Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Review - A Funeral for a Friend
Warning: there are light spoilers for Iron Man 2, Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Way back in 2010, the MCU namedropped Wakanda as an easter egg way back in 2010's Iron Man 2 and more directly when the Avengers had to stop Ultron from buying Vibranium from Ulysses Klaue (played wonderfully by Andy Serkis) in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron.
One year later, Wakanda wasn't too happy with Vibranium being used as a weapon of mass destruction in Sokovia. So, the country wrote up the Sokovia Accords to prevent the Avengers and any other superheroes from going on missions that the United Nations panel did not sanction.
As one can imagine, this didn't go over well. The Sokovia Accords split The Avengers into two factions - those who supported the Accords and those who didn't. On top of that, when King T'Chaka (played by John Kani) and Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) traveled to the ratification of the Sokovia Accords, That meeting was interrupted by a bombing - one that Baron Zemo, a citizen of Sokovia, framed Bucky Barnes AKA The Winter Soldier (played by Sebastian Stan), who sought revenge against the Avengers for the destruction of Novi Grad, Sokovia.
I won't get into all the events of Civil War, but the important thing you need to know is that the bombing sets up T'Challa to become the Black Panther, a mantle that Wakandan kings take on to protect the nation from any threat to its way of life.
Two years later, in the titular Black Panther, the film earned critical praise on about every level for its representation of the African and African-American experiences through T'Challa's and Killmonger's (played by Michael B. Jordan) differing views on colonialism, among many other sociopolitical conflicts that serve as a real-life criticism of Africa and how the continent as a whole has reacted to Western exploitation of African descendants.
The film is also where many fell in love with Boseman's Black Panther, with many reviews remarking how much work (like learning Xhosa from John Kani) is evident onscreen, even among a cast that boasted scene-stealers like Jordan, as well as how much thought and care he applies to the character of T'Challa himself.
All of this combined to make Black Panther one of the top ten highest-grossing films of all time. Audiences were flocking to see the film multiple times - something that was previously unheard of for a predominantly Black cast & crew.
The impact of Black Panther cannot be overstated. Black Panther reconnected African-American audiences to their heritage - something I witnessed. In my screening, many were dressed in dashikis, colorful garments typically worn in Western Africa.
So, two years later, when Boseman died of stage 4 colon cancer - it wasn't surprising to me the response by the public. The Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Brazers, Lewis Hamilton, and of course, Marvel Studios Chief Creative Office Kevin Feige issued statements honoring Boseman. That wasn't it, though. Boseman was honored with a statue in his hometown of Anderson, South Carolina. ABC aired the film commercial-free, followed by a special about his life and work titled Chadwick Boseman — A Tribute for a King the same day. The 2020 MTV VMAs were dedicated to him, among many other tributes.
Immediately following Boseman's death, fans began worrying that his role would be recast, as Marvel has done with Hulk (replacing Edward Norton with Mark Ruffalo) and Colonel "Rhodey," Tony Stark's best friend (replacing Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle). After all, T'Challa is the king of the most powerful nation on Earth and was clearly setting the character up for bigger things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, other than the sequel to Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
However, in November 2020, Marvel Studios' head of production, Victoria Alonso, denied the possibility of using a digital double for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Kevin Feige came out on December 10th to confirm the role of T'Challa would not be recast, saying Boseman's portrayal "transcended any previous iteration of the character in Marvel's past." Ultimately, Boseman's final portrayal of T'Challa would come in the form of a spin-off series on Disney+ titled What If…?, where he voiced a variant of T'Challa that was abducted by Yondu instead of Peter Quill.
So, how does Black Panther: Wakanda Forever adapt to the passing of its lead character? Well, by working Boseman's death into the film. Wakanda Forever sees Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M'Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira), and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba) fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T'Challa's death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.
Whether or not this "new path" works depends entirely on your attachment to Boseman's portrayal of T'Challa. Much of the film's 2-hour and 41-minute runtime is devoted to directly dealing with his passing. In many ways, the film has a dual funeral: one for Chadwick Boseman and one for T'Challa. At points, there are times when this method needs to be reworked.
Throughout the film, there are many of what I'd call "cry lines" or "cry moments" where writer-director Ryan Coogler has planted time within the movie for the audience to cry alongside the film's characters and grieve the passing of T'Challa. Unfortunately, these moments felt exploitative of Boseman's death and distracted me from the larger narrative thread of Wakanda's response to his death.
