Black Adam, Black Widow, Black Swan and now… Black Panther. Talk about creative drought, amirite?
It iiizz what it iiizz
I uh. I don’t know anymore. So when I reviewed Black Adam, I gave the DC flick a wide, wide berth in judgment. I didn’t want to slam the film incessantly, even though it really was a complete shit show. I had higher standards than that for a film like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (BPWF). Certainly not as high as something like, Black Swan, which I also saw recently, but certainly not as bad as Black Widow– and this is all just to give you some sort of reference in terms of my expectations. I didn’t ever think it would be the best MCU film ever, or even close to that. I didn’t expect one movie to completely right the ship after the series of debacles that is Phase 4.
So like, the movie is… middling. The cinematography is really good at times, and straight up bollywood-esque at others. The core story is actually extremely interesting, and the film takes a really, really long time to build each character with motivations and intricacies that a lot of other films, MCU films included, don’t really take the time to do. And since it’s on everyone’s mind, yes, the film respectfully acknowledges Chadwick Boseman’s passing. They bake it into the film, and it’s actually used as a pivotal point of the characters’ journeys and the overall story. Further, we finally- finally get to explore the ramifications and consequences of an MCU world or universe development. No more fudging around the Blip, no nonsense about a massive demigod in the ocean, no bullshit about multiverses or time travel. A new nation has revealed its capabilities, and the world has to deal with what that means. Further, the nation itself has to deal with what it means.
Like I mentioned, the characters in this film are given a surface amount of consideration. It’s fine, and I’m not saying we need to build subtleties and nuances in each character’s psyches. Like, it’s the MCU, y’know? You’d need to be a Natalie Portman-caliber actor to deliver a performance that deep, if that’s even possible. Ahem. Anyways. It’s just barely good enough. Each person is given a set of motivations and complications, but not all of them get a resolution that feels earned. One character is shown to fail in her duties and is stripped of her titles. Her resolution involves getting a power ranger suit and sparta kicking a nameless henchman off a boat. That kind of surface level ‘so and so got their moment’ just keeps happening.
Of Power Rangers and Twilight
Speaking of power ranger suits, this movie has some very, very bad costume design choices. It’s something that worried me when I initially saw T’Challa’s Black Panther suit, and the worry was exacerbated watching Tony Stark’s nanobot Iron Man suit. Now, years later, the problems have… exacerbated. There’s the new Black Panther, Iron Heart, Namor (to an extent), and two characters called ‘midnight angels’. The design of these characters is completely cartoonish. When Iron Heart flies around, you can almost see the strings suspending her from the ceiling of the shoot. The midnight angels move like they’re from fucking Code Lyoko. And don’t get me started on the completely awful flight animations for Namor. The guy looks like he’s a mermaid from the 2006 movie Aquamarine. It’s BAD.
When I wrote my review for the Twilight series, something that I mentioned was that the CGI of the vampire movements was poor, but I also included a disclosure about why that was ok. The audience for Twilight does not care about the CGI. They literally do not care if the vampires moved like they were Toontown characters. But in a movie like Black Panther, or any MCU movie for that matter, the CGI is the draw. We’re there for the action. We want to see our heroes get into creative, fun action scenes. We care about that crap. So why is the MCU starting to skimp out on that stuff? Why is it that the pivotal battle between an indestructible vibranium suit and a flying demigod literally ends in a blown up spaceship?
One of the most memorable, praised elements of Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness was the musical battle. There are a few videos out there talking about how genius that scene was, but the core is that the battle was creative. It was an innovative use of the available mythos of an out-of-this-world action film. While Black Panther is liberal in its usage and innovations of vibranium in terms of technology and story impact, the finale is completely underwhelming. The film devolves to a shoot ’em up in not one, but two blah green screen battle arenas. Black Panther climaxes in a chaotic, poorly choreographed smorgasbord of color and ethnic war cries and spears and explosions. A lot of explosions.
Too much budget, and not enough budget
Other than the usual issues in the CGI, my major complaint with the film was the poor quality of the dialogue scenes. I think that the filming and production really suffered because of COVID and (allegedly) Leticia Wright’s shenanigans regarding her vaccination status. The framing of some of the dialogue scenes is jarringly bad. What is disguised as a cool, unique filming trick is really just a consequence of two people not actually being in the same room. Furthermore, actors are asked to repeatedly act and emote in a room alone, and it is so awkward. For us and for them. Too often are we asked to watch a character stand in a greenscreen room wearing an extravagant costume and talk to something that doesn’t exist outside of a screen. It’s so awkward. And the script itself is fairly middling, so it really doesn’t help the cause.
I think that if the film had been made with the budget or scope or even studio of The Woman King, then the film would have been so, so good. There was just too much pressure to make each scene, each moment, and each set completely and totally cinematic. But when everything is cinematic, then… nothing is. If we’re being forced into sitting in awe of each subsequent scene with no real draw or emotional investment, then we’re really just sitting in an art gallery.
The bright spots
But I want to end on a positive note. The core story is really, really good. The conflict set up by Namor and his underwater civilization is one of the most interesting conflicts I’ve seen in any MCU film. Like Killmonger, Namor is an antagonist whose cause is, in a certain perspective, a noble one. The character is sympathetic in certain aspects, and their extreme nature and tactics are a fantastic foil for the protagonist. Namor’s personal story was a little eh, and the explanation for some of the powers and abilities and even the mythos of his civilization are fairly lacking- similar to how the mythos of the civilization in The Woman King was a bit lacking. Like, I don’t know what ‘Imperius Rex’ is, but apparently it’s important. Again, Namor is fantastic.
My favorite element of the film is actually its soundtrack. I’ve been kind of a film music nerd for the longest time, even if I’m not a music theorist. I really just like the way it sounds, y’know? And Ludwig Göransson’s score is so, so good. It matches the film’s tone, and is a great complement to the film’s requests for bombastic moments. The usage of unique instruments is fantastic, and there are some tracks that completely blew. me. away. It was so good. So good.
4/10.
The MCU has dipped in quality, and what should have been very good films are now suffering due to piss-poor computer graphics that are put to shame by 2008’s Iron Man.
PS I don’t think a Black Swan review is coming. The movie is really good, and I don’t think I have anything to say that hasn’t already been said. Just go watch the movie, there’s a lesbian sex scene with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, so like… what more could you need?
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