In 1966, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby introduced Wakandan King T'Challa, the Black Panther, in the pages of Fantastic Four. The Panther would become an ally of Marvel's First Family, as well as becoming a member of the Avengers. 50 years later, the Panther was brought to life in "Captain America: Civil War", and his story continues in "Black Panther".
T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) inherited the throne after his father, T'Chaka, was assassinated in "Civil War", and remains committed to preserving the secrets of Wakanda's advanced technology. However, his cousin, now going by the handle, Erik Stevens, aka Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan, "Fantastic Four", "Creed"), who has spent most of his formative years in the US, has returned home, seeking revenge after his father had been murdered years earlier. While here, Killmonger served in the military, developing his craft.
Added to the mix is Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis), better known to comics fans as Klaw, the master of sound. Instead of his signature sonic blaster, Klaue has a prosthetic arm with a retractable blaster mounted on it. It's not the same, and it's not as if Marvel/Disney suddenly decided to go el scrimpo.
What fans will see here is an amalgamation of other heroic icons such as Tarzan, Wonder Woman, and James Bond. You'd just have to see it to believe it and get the picture. Speaking of which, here's the trailer.
Of course, Stan gets his cameo in. It almost wouldn't be a Marvel Studios movie without him.
Rating: A.
6 comments:
Where to begin?
People on YouTube and other venues having their video reviews yanks or demonetized if they give the movie a bad review, other reviewers who tote the line to prevent being pulled or demonetized and unable to give their honest review, a film which chooses to focus on how "black it is" (it's not as if films of black superheroes or anti heroes haven't been released or relatively successful at the box office), charities raising money so "urban" kids can see the film (never head of such a thing for any other film), and political groups trying to register Democratic voters at movie theaters where it's showing.
Whatever happened to just going to the movies???
There was no politicizing of the film in Colonie, where I saw the movie, and I read where WWE wrestler Titus O'Neil, former Florida football star, arranged for some local kids in his area to see the movie.
If there's any politics in the movie, it's in the early part of the film. The symbolism of the flashback to Oakland, albeit circa 1992 in the movie, is in the fact that Oakland was also the home of the Black Panthers, which became a radical group in the late 60's & 70's.
My father was an LEO during that time in NYC and let me tell you, the Blank Panthers (then and their descendants, the New Black Panther Party), were no better than thugs and terrorists. To have a character named after them is a spit in the eye.
In truth, T'Challa was introduced in 1966, mere months before the Black Panthers became a thing, so it could be the other way around.
I managed to find two very truthful YT reviews of the Black Panther film. "Reviews" doesn't seem to be the appropriate word so much as "film autopsy". Both critics go into detail about what worked and what didn't and why. Warning: there is some spicy language
involved. Their other reviews are also pretty darn good!
May I recommend: The Dishonored Wolf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdbbfkKmpT0&t=5s
and MauLer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT2D50_pgUU
I'll look them up. Doesn't mean I'd agree with anything they said.
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