Well, a $200 million blockbuster wake sure is a hell of a thing to see.
This was an impossible task. Not just because of Chadwick Boseman's tragic passing in 2020, but the way the original Black Panther landed in 2018 was serious lightning in a bottle. Having been introduced in Captain America: Civil War in a mini-origin arc, the titular hero got to use his debut film almost like it's own sequel, branching out from "who's this, what are there powers?" into the genuinely considered geopolitical ramifications of the nation of Wakanda, its major political players, its resources, and its own internal strife. Because writer/director Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole created such a fully-realized world and supporting cast, the film tasked with picking up the pieces in the aftermath of unspeakable tragedy can make that part of its textual narrative thanks largely to an ensemble asked to step up proving more than worthy of the task. In addition, a pair of powerhouse performances by Angela Basset and Tenoch Huerta Mejia alongside a star-making turn from Letitia Wright prove unshakable pillars upon which Coogler rests this deeply emotional sci-fi war epic.
Following the death of King T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) of an unspecified illness, the rest of the royal family is tasked with leading the country in the wake of both his decision to reveal Wakanda's true nature to the world as well as the burning of the heart-shaped herb (thanks to the usurper Erik Killmonger, played so memorably by Michael B. Jordan) that ended the line of Black Panthers. Queen Ramonda (Bassett) is fielding both hungry foreign powers looking at Wakanda's resources and a still-stricken Princess Shuri (Wright) who's going through a crisis of faith after feeling like she failed to save her brother. The emergence of King Namor (Huerta Mejia) and the underwater kingdom of Talokan (as beautifully-realized as Wakanda in its way) don't so much complicate matters as set off a cascade of disastrous developments that could lead to Wakanda facing a war on two fronts. In what is easily one of the most bittersweet examples of playing the hand you're dealt, Wakanda Forever is forced to reckon with the question of "what happens when you do everything right but the bright future that was in your grasp is unceremoniously ripped away?"
Which isn't something we generally see in movies on this scale, let alone those based on comic books that are designed around satisfying power fantasies. The "MCU movies aren't just superhero movies, they're political thrillers/heist movies/space operas" marketing pitch is beyond tiresome, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever genuinely feels different from what we've come to expect from the genre. It's not dissimilar to how the "grounded, but still recognizably a superhero movie" Batman Begins was followed by the very Michael Mann-inspired crime saga of The Dark Knight. In the ways that it foregrounds well-grounded and incredibly clear emotional arcs alongside deliberate sociopolitical commentary (this film has little time for the United States as a world power in general and even less for the CIA in particular), it plays like the anti-action version of a James Cameron film.
That isn't to say there isn't action or that it's not exhilarating - there is, and it very much is. Ryan Coogler showed his chops in this department with Creed and has only gotten better at it with each subsequent film, once again showcasing a particular knack for dope car chases and large-scale melees. He also continues his proclivity for making his cast really pop on screen both during the set pieces and quiet personal moments. Both Lupita Nyong'o spy Nakia and Danai Gurira's General Okoye get to show off some new dramatic and physical sides to their characters as well as positively crackling with energy whenever they're onscreen with Bassett and Wright. Namor immediately cements his place as an S-tier antagonist and the way the film visualizes his abilities is uniquely-unsettling as well as very clearly showing him to be a genuine powerhouse capable of standing toe-to-toe with the Hulk. He's both magnetic and threatening enough that the film makes the audience dread the road to war with him, framing conflicts as tragic failures to find alternate recourse while carefully tracking the narrative and character beats driving the action.
But for all that this film is inescapably defined by mourning, its deliberately unfolding narrative retains the defiant idealism and triumphant heroism that Coogler so effectively utilized in the first film. The youthful energy of inventor Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) as an unexpectedly central player in this yarn, and her dynamic with Shuri left me wanting twice and many scenes with the two of them. Winston Duke's Lord M'Baku of the Jabari tribe emerges as Shuri's conscience as well as being one of one of Wakanda's greatest generals, and his balance between gruffly affable and genuinely tender has catapulted him into MCU MVP status alongside stalwarts like Benedict Wong's Wong. And without giving anything away, the soaring moments that land as Ludwig Goransson's reaches its wildest crescendos are some of the most thematically satisfying the MCU has yet seen.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is understandably a movie shaken to its core by loss, but uses that emptiness to examine how those left behind continue to shape the pieces we've left them when we're gone. And with this film, Ryan Coogler and his collaborators have built something genuinely special.
No comments:
Post a Comment