters very human, in that no one is all good or all evil.
Bottom line: Good movie, see it.