Black Panther (2018) Reviews

Wanted to see 'Black Panther' for a while, one of my most anticipated films of this early half of 2018 and as somebody who likes to loves most of Marvel's films. The idea was interesting as was what the film was hyped up to be, the trailer looked great and the high ratings and critical acclaim promised even more.

My thoughts were that 'Black Panther' was a decent and intriguing film with a lot of very well done to great elements, but it didn't blow me away and left me disappointed after the hype. As indicated, far from hated it, didn't love it. Actually saw 'Black Panther' on opening weekend in a sold out showing (it was touch and go as to whether a ticket could be gotten), but had to properly form my thoughts for a while and was nervous seeing the very divisive IMDb reaction and the condescension on both sides (mostly negative), which has slightly died down since to feel less nervous.

Starting with the good/great things, 'Black Panther' is mostly impressive visually. The special effects were variable, but there were some spectacular ones, while it's beautifully and stylishly shot, slickly edited and sumptuously costumed. It's the extraordinary production design that was most note-worthy. Loved the use of technology, which was really cool. The music has the right amount of haunting intensity, energy, dignity and pathos, so a fine score on its own but not always utilised right in the film, a few ill-fitting moments mood-wise.

Much of the action is exciting, though there could have been more, and there is a good deal of thought-provoking script-writing with some nicely injected humour. One is immersed in the world of Wakanda, which is a fascinating world in thematic terms. The story does grip once it gets going and doesn't feel as confused and jumpy, with timeline and location changes needing to be clearer, like it did to begin with and a lot of it even when turning our everyday struggles on their heads is surprisingly relevant.

Personally thought that much of the acting was good, with a very charismatic lead performance from Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan bringing a self-loathing conflicted edge and swagger to Killmonger and Andy Serkis relishing his role with aplomb. The women are just as good, with a dignified Lupita Nyong'o, regal, no-nonsense and feisty Danai Gurira and particularly a funny and endearing Letitia Wright. While his role is small, Daniel Kaluuya is great fun in it. Direction is above competent, if not innovative, and really appreciated the film making Killmonger more than the standard Marvel villain, here one with questionable personal motives but one where one can see his point of view and empathise. Although his actions are inconsistent and don't always make sense and he could have been more threatening, generally he is one of the better Marvel villains and the most developed character in a film too full of stock ones (the titular character being the other exception).

'Black Panther' has faults however. Most of the characters are stock and clichéd, while some of the first half is too talky, the film is a little slow-going and confused to start with and some of the political elements are laid on too thick. Adding to the general feel that, even with the splashes of humour, the film takes itself too seriously and with the amount of predictability it has doesn't do enough new with a novel concept.

There are exceptions to the cast. Forrest Whittaker is wasted as a non-developed character with too short screen time, on top of the scene being rushed his final scene has no impact as a result. Martin Freeman is too fish out of water as well.

Although some of the effects are spectacular, others are very ropy. Especially in the final action scene between Black Panther and Killmonger which resembled a very early days/years video game. That scene also felt rushed, sometimes vaguely choreographed and anti-climactic, though the whole climax felt over-stuffed and too busy.

Overall, decent and interesting but was expecting more. Personally don't think it's the best Marvel film, while a long way from bad let alone terrible, for me it's one of the weaker ones. 6/10 Bethany Cox

More productios design than film. Too many explanation sequences of Marvel Wakanda universe; but the mise en scene of marvel afroamerican new stereotypes, the duels in the falls, are worth seeing

I wish i could give this movie more than two thumbs down. Talk about being unimpressed. Just a complete letdown. All i can say is that Michael B. Jordan was great but didn't have enough screen time to really work the heft and importance of his character's plight. I do like how he and Panther kinda dwelt in a moral gray area because of what they chose to do or not do, but it didn't make for engaging enough exchanges. This should have focused more on Killmonger than Panther as it would have given more gravitas to the subject at hand...alas, what we got is a dull and uneven first act that dragged quite a bit until Killmonger became the central focus.

Even then the film's other flaws were far too present to let me enjoy it properly. Chief among these is it's inability to make me suspend my disbelief and go along for the ride. Instead, i just sat there nitpicking and focusing on its downsides as I was too uninvested to do much else. Wakanda seemed about as realistic a place as Wonderland...only without the wonder. The natural beauty of Africa was mostly forsaken for garbage CGI locations and digital matte paintings. But it was not the only thing to suffer.

Panther went from the interesting badass of Civil War to the guy I knew too much about to the point of disengagement. Considering the film centered on him, this proved an issue. I will say that Okoye, the head of his royal guard, was excellent in every scene and, quite frankly, the film's only "badass" character in a movie that should of been brimming with them. Killmonger and Man-Ape do their best with what they have and it works while they're around but it's far too little, too late.. Agent Ross felt so out of place it hurt, Panther's sister was a mixture of annoying and far too ridiculous to be credible. I could go on.

The humor in this is not only out of place but cringe-inducingly lame. Much more than it was in Doctor Strange only in Strange I got over it. Here...I just couldn't believe any of those jokes passed muster. Groaning and eye-rolling every time a scene was ruined by some third rate zinger.

I was also shocked at how incredibly horrid the effects in this were. Up to no standard that Marvel has set thus far. Instead a step back. Green screens and digital matte's were blatantly obvious, Panther's suit and fights were a CGI clusterfuck. Remember that cool car chase sequence in Civil War with Panther? Let's do that again only make it so fake that any of the coolness is sapped out of it. And those rhinos and the ships...sweet nuts! How did anyone accept these as up to par with the previous output?

