Review: Black Panther

“A more gritty film in the Marvel Cinematic universe than previous entries, this film manages to restore some sense of consequence to action events. However, the technology that seems to just be able to do whatever the writer wants it to do, as well as the extremely predictable storyline, do weigh the film down a bit.”

It’s hard not to see comparisons with Wonder Woman when looking at Black Panther. Mysterious oasis hidden by image changing force-field; Young royal prince/princess with incredible power and strong sense of right and wrong; A society of great power that won’t help mankind; A somewhat disappointing villain with a big CGI fight at the end; very minor links to the rest of the cinematic universe.

What Black Panther does right is give us strong likeable characters, without resorting to the usual endless quips between them. Whilst there were a few, they felt more character based, rather than forced. Although I could have done without the whole ‘did he freeze?’ which really felt forced. Overall, the characters almost seemed reluctant to utter any Marvel quips. However, there were a few lame moments of unnecessary humour, such as a few lines from a rival tribe leader.

The film also gives us action fight scenes with consequences. Characters do die and it’s not glossed over or joked about. However, there is still the action scenes where cars explode and crash, yet no one gets hurt and certainly no bystanders… cause we can’t have all this action but have anyone other than our characters in danger…. Bloggers will spank you if you do that!

The technology in the film is a little too slick for my liking, and his sister’s lab looks like an Apple store. There is a scene in the film where she shows him all the gadgets she has made and one can’t help but refer to her as Q from that point on in the movie. Also, the tech is far too magical and just does whatever the plot wants, which makes it all too easy. The MCU never gives any rules or boundaries to tech or characters abilities, so there is no sense of structure to what can and can’t happen. Captain America is just a roided-up solider, but then he can hold helicopters down from taking off… Thor however can get knocked over by a basketball…

Chadwick Boseman is good as T'Challa / Black Panther. The supporting cast of warriors is probably the most impressive performances within the film. Michael B Jordan is adequate in the role of the villain, however, the character isn’t very well written. It tries to be a deep character with a back story, but it doesn’t really pay off, with silly dialogue and over the top behaviour.

Fans are flocking to the film and the film has had high praise. In my opinion it’s an okay comic book movie that could have easily sat on its own and not been part of the MCU.

So, the 5 bearded questions:

1. Was it worth a cinema trip? Yes 2. Would I See It Again at the Cinema? No 3. Would I buy it on Blu-ray: (only films I really love get bought these days) No 4. Do I Recommend people see it? Only if they like comic book movies. 5. Any cheese/ Disney style bullshit?: (such as jokes wedged in at serious moments, because fun!). Yes, but not as much as expected.