As a cultural moment - 10; As a superhero movie - 6.5

Rating: 7/10 (23 February 2018)

You have to be suspicious of any movie that sets out to deliberately break new ground. "Wonder Woman," for example, was a pretty good movie but had some flaws. It got a pass from critics because it was the first woman superhero movie. Had it stared Chris Hemsworth or Tom Cruise, it would have been treated much more harshly.
"Black Panther" does a fabulous job of building a super advanced civilization in the heart of Africa. The depth, complexity and thought that went into all of this was truly delightful. Too bad it could not have been explored in a "Game of Thrones" style long-format story ark. As it was, we spend almost half the movie world-building for a disappointingly small payoff in terms of story. The middle drags while so much track is being laid.
The story is OK. "Iron Man", by way of comparison, was a great movie because of the main character's growth ark. We saw an immature and deeply flawed Tony Stark come into true adulthood. He emerges from the shadow of his father and faces the truth about the deadly weapons he creates. In "Black Panther" we see T'Challa also emerge into true adulthood. He starts as an admirable and nearly perfect Prince and develops into an admirable and slightly more perfect King. The growth ark is interesting but underwhelming.
The truly fascinating character is Killmonger (Michael Jordan) and his sidekick Claw (Andy Serkis). We end up wishing more of the movie had been about them rather than T'Challa's angst over whether to be just noble or really really noble.
Still, definitely worth seeing. The creative detail and near total immersion into alternative African culture makes up for the lackluster character development and predictable story.