Ok
so you know that when it comes to the last few years of the MCU and in particular since
Avengers Infinity War, I haven't been a fan of a lot of the films that Marvel have put to screen,
and I think this generally comes down to lazy filmmkaing, poor scripts and in general, just
a lack of filmmaker driven passion that becomes more product then it does individual quality.
I came into this film not expecting a complete turn around, but Black Panther Wakanda Forever
did actually surprise me because it was an MCU film that took itself more seriously,
focussing on all the supporting players from that original film, introducing a few new
characters that were great too, and as a whole, it was powerful experience with much better
filmmaking than we've seen in recent years from this studio. In this video, I'm going to be giving
you my spoiler-free review of Black Panther Wakanda Forever, discussing the reasons why
I think it's the best movie from Marvel for a good couple of years. Before I get into it though,
if you want to keep up to date on any of my future content surrounding the latest
blockbuster releases, then don't forget to support this upload by giving it a like rating,
subscribing to the channel and turning on your notifications. But without further a do, lets
dive into my review of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
So Black Panther 2 is about individual loss, overcoming that and the legacy of Wakanda.
There's a reason that on the logo for the film, Wakanda Forever is much bigger as a
subtitle than the Black Panther part of that logo, and I think as a film, it allowed Marvel
to show us a side of them that I never thought I'd see. This is a film with more powerful
performances, a better script and a plot that's actually quite interesting in comparison to the
plethora of MCU movies that have come out in recent years. Now I do wanna say that this
isn't Spider-Man No Way Home in that it's a complete joy ride of nostalgia and action
scenes that deliver on charactaers we've wanted to see on screen for over a decade. In fact, it's
the reverse to that and I personally think it's best made Marvel project when it comes to the
filmmaking involved. There's less action, it focuses on character and it gives us a more
cinematic film that allows a lot of the supporting players that weren't as prominent in the original
the time to shine. They are respectful to Chadwick Boseman and the legacy that
everyone has to carry forward following his death, and while this film does miss the presence of him,
it still keeps him filmly in mind and focuses on how everyone is dealing with that,
all while a potential new conflict is brewing. I honestly think the first 2 hours of Wakanda
Forever was well paced, and other then a few unnesesary scenes and additions with Dominique
Thorne's Iron Heart I think most of the cast really drive this over the line.
In particular, I was actually quite shocked that Letitia Wright's Shuri was able to give
us a much deeper character in the sequel, and at times I was watching the film thinking, is this
the same Shuri I saw in the original Black Panther. But it's totally right to feel that
way because other then moments in the final battle when she suits up, I think she does a brilliant
job of making the audience feel what she's going through, and it's not like in the original where
we'd get scenes of her dropping cringe humour that fail to make a comedic impression.
Here she has a much more connectable character and we really understand her grief and struggles
towards becoming her own figure after the death of Chadwick. The realistic answer that the
film gives us is that people can move on, but they will never forget the past and those they
cared about that sadly passed. And again I was pleasantly surprised by her performance and how
for most of the film she was able to captivate me with these very ideals. Another standout is
of course Angela Basset's Ramonda, who a lot of critics have talked about in reference to
potentially getting an academy award nomination for her perdormance here. While I don't think
this quite reaches Oscar level, I will say that her performance is touching and she definitely
was one of the standouts that again, I thought was better than the original. Lupita Nyongo and
Winston Duke were also great here and while I did want more of them, the scenes they did get
stood out and you really feel each of their individual pain and struggles in dramatically
different ways. Lupita's Nakia has moved away from Wakanda and as film goes on we truly learn why
she did so and how that connects to Tchala's passing. And Winston is again strong in the scenes
he's in, being one of the actual funny parts of this more dramatic film, and it doesn't feel
offputting, like with say Iron Heart in the first act. Finally, there's the film's villain Namor,
who was actually on the more compelling side of villains in this universe, and while we
probabaly could have got more screen from him, the scenes we do get, make us understand his
point of view and it correlated the central themes at play throughout. As a whole, the
performances were one of the strong elements here and as someone who hasn't enjoyed the
scripts nor the characters in Marvel's films over the years, I was able with this film to really
connect to well-fleshed out characters with flared mentalities and understand how they
are truly feeling. They felt like actual people in a grounded drama at times. And again, that's a
suprising thing to see a Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
Director and co-writer Ryan Coogler and his entire cast and crew have created a film that
is perhaps the most emotional and personal in a franchise that we often categorise as directed
towards cooking cutter filmmaking. Here we get a mix of real-life and fictional grief,
where characters deal with loss and try to move forward just as much as those in the real world
that felt the passing of Chadwick Boseman. Alongside this, the plot supplies a deeper
social backdrop to all the drama with two forces going up against each other in a moment of rising
conflict. The message is of course that they should be working together instead
of trying to destroy one another, and it's their distinct mentalities and
pasts that really put that in line well, through Coogler's well-crafted
script. In the plot, Wakanda is in the process of mourning the death of their king, and in this time
of grief, others seek out the opportunity to capitalize on the nation's weakened moment and
get a hold of the vibranium under its land. But following a drilling operation, there is an attack
from another secret world power, putting the blame on Wakanda in the prcoess. That
power is an advanced undersea civilization called Talokan, led by the mutant Namor, who initially,
tries to get Wakanda's help in dealing with outside world. Things escalate from this moment
onwards, and it becomes more of a film about individuals and their
distinct reactions and feelings towards this new potential threat of war.
