Gryphos
Auror
Black Panther is getting a lot of hype, with many people calling it the best Marvel film to date. I saw it recently, and while it will take some more thought for me to rank it among the other Marvel films (and I'm not particularly into numerical scores/ranking anyway), I will say that it was indeed a fantastic film and undoubtedly one of the best Marvel films to date.
T'challa is a great character with a lot of charisma and charm. He exudes confidence and regalness with every word. Truly a compelling presence.
I also loved his interactions with the supporting characters, like his sister Shuri, who is also the source of many humorous moments (not least of which being the completely out-of-nowhere "WHAT ARE THOOOOOSE?!" which, while cringey, totally fit with her dorky personality.
Side villain Ulysses Klaue is a lot of fun. It's always nice to see Andy Serkis' actual face; and you can tell he's having loads of fun yucking it up in the role (side note: I would totally listen to Klaue's SoundCloud music lol). It's a shame Killmonger killed him; he would have been a cool recurring side villain.
As for Killmonger, he's great. His casual attitude is refreshing, and his goals are compelling. You really can feel where his anger is coming from. His villainy comes less from his actual motivations (liberating oppressed communities globally? Good), rather the uncomfortable manifestation of this goal (turning Wakanda into an imperialist superpower? Bad). There's also so much to be analysed about the relationship between T'challa and Killmonger and how they exist as a duality of perspectives from the same position.
Wakanda is beautifully realised, and I hope we see a lot more of the Afrofuturism aesthetic in the future.
One thing has been bugging me ever since watching it, though. I find it incredibly odd that Wakanda, a nation framed both by the film itself and the surrounding discourse as a utopia, is, when you really think about it, a dictatorship decided through royal bloodlines and ritual trial-by-combat. Like, this is meant to be an optimistic vision of a first-world Africa, but it's rooted in an extremely regressive philosophy of power and authority. This doesn't take away from the film being a wonderful step forward in cultural representation on the big screen; but it is really f*cking weird.
T'challa is a great character with a lot of charisma and charm. He exudes confidence and regalness with every word. Truly a compelling presence.
I also loved his interactions with the supporting characters, like his sister Shuri, who is also the source of many humorous moments (not least of which being the completely out-of-nowhere "WHAT ARE THOOOOOSE?!" which, while cringey, totally fit with her dorky personality.
Side villain Ulysses Klaue is a lot of fun. It's always nice to see Andy Serkis' actual face; and you can tell he's having loads of fun yucking it up in the role (side note: I would totally listen to Klaue's SoundCloud music lol). It's a shame Killmonger killed him; he would have been a cool recurring side villain.
As for Killmonger, he's great. His casual attitude is refreshing, and his goals are compelling. You really can feel where his anger is coming from. His villainy comes less from his actual motivations (liberating oppressed communities globally? Good), rather the uncomfortable manifestation of this goal (turning Wakanda into an imperialist superpower? Bad). There's also so much to be analysed about the relationship between T'challa and Killmonger and how they exist as a duality of perspectives from the same position.
Wakanda is beautifully realised, and I hope we see a lot more of the Afrofuturism aesthetic in the future.
One thing has been bugging me ever since watching it, though. I find it incredibly odd that Wakanda, a nation framed both by the film itself and the surrounding discourse as a utopia, is, when you really think about it, a dictatorship decided through royal bloodlines and ritual trial-by-combat. Like, this is meant to be an optimistic vision of a first-world Africa, but it's rooted in an extremely regressive philosophy of power and authority. This doesn't take away from the film being a wonderful step forward in cultural representation on the big screen; but it is really f*cking weird.