As much as I respect the decision for Marvel to have an in-universe explanation for Boseman's death, it quickly becomes messy and convoluted. With the story going back and forth between intimate moments where we explore the characters' grieving process to large-scale action sequences with very little dialogue and nuance, both parts of the film suffer as a result.
Now, some of this could be chalked up to having to set up Namor (Tenoch Huerta) and Ironheart (Dominique Thorne) for future MCU projects, but that casts an incomplete picture. So instead, let's look at the previous Black Panther film. That film chiefly focused on Wakanda and its' influence on the world, ending with King T'Challa talking about Vibranium and all the other secrets Wakanda held close to their chest, in a manner of speaking.
I know it's faux pax to say what you wish in a review, but the writing could've used a rework to remove itself from the MCU further. I would've loved a film with very few MCU tie-ins (not to say I don't love what Coogler has done here) or at least made the connections more meaningful.
All this works to drag down an otherwise excellent character study on grief. It destroys the film's pacing and could've easily been reconfigured to better fit into a grief-ridden story.
That said, the cast is acting the hell out of every scene they're in.
Bassett gives what I'd consider a career-best performance as Queen Ramonda, even getting two extended monologues that sent chills down my spine. I won't say she could be nominated for an Oscar this awards season, but I wouldn't put it out of the picture.
As Shuri essentially leads the film, Letitia Wright delivers the tear-jerker moments I referenced previously. Still, she also is given more depth as we learn more about who Shuri is as a person - not just T'Challa's sister. All of that works particularly well, especially in a scene on a beach with Queen Ramonda and in the film's back half. There's much more than meets the eye, and I can't wait to see where Marvel takes Shuri next.
Winston Duke as M'Baku, leader of the Jabari Tribe, one of my favorite characters from 2018's Black Panther, is given less screen time here, but it made me appreciate his character more. M'Baku is older and wiser (he survived the Blip), so expect a more solemn M'Baku whose much more tactical and sagelike. It's a great change to his character that still allows for M'Baku to go into battle and deliver the funniest jokes of the film, but he's much less willing to rush headfirst into conflict.
Danai Gurira as Okoye also gets a rework in the film, as she also survived the Blip. However, unlike M'Baku, she receives a significant portion of screen time, and Gurira holds her own. Fans of her arc in the previous film will adore what she's doing here, as she gives weight to all that's happening with Wakanda. I won't say more for fear of spoiling things, but her performance surprised me - even getting some comedic moments here and there.
Florence Kasumba as Ayo gets less screen time than I'd like, but anyone who liked Kasumba's performance in the previous film will like her performance here. Not much has changed with her character, but she's still great.
Someone also with reduced screen time in the film is Lupita Nyongo'o as Nakia. There are story reasons for this, but like Kasumba's performance, her performance makes a similar impact, although a bit more, considering her relationship with T'Challa. All of that is brought into her performance here, and if Nakia shows up again, I'd love to see what she's up to.
Martin Freeman returns as Everett Ross, but his role is such a small part of the film (and spoiler-filled) that all I'll say about Freeman's role and performance here is while I liked seeing him again, it didn't make enough sense or an impact on the film that's worth writing home about.
Tenoch Huerta as Namor is an interesting role and performance to dissect. While it's hard to say he doesn't fit in the film, Namor's presence is left over from a previous version of the script. Besides one line about "only the most broken people can be great leaders," there's no reason why he should be an antagonist to Wakanda besides his comic origins. In the film, Wakanda and Tālocān both want to be left alone, and the ultimate reason the two nations face off against each other is boneheaded, to say the least.
As for Huerta, he does a great job with what he's given, which isn't much. Most of the time, Huerta is reduced to scowling at people and gets minimal dialog and screen time. Again, I'd love to see a version where the parallels between Wakanda and Tālocān were further expanded, but I'll guess I'll have to read a tie-in comic or something to get that resolution.
Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams/Ironheart is an interesting role and performance to dissect as well. Unfortunately, Riri feels very out of place in the film to the point where it feels like she's only here to serve as an introduction to her before her Disney+ series. I'd rather see her out on her own so that I could understand her character arc better before seeing her in Wakanda Forever, but I'll deal with the cards I'm dealt.
Thorne's performance isn't necessarily bad in any way, shape, or form. She does a great job at holding her own amongst a stacked cast, but I need a better feel for who she is as a person, and it definitely holds her performance back for me.
