Excellent lead-in to AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2018)

The story is straightforward enough. The prologue is set in 1992, where a much younger King T'Chaka visits one of his War Dogs (Wakandans who are supposed to impartially spy on the Outside World) who turns out to be his younger brother Prince N'Jobu! Charges of treason are leveled against the prince, following which...
...the movie fast-forwards 24 years.
That's right. The bulk of the movie is set one week after the ending of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. And the bulk of the script has been brilliantly adapted from the debut story arc in Marvel Comics' "Jungle Action." A magazine of the 1970's that helped revive reader interest in Prince T'Challa after his departure from the Silver Age comic book Avengers, ten years earlier. And which first introduced then-teenagers like me to such memorable characters as Erik Killmonger; M'Baku the Man-Ape; and Monica Lynn.
Sadly, the latter has been replaced by another, more geographically convenient love interest; the Lady Nakia. But, the other two are still around and refreshingly updated for the 2010's. M'Baku, in particular! In the comics, his tribe/clan worshipped white gorillas (as part of a cult outlawed by the more dominant Panther Clan). Yet, in this movie, they worship a West African avatar of Hanuman (the Hindu monkey god).*
While Erik Killmonger goes from being a common mercenary to someone with an initially mysterious grudge against T'Challa. Hence, the former's eventual double-cross of Ulysses Klaw (who, btw, goes from East European mad scientist-changed-into-creature-of-living sound, in the comic books, to expatriate South African cyborg in the film).*
I don't want to give away too much of the rest of the story. Suffice it to say that Chadwick Boseman gave just as convincing a performance as T'Challa as he did in CA:CW. Thereby making the two hour-and-then-some running time fly by relatively fast. Including the now-customary sneaky epilogues during the ending credits!
One strange thing, though. Based on all the advance person-on-the-street interviews I saw on the six o'clock news, this movie was hailed as a revolutionary (and long overdue) first step in bringing an African-American superhero to the silver screen. So, why was most of the audience who went to see this at my hometown multiplex...of the Caucasian persuasion?
Ah, well!*
*Don't ask. Just enjoy.