Marvel Needs to Stay Down This Awesome Path

Rating: 9/10 (26 February 2018)

I was very excited for this movie for a while. I work at a movie theater, and I never got sick of seeing trailers for it. And fortunately, the movie delivered awesomely. There were a few things I didn't care for, but no movie's perfect.
Starting with the cons. T'Challa's mom didn't really do anything? She should've had some more things to do in the story. Some of the exposition and beginning could've been shortened. I liked that they took their time, but it's almost like they did it too much in the beginning and too little at the end so they could've balanced it out. The "what are those?!" comment was just... unnecessary. Come on Marvel. And I wish Michael B. Jordan had more screen time because he was fantastic, the best Marvel villain overall in my opinion, and did an amazing performance. Some of the technology seemed a little far-fetched, and since they didn't expand on how most of it really worked, it makes the characters seem pretty invulnerable at times. Though they counteract it well at some points, like taking away Black Panther's superhuman qualities when he fights for the throne.
The majority of the movie was the pros. All the performances were great, I don't think there was one character that was acted poorly. Micheal B. Jordan and Chadwick Boseman are both stars that deserve more positive attention, because they're fantastic in everything I've seen them in. This is no exception. Adding onto this, pretty much everyone also wen through character development to some degree, which is unfortunately a rarity in most blockbusters. However, Ryan Coogler is definitely a director that cares about that sort of thing. I certainly want to start a petition for Marvel to hire more directors with visions of their own. Taika Watiti and now Ryan Coogler, very good calls. All the characters were just so well-written, it made me so happy. Especially all the strong and well-written female characters. See Hollywood? It's not hard to do it. It felt so natural and made so much sense, they were all treated with so much respect and I'm over the moon. We need more strong and well-written female role-models in movies, especially those of color. And not all of the, were just "hot girl who kicks ass and that's it" either! Yay! I actually found myself wanting more close quarters action, since the stunts and fight choreography were both amazing. The way the love story with T'Challa and Nakia was approached and written was refreshing. It wasn't like literally almost every other Marvel movie where the characters meet in the movie and fall in love within the events of the movie. T'Challa and Nakia had a history, a believable one, and we were rooting for them to get back together. And when they did, it wasn't one of them making a sacrifice for the other. T'Challa offered Nakia a way to fulfill what she wanted while still being close by. One thing I was worried about was they wouldn't blend the traditional African culture with futuristic imagery that well, and that it'd be clunky and unnatural. But this was something that was actually done pretty well, and in a believable way. Overall, fantastic movie.