Michaela Coel is another new addition to the cast as Aneka, and while I like what I got from her, her introduction is sudden and out of nowhere. Why haven't we seen her before if she's supposed to be part of the Wakandan army? In a cinematic universe where "it's all connected," the choice to introduce a new Wakandan warrior to the mix feels odd. That said, I loved Coel's performance. Coel gets some great oneliners with scenes here and there of her interacting with the Dora Milaje, but I would've liked to see more of her story fleshed out, so a proper introduction could be made.
Mabel Cadena, as Namora, Namor's cousin, was excellent. More of her, please! She doesn't get many lines (her mouth is mostly covered by what I'd equate to an underwater face mask), but she makes her presence known. Namora is downright terrifying at points with her cold stares and talks with Namor about Wakanda. If Tālocān ever resurfaces in the MCU, I want her front and center.
Alex Livinalli as Attuma, a Tālocāni warrior, is just as frightening. When Attuma comes by, you better not be. There's a fight scene and rivalry between another character that had me floored every single time. In many ways, he's the film's antagonist, and Livinalli delivers, even though he has very few lines.
Turning my attention to the film's direction, Ryan Coogler absolutely saved this movie. I could see a timeline in which Coogler refused to direct the film out of respect for Boseman or one that went forward with his original idea of lost time from the Blip. While I could see this film written and directed by someone else, it's clear that Coogler knows Wakanda and Black Panther inside and out. A Black Panther movie without Coogler probably would've ended in disaster, and the Blip storyline wouldn't have fit here without some massive reworks of the script.
The rework Coogler has done to the film's direction and screenplay is a beautiful exploration of grief and how it can impact people differently. That said, the pacing between each act of the film could've used a rework in its own right, and some elements of the story don't exactly fit with this tone of grief.
As was the case with the previous film, the score by Ludwig Göransson and the soundtrack by Rihanna, Burna Boy, Terms, Fireboy DML, OG DAYV Ft. Future, CKay Ft. PinkPantheress, E-40, Alemán Ft. Rema, Blue Rojo and many more are both astounding.
For the score, Göransson kept many of the core tenets of the previous film's score (including that talking drum sound and the "whoop whoop" motif) combined with new Mayan instrumentation and sounds for Namor's side of things. I don't say this often, but Göransson's score is a masterpiece. With each track, Göransson pulls you deeper and deeper into the world of Wakanda Forever and doesn't let you go until the credits roll.
As for the film's accompanying soundtrack, the highlights for most will be the songs by Rihanna, "Life Me Up" and "Born Again," both of which play during the end credits. Outside of those two, though, the only songs I loved off the soundtrack were Burma Boy's "Alone," Tobe Nwigw and Fat Nwigwe's "They Want It, But No" and Calle x Vida and Foudeqush's "No Digas Mi Nombre." All of them are great additions to my ever-rotating list of songs I listen to on a daily basis.
Production designer Hannah Beachler returns here, and her work is as fantastic as ever. One moment that completely blew my mind was seeing Tālocān for the first time. Pardon the pun, but it looks fabulous with murals depicting the underwater kingdom's rich history and stories, with the obvious inspiration coming from Aztec and other parts of Mesoamerican culture. I would not be surprised if Beachler gets nominated for her production design here - it's astounding.
Ruth E. Carter returns from her Oscar-winning work on the previous film and dazzles - specifically, the costume work on the Tālocān. Every costume feels like it came from a museum based around Mesoamerican culture. There are lovely jade elements everywhere, mixed with things you'd expect from an underwater kingdom such as Tālocān. I don't know how Carter does it, but she always impresses me.
The visual effects are the technical element that keeps tripping me up the more I think about Wakanda Forever. Don't get me wrong - it's nowhere near as bad as Thor: Love and Thunder, where the strain on the visual effects teams was on full display. However, it's just as distracting in this film. My chief complaint is that it's very apparent that the characters in costumes are being replaced with CG body doubles, as the actors' head moves in a way that feels entirely divorced from what their body is doing. If you need an example, look at this clip of Mark Ruffalo's Hulk in the Hulkbuster during Avengers: Infinity War. Take that and amplify it by an uncomfortable multitude. Also, some of the CG elements feel off - I can't quite explain it, but it feels like the CG teams were nearing the end of their texture renders, but the last 10% of the render failed due to some unforeseen error. Hopefully, the CG teams can finish that render when it's available to stream on Disney+ because the CG will not hold up under the scrutiny of repeat viewings.
While it may seem like I disliked Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - I had a great time, and that's all that matters at the end of the day. Sure, it has problems, but so did the original Black Panther. So If you liked the original, you'd be sure to love this one - know that you may need not to order that large soda, so you don't miss anything.
★★★★/5
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now in theaters.
Until next time!
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