Not Marvel's best but perhaps their most socially pointed work...

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2018)

I rather like this movie and if the central plot was a little bit less Hamlet I would have loved it. Don't get me wrong the central plot is engaging it just goes where you expect it to go at all times. The work done in both the writing and technical aspects to develop Wakanda as multilayered society rife with factions and internal conflicts is really cool and if nothing else the film makes you want to spend more time with this group of characters. I simply loved the art direction and costumes in this. It was like pan-African version of Lost Horizon.
The real standout was Killmonger. Easily Marvel's best and most compelling antagonist he is at once a righteous zealot, a fallen idealist and a twisted version of the hero. The writing coupled with Jordan's charismatic and forceful performance renders a perfect anti-villain to love. I hope they bring him back somehow.
Much has been made of the film featuring a nearly exclusively black cast. I think that is a rather shallow reading of the text. The film absolutely does contain parallels and commentary on the African diaspora and the African American experience but it goes beyond simply casting black people. It is really hard to not hear the implicit rebuke of Trumpianism in the final speech and character arch of Wakanda and her King. Like Winter Solider and Iron Man 2 the film contain pretty overt political material. It is a deeper more engaging film because of it.