Black Panther is 2018 production from Marvel Studios. The screenplay was written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, with Coogler also directing the film. The movie stars a host of new faces in the MCU alongside one or two familiar ones, like Chadwick Boseman, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis. The new actors and actresses introduced include Micheal B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Forest Whitaker and Letitia Wright. The movie scores an alright 7.3/10 on IMDb but received a massive 88 Metascore alongside a Best Picture nomination at the 2019 Oscars, the first Marvel film to receive that honour.
A Summary
The movie’s start takes place a few decades before most of the events, in the year 1992. The then king of Wakanda, T’Chaka confronts his brother, who has been living outside of Wakanda for quite some time. His brother N’Jobu has been involved with a plan to steal vibranium alongside Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis). At the confrontation, N’Jobu also learns that Wakanda had instated Zuri (Forest Whitaker), his sidekick, to spy on him. N’Jobu tries to attack him but T’Chaka stops him by killing his brother.
Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is to become the next king of Wakanda. During the ceremony, he gets challenged by M’Baku, leader of the Jabari tribe. After a tough fight, T’Challa manages to come out on top with M’Baku yielding instead of dying. Now T’Challa is officially the new king of Wakanda.
In the meantime, Klaue has been forging plans together with an ex-soldier Erik Stevens (Micheal B. Jordan), also known as “Killmonger”, to steal a vibranium axe from a museum. After the successful execution, news reached Wakanda of stolen vibranium. T’Challa speaks with the elders and decided to retrieve to vibranium from Klaue. Together with Okoye (Danai Gurira), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and the remote support of Shuri (Letitia Wright) T’Challa sets out on his mission.
Klaue, of course, wants to sell the vibranium for an extreme amount of money. However, T’Challa and Klaue a bit later as well find out the deal is set up by the CIA, led by agent Everett Ross (Martin Freeman). After an extensive car chase, they manage to capture Klaue and he gets put into CIA custody. At the hidden CIA base, Killmonger suddenly shows to free his partner in crime. Agent Ross gets heavily injured while saving Nakia from the sudden attack. Knowing only Wakanda has the technology to save him, the group brings him back to their country.
After Killmonger saved Klaue, he decides to kill him. He offers his body to the leader of the Border Tribe W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya) and reveals his true identity. He is the son of the killed prince of Wakanda, N’Jobu. This makes him a Wakandan and can therefore challenge T’Chaka for the throne. After winning the fight and throwing T’Chaka off a waterfall, he claims the powers of the Black Panther as the king of Wakanda.
T’Challa’s family and friends leave for the mountain tribe of the Jabari, where they seek refuge from the horrible Killmonger and his plan to distribute vibranium weapons to people around the world. As it turns out, T’Challa had survived the fall and was found by on the fisherman of the tribe. After giving T’Challa the powers of the Black Panther back, he wakes up from a coma, ready to take back the throne.
After heavy fighting between the different tribes, the battle ends when M’Baku shows up to help out T’Challa. While the fighting above ground was raging, T’Challa was fighting Killmonger one on one, down in the vibranium mines. T’Challa manages to stab his cousin after which the fight is over. He takes the man, with the dagger still in his body, to see the beautiful sunset of Wakanda, after which Killmonger pulls the dagger out and dies.
The Story
Black Panther provides the Marvel Cinematic Universe with some much-needed refreshment. So far, a few of the movies have felt similar and lacked originality. The African country of Wakanda proves to be a great shot at renewing the movie series. It provides an almost completely new, unexplored world. The Wakandan culture was deeply thought out and has some cool layers.
I am a fan of the tribe system with all different tribes having different lifestyles and weaponry attached to that. Alongside some unusual tech disguised in robes and spears, it creates a cool environment for an action movie.
The overarching story feels well-rounded and left me satisfied after the movie ended. I think it was a smart move to start with a few familiar faces with the likes of Klaue and Ross, whom we have met before in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War respectively. Together with a nicely animated introduction at the start of the movie makes sure the viewer doesn’t get confused right at the beginning of the movie.
Wakanda being arguably the strongest country in the world at his point needs to think about providing for other countries. This proves to be an interesting point of topic throughout the movie as major players have different views and every view has its advantages and disadvantages.
The Characters
First I want to give a shout-out to my man Andy Serkis. He may only play a minor role in the first part of the movie but I’m a huge fan of his work. I feel like he often gets underappreciated for his work. He played such a wide range of characters with wildly different personality but always managed to keep invested in those characters. Even as Klaue he succeeded to get a few laughs out of me, it will be a loss to not see him return.
T’Challa / Black Panther
T’Challa has had a fair share of trouble as a prince. Losing his father due to a bombing at a United Nations convention. We don’t learn much about his childhood or years before we see him on the screen, although we do get that information on Killmonger. That creates a situation where the story of T’Challa’s father might be more interesting than his own, as we learn about him killing his brother to keep Wakanda a secret.
I also feel they could have made a different choice with the T’Challa versus Killmonger fight. Now T’Challa gets thrown off the waterfall but survives somehow, without his Black Panther powers. That is some thick plot armour right there.
Erik Killmonger
The backstory provided on Killmonger creates one of the better parts of the movie. It’s intriguing to see a child lose his father at such a young age and to learn about Wakanda as one of the only people outside the country. T’Challa’s father killing his father provides him with a motive and his years serving in the army and other death squads made him a logical threat to T’Challa.
The Production
As its nomination for Best Picture shows, it is one of the best Marvel movies ever produced. It has a compelling storing, some excellent dialogue as well as stunning visuals and sounds. It does great at all aspects of a movie, maybe not the best but the movie surely deserved its praise.