It really is rather average.

Rating: 5/10 (12 May 2018)

Here's why "Black Panther" is incredible:
1) It's a cultural movement and it is about time.
There is understandably a lot of hype because it is a mainstream-marketed superhero movie that features an mainly black cast. This shows that Hollywood finally acknowledges that they should cater to everyone on the market and is a indicator of the significant changes society has gone through and the representation in this movie is an absolute gem to witness.
2) It seeks out stereotypes and breaks them.
In lieu with being a cultural movement, it is a Hollywood movie that finally presents African countries in a positive light while also dispelling myths of tribes being backwards, as well as some mystic being "all-knowing" because they're so in touch with nature. Letitia Wright's character, Shuri, is the biggest breaker of stereotypes here, but a special shout-out to making Forest Whitaker's character, Zuri, more than your standard "mystic man" as well.
3) The costume and set design was literal art.
Kudos to the costume department for thinking through the symbolism of every tribe and person represented and for having their vision for each character (even background or minor ones) shine through.
4) Shuri, General Okoye and Killmonger.
They stole the show. King who? Black Panther who? All of the actors were actually pretty good, but Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira and Michael B. Jordan were exceptionally good. Actually, every single character felt decidedly more interesting to follow than T'Challa. I now wish I had gone to see a "Nakia: Super Warrior Liberator Spy" movie rather than Black Panther.

Now here's why Black Panther is an average movie at best and counting its cultural significance as a positive:
1) Its protagonist is literally the driest and most bland character in the movie.
Despite Chadwick Boseman being a good actor, he wasn't given much to work with. I don't remember T'Challa's struggle nor his character progression in this movie, because he was written with only one apparent struggle but nothing that seemed deep enough that a day's worth of contemplation for T'Challa couldn't fix. In the movie, T'Challa's character is mostly used as a tool to clash against Michael B. Jordan's incredible work as Killmonger. It does not do well to have a superhero movie where we can't even remember the struggle of the title character.
2) The story is bad.
The story in this movie is so bland, predictable and it doesn't even offer any kind of resolution. The movie has so many world issues it wants to address, but never quite manages to do anything besides skim the very surface of and not even that goes well. It tries to highlight that Killmonger seeks revenge on the whole world for slavery and imperialism; but then never really addresses its complexities, the effect it has had on history nor does it explore the morale behind Killmonger's vision ever again (you get a cop-out to this issue if you stay for the after-credits scene or watch Infinity War). It tries to address that Wakanda is a prosperous nation with its own privileges and yet the nation doesn't help its own neighbors; the movie then also never addresses this issue again, except for offering said cop-out in the after-credits scene. It tries to address the issue of many African tribes being hung up on tradition as a hindrance; then also never addresses this issue again. Everything is left hanging in the air and there is never really a resolve. This is a superhero movie, we expect a resolution of some sort, even if that resolution has a negative impact.
3) It's not even a good superhero movie.
While I appreciate my drawn-out and serious dramas, I went in expecting a superhero movie. I felt like I showed up, prepared for entertainment and was rewarded with... a kind of cool scene action scene at the end? Sadly, it wasn't even when our protagonist was fighting the antagonist in the inevitable last standoff, it was when our beloved General Okoye was on the battlefield. With the exception of Shuri and General Okoye not much of this movie felt remotely superhero-like. I would not have held this against a movie normally, but if I'm expecting a superhero movie, I actually want to see some really cool action scenes. It's like they promised me James Bond and I got some dweeby half-limp noodle CIA operative (Wait, Martin Freeman's character, is that you?).
4) The CGI.
It's just bad. They overused it and whenever Chadwick Boseman was presented as Black Panther, I had a slight PSTD flashback of watching Legolas jump on stones in mid-air in The Hobbit.
5) The writing is horrible.
Except for a few one-liners (you get a pun or two besides what is shown in the trailer) the writing feels stunted and weird. It just feels very off, even with the added filter of me understanding that I am a European and thus "out of the loop" in terms of how the cadence of jokes or tonal use of African languages (I think it was Xhosa?) usually is delivered. The dialogue is what makes this movie forgettable: There is sensation of a real struggle between any characters except for in Killmonger's case. They could have played on the struggle between General Okoye's duty to her country opposed to her love for Daniel Kaluuya's character, W'Kabi. They could have highlighted Shuri's frustrations of elders looking down on her nontraditional way of life, they could have shown more of the struggle that Winston Duke's character, M'Baku and his tribe has gone through. There were so many missed opportunities and while many things can be derived by context and implicit meaning, the language used between the characters never felt right. This resulted in a general feeling of indifference and I would have felt no inclination to be on Wakanda's side, had it not been for Shuri and General Okoye (and even Lupita Nyong'o's character, Nakia, has me feeling a bit skeptical).
Overall, I understand the hype and the significance of this movie, but it is not a good superhero movie. The cast, crew (except for a select few: I'm looking at you, CGI-folks) and score has done an amazing job but somehow the writers have done them dirty and it has resulted in an overall forgettable movie.