Black Panther is the newest Marvel Studios production the last one before Avengers Infinity War in April no less and reintroduced His Royal Highness King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) who was first introduced in Captain America: Civil War back in 2016 here he becomes the heir to the throne and has to deal with the challenges of maintaining it first by trying to bring Ulysses Klaw (Andy Serkis) to justice and then by having to face a new challenger to his throne in Erik Killmonger (Michael B Jordan) a challenger who has a much more aggressive desire to rule the Kingdom of Wakanda than T’Challa does.
Black Panther is one of the better Marvel Studios productions and represents also a very and much needed shift towards a more serious tone in the MCU a shift that has really been needed with Avengers Age of Ultron in 2015 but only really comes to the forefront here and a big reason for this is due to the director Mr Ryan Coogler who brings a more serious minded feel to the film and while there is plenty of the trademark Marvel Studios humour it doesn’t feel as forced as it has been in some of the previous movies.
And also Mr Boseman is great as King T’Challa I really liked his work in the role in Civil War and he continues that good work here balancing both his life as the Black Panther the protector of his kingdom and his people but also his responsibilities as a King and a Monarch and how he must find his own path rather than follow the one left for him but his ancestors its an arc that is handled with thought and patience and it is done very well here.
Also great is Martin Freeman as Agent Ross who proves to be a very welcome ally to his Highness as well as Letita Wright, Danai Gurira and Winston Duke providing very welcome support as well and Serkis is also good fun as Klaw not not that one but there was literally one point in the movie where he gets away from the Black Panther after a big chase scene and I literally said to myself “I’ll get you next time Panther, Next Time.”
But the show stealer here is Mr Jordan as Killmonger and at long long long long long long last the Marvel Villain problem has been fixed and how fitting it is that Mr Jordan is the one to do it even though I still wish that Josh Brolin’s Thanos got to be the one to do it but that is a wish and here is the reality and he is great in this role and when I came out of the film I thought to myself that this is his redemption for being in that horrible Fant4stic film from 2015.
What makes him a great villain is that he has a clear goal that he wants to achieve and he is willing to kill anyone who stands in his way in order to achieve it and both Coogler and Jordan give him a seriousness in that goal that has been sorely sorely missing from the other MCU villains who have by contrast been treated either as an afterthought to focus more on the heroes or just as a joke something to dismiss to the sidelines and treat as a mere punching bag that walks and talks with no real seriousness or goals to them at all and I can’t tell all of you how relieving it is that Marvel Studios has now fixed their weakest spot and all it took was someone to come in and give the villain some much needed TLC.
However this is not a perfect movie and where it does fall down slightly is in its action sequences and its not because they are terrible in any way its only because the direction and editing of those scenes tends to become a close up shaky cam fest after a while though Mr Coogler is only directing that kind of high energy action and visual effects work for the first time here so he is finding his feet in this realm so hopefully if he gets the opportunity to do a sequel he will have gone through the learning curve and feel more confident in that kind of direction and build on the work he has done here.
And so that was Black Panther a well made and entertaining Marvel Studios movie that fans will love, 3 out of 5.
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