The Numbers Speak For Themselves

Rating: 10/10 (21 February 2018)

I rarely give a movie 10/10. This is straight 10 for me, for a number of reasons.
1. There have been no movies that are cast with all African actors and directors, especially in the new marvel universe (I am excluding soul food movies here). There have also been hardly any blockbusters that have African leads, Denzel and Will Smith have tried with Hancock, American Gangster and I am Legend hence these two actors are legends. The acting from actors who don't get the practice of leading, is phenomenal, it was like watching 007, Matrix all in one. It was simply awesome that African actors could change perceptions without overdoing the us and them.
2. The story was authentically African, it embodies our view of the world, in some way often naive but good natutred that can be misconstrued as primitive or stupid. Most European directors often focus on the perceived negatives over these emotions. A mother makes naive choices, ends up a single mum, a son angry at an absent father but somehow lacks the capacity to forgive, the gangster who seems to have a childish view of living despite his obvious reality, the angry black man who takes a gun into a hospital to make his point of inequality. This movie was just the pure fun of living in an all African society. Where people fight, betray and make up without that anglo saxon need to finish what you started. One for the black folks to understand.
3. It highlights the gulf that has existed in the African population between, those who got sold into slavery and those who stayed and often this gulf has meant, affluent westernised Africans care little for those in Africa, hence the continent is poorer, it is a deep division caused by the most divisive point in history amazingly captured by Marvel of all people. The villain some how is not quite a villain a very DC touch in my opinion but very African in origin.
4. Every actor gave 100%, it was personal and in turn this singular film will inspire generations for millennia not because it features Africans but because it sends a positive message of hope to the whole world and embodies the African view of forgiveness, passion and self development, not many people could have emerged out of 400 years of systematic genocide to stand almost equal to any race today. Finally, it has a name "Wakanda". In my opinion, it is not a real place but lives in the heart of all Africans.
I can understand if the typical expectations were, another Marvel flick and it is now hard to turn tail but this is a seperate franchise, probably the last but an amazing movie, passionate, funny, suspenseful and worth a second watch. Go see it... Please! Critics are just not qualified to critique. It is a movie for Africans and those who want to have fun with a bold Marvel approach to adding Africans to the super hero universe. It was about time, considering we already kick ass in real life.