"Black Panther" Cometh

It's not often that I can say I see anything really new and novel at the movies anymore, but "Black Panther" definitely fits the bill. The eighteenth Marvel Universe film may have just made the previous seventeen installments worth the trouble, because Ryan Coogler and his crew have pulled off something groundbreaking. It's not just that it's a black superhero movie. We've had those before in "Blade" and "Steel" and "Meteor Man." What we have here is a fully-formed, beautifully realized black fantasy world, on the same level as Hogwarts or Narnia.

The African nation of Wakanda, which is secretly a rich and technologically advanced civilization untouched by Western colonization, has just lost its king. The heir to the throne and the mantle of Wakanda's superpowered protector, Black Panther, is T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), who faces all the challenges of being a new leader. Fortunately, he has a lot of allies including the leader of his personal guard, Okoye (Danai Gurira), his best friend and security chief W'Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya), and his tech genius teenage sister Shuri (Letitia Wright). He's even on good terms with his ex, Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o), a formidable warrior and spy. However, threats from Wakanda's past emerge, namely the arms dealer Klaue (Andy Serkis), and a mysterious African-American soldier named Erik "Killmonger" Stevens (Michael B. Jordan).

The Black Panther character was first introduced to audiences in the last "Captain America" move, but his solo film is almost entirely unconnected to anything else going on in the wider Marvel universe. This is a good thing, because "Black Panther" has a lot going on and doesn't need the additional distraction. Fans can expect all of the typical action set pieces and CGI eye candy of your usual Marvel film. Lots of smaller clashes eventually build up to the big, third act battle sequence, where the hero and villain face off in an extended duel. There's a romantic subplot that doesn't get enough attention, the side characters are often more fun than the hero, and the comic book dialogue is frequently ridiculous. The villain, Killmonger, is a much stronger and more sympathetic one than usual, so that's a nice change of pace. However, "Black Panther" is definitely a popcorn movie through and through, and mostly follows the established formula of one.


Where it really excels, though, is in executing the premise of an African hero from an African fantasy kingdom. Two of the MVPs of the movie are production designer Hannah Beachler and costume designer Ruth E. Carter, who put together the fantastic look of the Wakandan utopia from an array of East African influences. Every frame and every object make use of African design sensibilities, including the gadgetry, architecture, weapons, and clothing. We hear multiple African languages used throughout the film, each reflecting the backgrounds of the different characters. Afrofuturism, which looks at African culture's interaction with future technology, has never been brought to screen like this before. Frankly, I'd be hard pressed to name any mainstream film about Africa that has portrayed it in such positive, optimistic terms.

And this is a powerful, necessary thing to have. Wakanda is an ideal, a fantasy land ruled by benevolent monarchs, home to strong and righteous warriors, and able to produce technological wonders that could change the world. It's the kind of ideal that has been missing from black cinema, possibly because only an outfit like Disney could afford to put it onscreen. And Ryan Coogler and company do the heavy lifting of putting Wakanda in proper context too. The characters spend a good amount of the discussing Wakanda's relationship to the rest of Africa, the African diaspora, and their history. There are references to Western colonialism, the Atlantic slave trade, the Boko Haram kidnappings, and the struggles faced by African-Americans. The film's primary villain turns out to be a product of Wakanda's troubling policy of secrecy and isolationism.

"Black Panther" doesn't handle all of these elements in the best way, and it's certainly not the best forum for serious discussion of them. However, it's so refreshing to see these issues acknowledged in the context of such a big, high-profile piece of media.. I love that we now have characters like Okoye and Shuri, fantastic role models for little girls. I love that we now have a reference point when talking about the divide between Africans and African-Americans. I love that audiences are making it clear that "Black Panther" was a movie that we all needed to exist.

More please!

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