"Do you know what I call them?... sneakers!"

Rating: 8/10 (22 February 2018)

The best superhero films of all (no particular order) are X-Men United, Iron Man (I), Thor (I), The Avengers (I), and Wonder Woman. Does Black Panther join that list? Maybe. It's hard to argue with the rave success it's having with audiences in theaters all over Africa, who are finally seeing themselves represented on screen. So bravo to that. I give this a solid 8/10 but if anyone wants to give this a 10/10 for its cultural impact alone, fine. (A personal footnote: I don't ever see myself "represented" in any superhero film characters at all, so in a sense I can feel free to identify with whoever I want. The closest I would come would probably be Hank Pym or Doctor Strange, but even those are bit of a stretch.)
I like to look at the demographic breakdown of the IMDb rankings and in this case it's interesting that women rate it notably higher than men, in all age groups. Is the reason as simple as that there are so many very active female supporting characters? Those characters are good -- I thought Letitia Wright's portrayal of young Shuri was the most interesting role of the whole works. As the hero, Chadwick Boseman is kind of stuck being required to be noble and honorable all the time, so he's a little one-dimensional. But, I can't avoid pointing out that supporting characters aside, all the head honchos in this movie are still male. That's why Wonder Woman still stands alone, and why I'm looking forward to Captain Marvel (and even Black Widow if that does get made).
It's a fine ensemble cast and they are all nicely invested in their characters. It was fun to listen to the Xhosa-accented English from the Wakandans throughout the film -- you get so used to it that when Eric Killmonger drops in with his Los Angeles-street accent (that we would normally be quite used to hearing) it actually jars. It's clear that this guy doesn't fit in and has to be removed as quickly as possible. Wakandan origin or not, he's beyond saving. For the rest of it, Marvel pulls off its normal excellent production values, and the action, scenery, backdrops, and special effects all have a high-gloss richness and texture that you associate (e.g.) with Steven Spielberg at his best. (The bright African sunlight doesn't hurt the colorful cinematography either.) One thing that I couldn't quite buy into was the Wakanda setting itself where we see traditional rural agrarian tribal life put right up against this futurist techno-ShangriLa. if their society is really this advanced, then why in heck do they choose a king by holding a primitive, brutal hand-to-hand combat ritual? Really, they need to get rid of that .... And the armored rhinos kind of went over the top for me.
The on-screen Black Panther here and his techno-marvel suit are a powerful step up from what the character did in the actual comics, though I was never particularly interested in the BP character back then -- he seemed too much like Spidey or Captain America. In the movie MCU, however, they seem to have decided to make BP a major player in the whole greater story in which this is one more building block.
After I left the theater I realized that BP felt quite a bit like a good James Bond film -- it zips around to multinational settings,it never lags, it gets through a lot of plot, and it gives you lots to look at for your money. I see that some writers give BP credit for 'discussing' world issues like immigration and the responsibilities of advanced nations to help others, but it seems like those kinds of things were just raised rather than really tackled. Can't have it all.
On to Infinity War.