“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Review
After the passing of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), the nation of Wakanda must decide its future as it becomes engulfed in conflict in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
Out of all the big blockbuster films being released this year, none of them have had quite the anticipation that has befallen “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Not only does the cast and crew have to make a film that matches the first, which was nominated for The Academy Award for Best Picture and grossed over 1.3 billion dollars, but they also have to find a way to move forward following the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman. The resulting film is the best comic book film of the year, one of 2022’s best and contains an amazing sense of character and legacy combined with the epic spectacle that keeps the Marvel Cinematic Universe relevant.
In the technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda, King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) dies leaving his country and family in mourning. One year later, Wakanda struggles to move forward as T’Challa’s mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett) ascends to leadership while T’Challa’s sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) closes herself off and continues to craft incredible technology. With no one taking the mantle of The Black Panther and Wakanda vulnerable, the nation finds itself under attack by an advanced people hidden underneath the sea led by the ruthless Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía). With Namor wanting to wage war on the surface world, Wakanda must defend itself and a new Black Panther must rise up to lead.
There’s no way to talk about this film without addressing the tragic death of the original Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman, from colon cancer in 2020. Boseman was an amazing actor with a career that was constantly heading upward towards great performances and acting glory. To lose such a powerful man would make any filmmaker think about two options: recasting the role of T’Challa or not moving forward with a sequel to “Black Panther.” But Ryan Coogler isn’t any filmmaker.
Under his direction and screenplay, which was co-written with Joe Robert Cole, Coogler created a film that not only met the same standards as the first, but surpassed them. What Coogler does with these characters and this world is incredible as he melds the real world sorrow he must have felt with the spectacle of comic books.
Letitia Wright ascends to a role that no one expected, that of protagonist and leader. While Shuri has been a great presence in the MCU ever since her debut in “Black Panther,” she’s always been a supporting character either designing technology for her brother in the first film or fighting alien armies alongside her brother in the two most recent “Avengers” films. To see her become the protagonist was a welcome change as she delivers all of the gravitas that make the “Black Panther” films epic.
While the mantle of Black Panther isn’t taken for the majority of the film, the buildup to who is going to replace T’Challa is incredibly engaging.
Also bringing her all to the film is Angela Bassett who is experiencing a level of grief that no one should feel. Having lost her husband in “Captain America: Civil War,” both of her children for five years in the Blip caused by Thanos and now her son, she has to channel that sorrow into a strength for Wakanda to unite behind and she does so with flying colors.
Out of all of the Marvel films, “Black Panther” certainly had one of the best supporting casts with amazing characters like T’Challa’s love interest Nakia (Lupita Nyoung’o), captain of the guard Okoye (Danai Gurira) and foe-turned-friend M’Baku (Winston Duke). Not only do they return and deliver amazing action but everyone in this film carries themselves with a weight of sadness.
It’s impossible to separate the characters’ grief for T’Challa from the actors’ grief for Boseman and both are quite effective when presented on screen. While not every scene focuses on the deaths of T’Challa and Boseman, you do feel the weight of his absence. There are scenes that invoke his memory that brought tears to my eyes. I saw this film with a packed theater and, when the film discussed the tragic death, it was silent.
Besides the cast of characters we’ve come to love, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” introduces new faces to the mix. This includes Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a genius teenage inventor from MIT who becomes recruited to help Wakanda. While, at first, it seems like the presence of Williams is only to build up her television series coming out next year on Disney+, her character is integral to Shuri’s journey as she finds acceptance for her brother’s death and leadership over her nation. Since Shuri expresses herself with technology, Riri Williams is the perfect person to help her grieve with invention while Nakia helps Shuri with personal growth through expressing their feelings.
Wakanda and its inhabitants struggling with the loss of their king would make for a great film by itself, but their vulnerability does mean they can be attacked. Namor the Submariner is one of Marvel’s oldest characters, being created in the 1940s, and I have long awaited his debut in the MCU. His performance is ruthless and perfectly captures Namor’s depth and antiheroic nature. As a villain, he can stand alongside the best Marvel villains including Killmonger from the first “Black Panther.”
Not only is the film’s depiction of Namor pretty faithful to the comics, but it results in an antagonist that is as understandable as he is ruthless.
While everything I’ve written may indicate that the film is a tragic requiem, there’s also a lot of joy to be found and the big-budget spectacle that “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” presents is unbelievable. So much of the film outdoes the original with a larger scale in regards to action. Armies are clashing, characters are donning armor, cars are being flung, underwater warriors are riding into battle on the backs of orcas, things are exploding, the kingdoms of Wakanda and Talokan are embracing incredible technology. It’s all an amazing sight and I continue to be impressed by Ryan Coogler as a director. As far as I’m concerned, he’s four for four with “Fruitvale Station,” “Creed,” “Black Panther” and now “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
He, as well as the other filmmakers of the MCU, have taken so many characters and environments that no fan thought would make the big screen, whether it was because a character looked too silly or that the world just couldn’t be condensed into a film. I remember films like “Spider-Man” avoided giving Peter Parker web shooters because no one would think that a teenager could have made those. I never thought when I was a little kid that superheroes like Ant-Man, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Shazam, Aquaman and Black Panther would become big films. Now, we have a villain like Namor who can fly because of little wings that are in his ankles and it not only is believable, but it can even look intimidating when he flies and takes out a helicopter.
While I love the first “Black Panther,” there were a few problems. The visual effects of the first film felt unfinished, especially in the finale. It’s the one element that held the film back. Here, the visual effects are not only improved but some among the best of the MCU. There’s a massive conversation in regards to how Hollywood, specifically big studios, treat visual effects artists in regards to pay, work schedules, workload and overall recognition. So when you see a film where the visual effects look a touch unfinished or something’s off, it’s probably because visual effects crews didn’t have the people or time to complete them. But when they are allowed that time, they make all of these amazing sights leap out of the panels of a comic book.
The legacy of Chadwick Boseman is secure not only in his amazing work as an actor, but how others, including the cast and crew of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” have carried on his memory.
In continuing the wave of outdoing the original, Ludwig Görranson’s score surpasses his Academy Award winning music from the first film. If “Black Panther’s” score was like the music of the original “Star Wars,” the score of “Wakanda Forever” was “The Empire Strikes Back.” I’ve just loved hearing the journey of Görranson as he’s become one of my favorite composers working on films and series like “Tenet,” “Community,” “The Mandalorian” and every single Ryan Coogler film.
Not only is the content of the film epic, but the length also warrants the description. At two hours and forty minutes, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is one of the longest films in the MCU but it flows so well that it felt like a standard two-hour film. It’s that engaging and that powerful.
As a sequel, it’s just as good if not better. So much energy was put into not shrugging this film off and for good reason. If Coogler, Cole, producer Kevin Feige, Wright, Bassett and the rest of the cast and crew fail, they’re not just letting themselves, the fans, the franchise and the characters down. They’d be letting Chadwick Boseman down. But everything about the film is a glowing tribute to him and his legacy. As part of the MCU, it might be the grandest film we’ve seen since “Avengers: Endgame” and it’s a treat for any comic book fan.