That's because when it comes to Shuri, we get the more internal war surrounding guilt and grief
alongside the eventual desire to stop Talokan and Wakanda from destroying their potential
futures. So overall, a much more interesting plot that focuses on the individual characters
more then a lot of recent Marvel films have. I will say that the big weakness for me came in
the last 30 minutes, as just like with previous phase 4 entires, Marvel see the need to constantly
rely on badly produced cgi final battles that quite hoenstly took me out of the drama
that was working so well in the first 2 acts of the film. The message of the final battle
was well delivered and the few scenes that followed it, but it does take me out of the
experience when the cgi is so overwhelming and a lot of powerful characters have molecular helmets
identical to Iron Man in the last few Avengers films. I liked some of the practical and
digital effects earlier on in the film, but the final one just went a bit too far in the opposite
direction, which is what i also felt about the original film too. Still, this is a much
better example when it comes to filmmaking and crafting a grounded tone within that,
and it really was a breath of fresh air. For me, the movie never drags, because on
one side it feels intimate but it also brings that cineamtic and epic feel that a blockbuster of this
size has to deliver well. The melancholic tone infused into the structure of Wakanda
Forever allows it's epic moments to have more weight and you feel how the sorrow is eventually
channeled into something that transcends them individually. The filmmaking really helped to
elevate this and I especially loved the design of Talokan, as it brought a quite unique and
weird sensibility to what had been established with Wakanda. It was an opportunity to see another
world within this franchise and I think the murkier yet beautiful looks we got of that world,
were really solid. It was great that the production design was aided by a fantastic score
from Ludwig Gorannson, who in my opinion, may be the MVP of this film. His pulsing score that is
on one side, more melancholic and on the other, quite creative as it flips between
different moods, keeps it all together and doesn't feel out of place. And other then that heavy cgi
third act, I think for the first two acts of the film, the props have to be given to the VFX
teams and the cinematographer, who've actually done a much better job here. Yes it's no Avatar
in terms of the level of vfx work being put to screen, but it's definitely the best Marvel
have done in a good few years, and you can sense that Ryan Coogler really wanted this film to look
good on the big screen and a lot of shots look finished in comparison to say Thor Love
and Thunder, where the VFX work was really bad at times. Overall, the production goes in hand
with the performances and that just really helps to elevate a more interesting plot,
which again took me by surprise. I think it was a unique opportunity for Marvel to make this kind
of film, one that builds on all the emotions and obstacles that these characters would be
facing after their loved one died. It's a film that did it's job and one that quite frankly,
I'd be willing to rewatch more then most of the recent MCU projects.
But that was my review for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I'm giving it a rating of 8 out of 10.
But did you like Black Panther 2 as much as I did, and what specifically stood out for
you in Ryan Coogler's new film surrounding the story, the characters and the filmmaking
on display. It's all subjective at the end of the day and I appreciate the range of reactions that
will come with this sequel. So let me know down below in the comments section.
For more videos on future Marvel releases and reviews on upcoming blockbuster films,
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I hope you guys enjoyed it, I've been Cortex and as always make some noise.