Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Review

2018’s Black Panther is considered to be one of the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It has a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and is the only MCU film to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. However, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had to face the challenge of losing its star.

T’Challa, the king of Wakanda dies of a disease, and with him the Black Panther mantle. A year later Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) are still grieving. As this happens a race of aquatic humans attack an American base in the Atlantic Ocean, and their leader, Namor (Tenoch Huera Mejia) demands that Wakanda find and bring him an American scientist that has created a machine that can locate vibranium.

Black Panther faced numerous challenges. Being a sequel to a really successful film can be daunting, and since Avengers: Endgame the reception for MCU’s project has been more mixed. There is less of a shine to the MCU. The biggest challenge was the untimely passing of Chadwick Boseman and Disney’s decision not to recast his role. However, necessity can force the greatest creativity.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a film about the impact of the events of the first film and the death of the lead character. In the previous film Killmonger destroyed the heart-shaped herbs, so there was no way for anyone else to gain Black Panther’s powers. The other impact of the first Black Panther was T’Challa’s decision to reveal the truth about Wakanda and end their isolationist policy.

These ramifications see the rest of the world looking for their own source of vibranium which led to the Talokan being disturbed. The film wanted to draw parallels between Wakanda and Talokan since they were both hidden people who based their technology on vibranium, and in their past faced European colonisation. The Talokan’s origins were Mayan people who were escaping the Spanish conquer of the Americas. Because of this the Talokan were cultural Mayan: they spoke Mayan, their clothing was Mayan and their city looked Mayan.

Director/co-writer Ryan Coogler wanted to repeat the trick he performed with the original Black Panther film by having a complex villain. Namor had a similar ideology to Killmonger since they wanted to right historic wrongs and were prepared to go to war with the surface world. Namor was of the view that if Wakanda wouldn’t fight with the Talokan, then they were against them. Namor was also a lot like Ocean Master in Aquaman since both villains wanted to go to war with the surface.

The Talokan were a great threat. They were strong and resilient and because of their blue skin I thought they were like the Na’vi from Avatar. They also had a siren power where they could hypnosis people into throwing themselves into the water. The composer, Ludwig Göransson, did a fantastic job incorporating the Talokan’s deep-throat singing into the score.

Boseman’s death did leave a big shadow over the sequel, so the film did act as a reflection of these events. T’Challa dies of an illness, like Boseman did, and Wakanda Forever did open with T’Challa’s funeral which acted as a way for audiences to say goodbye. The Marvel logo only featured images of Boseman as Black Panther, similar to Captain Marvel’s opening logo featuring all of Stan Lee’s cameos.

Boseman’s death fasts forward Marvel’s plan for the franchise. Shuri was forced to become the lead character and Letitia Wright was thrust into the lead role earlier than expected. Wakanda Forever focused on Shuri processing her grief and dealing with her new weight of responsibility. Shuri was no longer the fun-loving character that she was in the first film. Wright is a terrific actress and she was believable with Shuri’s darker trajectory.

Shuri taking on the role of Black Panther does fit with Marvel’s recent projects. There has been a passing of the torch to a new generation of heroes. Sam Wilson has become Captain America, Yelena is set to become the next Black Widow, Kate Bishop was trained up by Hawkeye, and Ms. Marvel focused on a teenage character. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever did introduce a new young character who’s set to take on a major Marvel title.

An issue some audiences have had with the MCU’s reliance on humour. Thor: Love and Thunder was a prime example of that. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever acted as an antidote to that. Because the film opened with T’Challa’s death, it forced the film to be serious which was welcome.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was one of the longest films the MCU has produced. It has a run time of two hours and 41 minutes and it did feel it at times. Some things could have been cut. The best example of this involved the return of Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) and the American government preparing to attack Wakanda. It was a subplot that went nowhere, and it could have been cut without any consequence.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever did the task of being a fitting eulogy for Chadwick Boseman and passing the torch to a new character. However, it did feel like it was repeating a few too many ideas from the first Black Panther film.