[Solid Rock Fist Up]
Only in theatres.
The loss of the great Chadwick Boseman is felt in every beat throughout Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the follow up to 2018’s Academy Award for Best Picture nominated flick. The movie serves as a fitting obituary to the talented actor, while also passing the torch of the titular mantle. It’s an emotional second offering that is visually stunning and features powerful performances from the women in the film. It’s just way too long in a way that undercuts some of the emotion of the story.
Wakanda Forever focuses on the country of Wakanda grieving the loss of their leader, T’Challa (Boseman) to a mysterious illness. Of course, the United States is putting pressure on acting Queen Romanda (Angela Bassett) to share the Vibranium wealth. Her scientist daughter, Shuri (Letitia Wright) is conflicted about her responsibility to step up in his absence of her brother and blames herself for not being able to reconstruct the flower herb that may have saved him, but most definitely will help to reinstate a new hero behind the Black Panther mask.
The new villain this time is Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta (mostly known for his Latin American and Spanish filmography). He’s the king of an undiscovered civilization of under water warriors. They’re pretty annoyed T’Challa went public with how cool Vibranium is and now those damn Americans are drilling under the sea, and Namor is not cool with it. He wants Wakanda to help find a scientist or he’s promised a lot of war things will happen. Huerta is great, giving Namor a sense of respect, but also charm and humor. He’s also got wings on his feet, which conceptually might work in the comics but as an on screen visual, thinking about the science that goes into them gives me anxiety.
The film, once again directed by Ryan Coogler is visually stunning. The wardrobe, sets, makeup are all, once again, setting the standard for the amount of care and detail they put into this film. What will frustrate some viewers is the lack of action. The fights and action sequences are great, they’re just few and far between. But this is a story that’s less about action and more about dealing with grief and the loss of a loved one and how to move on.
Unfortunately, the drag here is the running time. First of all, there is way too much going on that has nothing to do with what is happening in Wakanda, because of course, Marvel can’t not thread in a bunch of crap that has nothing to do with the movie you’re watching, they want you to know some characters are coming back in something else, down the line, not a sequel to BP but something else…probably? Maybe on Disney+ or possibly a movie so you have to watch everything to understand why this character shows up here.
Let’s start with the introduction of RiRi Williams (Dominique Thorn) as the younger than anyone realizes genius who Namor wants dead. RiRi is IronHeart. She’s the new Iron Man….kinda, sort of. RiRi gets a pass here because Dominique is fantastic. She’s integral to the plot, wherein she’s the macguffin for a few minutes, but when she’s on screen, she’s not given anything good to do. To be fair, it’s not her movie….she’ll be getting her own Disney+ show soon, so this acts as an intro.
The real problem is the inclusion of Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine or whatever….Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘ character — remember her from Black Widow and Falcon and the Winter Soldier? No? That’s why she’s here then, to remind you she’s a player and will be doing something…eventually. Here, her and Ross’ scenes feel wildly out of place and just flat out unneeded. Chop this and the movie is tighter and might have helped with the emotional impact of the big moments later in the movie.
The real MVPs of this film are the outstanding women who carry the emotional weight we’ve all felt since the loss of Boseman. First of all, Angela Bassett should be high on the Best Supporting Actress consideration list this season. She is phenomenal in every scene and an absolute “scene stealer” (see what I did there?). Danai Gurira has been kicking ass as the under appreciated character, Okoye, and has some strong moments here. And of course, Letitia delivers a strong performance. It’s tough to step in for Boseman, especially under the circumstances, but she delivers a emotional performance.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a solid sequel and by far — by far — the best comic book movie of 2022, but it feels slightly underwhelming compared to what it was going to be. That’s not fair to the actors, who deliver amazing performances in the shadow of an unfortunate tragedy. The devotion of the character that Coogler brings to the screen and the passion to which the cast and crew that came together to deliver a film that allows fans to find closure and say goodbye to Chadwick bleeds through in every frame. It’s just missing something. And that sucks.
Also, it’s just too damn long. Stop trying to do so much, Marvel! And there is only one mid-credit scene, so you don’t have to say until the end unless you just love giving the crew that little extra love.
Lover of movies and tacos. Ad man. Author. Member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle and the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Founder of the Terror on the Plains Horror Festival. Creator and voice of the Reel Hooligans podcast.
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