The action? With the exception of Okoye's fights and the final tribal war, the action was a mix of frenzied, close-up camerawork, sub-par choreography, or seeing obvious digital effects jump around and pretend to hurt each other. Never was there a moment of awe and childlike wonder for me but there were plenty of moments of me wishing it looked better or at least came across as cool. No dice.

The now mandatory credit and post credit sequences are not only useless but one of them upstages the final scene of the movie and robs it of its impact in the process by saying the same thing, basically.

I know i'm in the minority here (the movie made billions by now) but it was shockingly bad to me. Luke Cage was a far better black hero character in the MCU and there were even similar themes of the responsibility of having power and using it for the good of others.

I wish i could give this movie more than two thumbs down. Talk about being unimpressed. Just a complete letdown. All i can say is that Michael B. Jordan was great but didn't have enough screen time to really work the heft and importance of his character's plight. I do like how he and Panther kinda dwelt in a moral gray area because of what they chose to do or not do, but it didn't make for engaging enough exchanges. This should have focused more on Killmonger than Panther as it would have given more gravitas to the subject at hand...alas, what we got is a dull and uneven first act that dragged quite a bit until Killmonger became the central focus.
Even then the film's other flaws were far too present to let me enjoy it properly. Chief among these is it's inability to make me suspend my disbelief and go along for the ride. Instead, i just sat there nitpicking and focusing on its downsides as I was too uninvested to do much else. Wakanda seemed about as realistic a place as Wonderland...only without the wonder. The natural beauty of Africa was mostly forsaken for garbage CGI locations and digital matte paintings. But it was not the only thing to suffer.
Panther went from the interesting badass of Civil War to the guy I knew too much about to the point of disengagement. Considering the film centered on him, this proved an issue. I will say that Okoye, the head of his royal guard, was excellent in every scene and, quite frankly, the film's only "badass" character in a movie that should of been brimming with them. Killmonger and Man-Ape do their best with what they have and it works while they're around but it's far too little, too late.. Agent Ross felt so out of place it hurt, Panther's sister was a mixture of annoying and far too ridiculous to be credible. I could go on.
The humor in this is not only out of place but cringe-inducingly lame. Much more than it was in Doctor Strange only in Strange I got over it. Here...I just couldn't believe any of those jokes passed muster. Groaning and eye-rolling every time a scene was ruined by some third rate zinger.
I was also shocked at how incredibly horrid the effects in this were. Up to no standard that Marvel has set thus far. Instead a step back. Green screens and digital matte's were blatantly obvious, Panther's suit and fights were a CGI clusterfuck. Remember that cool car chase sequence in Civil War with Panther? Let's do that again only make it so fake that any of the coolness is sapped out of it. And those rhinos and the ships...sweet nuts! How did anyone accept these as up to par with the previous output?
The action? With the exception of Okoye's fights and the final tribal war, the action was a mix of frenzied, close-up camerawork, sub-par choreography, or seeing obvious digital effects jump around and pretend to hurt each other. Never was there a moment of awe and childlike wonder for me but there were plenty of moments of me wishing it looked better or at least came across as cool. No dice.
The now mandatory credit and post credit sequences are not only useless but one of them upstages the final scene of the movie and robs it of its impact in the process by saying the same thing, basically.
I know i'm in the minority here (the movie made billions by now) but it was shockingly bad to me. Luke Cage was a far better black hero character in the MCU and there were even similar themes of the responsibility of having power and using it for the good of others.

La película esta bien, se siente que esta completa para un buena introducción al mundo del personaje de Wakanda, siendo entretenida y nada mal que se puede criticar que no deba ser perdonado.

No note mucho incampie en el tema racial, solo hace referencia al tema, pero no es una película que critique ese aspecto como la publicidad, los medios y los críticos están diciendo por ahí, así que solo disfrútenla como un película de un superheroe más.

Con respecto a Killmonger, si, esta cool el villano, pero sigo prefiriendo a Hela, por gusto culposo.

I already saw this movie but since I just bought an awesome brand new TV, I thought I might as well check it out again. I remember the first time I saw the damned thing though. Indeed, since I kept hearing some great things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out and I had some rather high expectations. Well, eventually pretty much like with ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, even though I really liked the damned thing, I didn’t think it was so revolutionary though. In my opinion, the main issue was that, after already 18 movies, the MCU has become too big and it has become a shore to link all these movies together and make sure they don’t break the continuity. In this case, as a result, at least half of the movie was spent on explaining why Wakanda and Black Panther were not involved before in the MCU and why they will be involved from now on. I mean, it was rather well done but it wasn’t really compelling and I hope that, after ‘Infinity War’, Marvel will stop to link all their movies together and provide some much needed flexibility to their directors (after all, it is not like all their 1000’s of comic-books have been tightly linked together in the past). Anyway, beside this point, it was still a really cool super-hero flick, no doubt about it. In fact, it will probably be a milestone in motion picture history as being the first major black blockbuster ever made, not less than that. Indeed, Ryan Googler delivered a gorgeous movie with a fascinating fantasy African world. On top of that, they gave us an all-star black cast and 2 of the best bad guys in the MCU history (Erik Killmonger and Ulysses Klaue). In fact, I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to focus only on one of these guys but it wasn’t a big deal. Anyway, to conclude, even though it might be slightly overrated, it is still impressive that Marvel keeps delivering some quality blockbusters after all these years and the damned thing is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.