It’s been just about a week since Black Panther 2 dropped, so it was time for me to drop the greatest review the internet has ever seen. It’s very in depth and long (pause) just like Namor’s underwater civilization. (Get it? A little play on words since the civilization is at the bottom of the ocean and that’s a great depth, and I’m going into a great depth of detail for this review. I really am the greatest writer the world has ever seen.)
Greatest Marvel Movie Ever? (No.)
After the movie, my friend said Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever was the greatest marvel movie the studio had put out. Now he was obviously wrong, very wrong, could not have been more wrong, but he was at an emotional high. We’ve all been there though, coming out of a movie we thought was amazing that was actually lackluster. For me it was Rise of Skywalker (this movie is awful, I thought it was amazing as I left the theater but I was very wrong. I haven’t even watched it a second time.) After a quick conversation about Wakanda Forever, we brought him back to earth, and he realized that this movie definitely had its flaws. There were some unexpected twists, some good some bad, but the overall movie just fell flat.
NON-SPOILER REVIEW
Before getting into spoilers, lets discuss some issues with the movie overall that prevented it from being good.
PACING!
This movie takes forever to get going. Yes, we are getting a few new characters but we don’t have to take over an hour to get going. This movie is two (2) hours and forty-one (41) minutes and it feels like we don’t actually get going until almost the two-hour mark. I mean in the first black panther film we had all of Wakanda to introduce and it felt like it was fast paced from the jump. This was too much build up. If you build up too much you miss your chance to really have the audience engaged, because then we’re just waiting forever for that climax. If you build up too much and then don’t deliver, you never really get that climax. This must be how every girl feels.
SOUNDTRACK
The first Black Panther film set the bar so high with the soundtrack. I still listen to a bunch of the songs on the reg (regular.) This soundtrack didn’t do it for me. Firstly, we didn’t even get the iconic trumpets that we’ve gotten previously when entering Wakanda in other MCU movies. Those trumpets always get me hype, just close your eyes and think of the melody right now (da da da, da da da, dadadada, da da da, da da da, dadadada) WOW! Just thinking about it is getting me excited! And we didn’t get that in this film. If you still don’t understand what I’m talking about this will help you:
The new Rihanna song didn’t even seem to get used correctly. We didn’t get it until the very end and we only got it for a short period of time. It worked with the end scene I will say that, but I also think it could’ve worked with a few earlier scenes as well. It’s tough to follow a soundtrack with legends like Future, Kendrick, and The Weeknd, but it didn’t feel Wakanda Forever did a good enough job with the big names that they were given.
I think that’s about everything I can get into without spoiling anything else, so if you have not seen the movie come back to this part of the blog after you see it… SPOILERS AHEAD!
SPOILER REVIEW
My main gripe was not enough Chadwick (too soon, I know. But here me out.) It is obviously incredibly tough to come up with a good sequel film when the main character passes away in real life. I still remember when the world lost Chadwick Boseman, it was almost like the entire internet stood still that night. I was in an uber going out with friends when I saw it, this is over 2 years ago now and I still remember. Yes, the MCU lost their Black Panther, but people all over the world lost a superhero and role model that they looked up to. It was incredibly sad, and I don’t think we received enough of that emotion for it in this movie. It starts very quickly and is very rushed with him passing and then it goes directly into a celebration of his life. Yes, his life absolutely deserves to be celebrated and remembering the good times is part of the healing process. But you need to tug on our heart strings at least a little bit. It’s emotional, make it emotional! By the time they do the little montage at the end (which wasn’t enough) it just doesn’t feel sufficient. In my opinion we needed something early, and then a montage at the end as well. I told my friends “They should have done it like how Fast and Furious did it for Paul Walker.” I got the response back “what, both of them driving separate ways?”
So maybe we didn’t need a montage like that, but still we needed more than what was given. Not having that emotion for Chadwick was one of if not my biggest gripe with the film.
Iron Heart
This is obviously a new super hero that they are going to incorporate for years to come. She is obviously no Tony Stark (he played Ironman; some people say I look like him so he’s, my favorite. I sided with him in Civil War, if you didn’t you were wrong. Just think about your parents really quick, oh yeah that’s what I thought!) but I think she can provide some cool scenes in future films or shows. Does she need her own show? No, I don’t think so (not everyone needs their own show. I found out while writing this that shes getting one, good grief.) Now, I do not think she was used greatly in Wakanda forever. Her dialogue at times felt forced (some scenes were funny like when she was at the underwater temple.) Her action scenes were pretty good, and I liked her working with Shuri to show her whit. Let’s just let her character develop naturally, we don’t need to force anything.
Namor
There was some good with Namor in this film, there was also a lot of bad, and I do not think the bad was necessarily on him. I don’t know too much about him from the comics other than he is sort of an anti-hero and the ruler of Atlantis. Marvel changed it since DC is running Aquaman right now, so now Namor rules over the smurfs (blue people who live in his kingdom.)
His first attack on Wakanda was AWESOME! Man has wings on his ankles and looked like he was hitting SuperMario power ups to glide through the air. He had water bombs and the Steroid Smurfs to back him up, and it led to the most shocking twist of the movie, the death of…
Yes, the queen is dead. This honestly shocked me I did not see it coming. It made sense for Shuri’s character ark but wow. What a scene, and then Namor delivered the coldest line of the entire movie;
DAMN! Okay Namor I see you! Do I wish the camera was more focused on you as you said this? Yes, but still, what a fucking line. My man is here to conquer, and I respect it. Aside from that first attack though, I didn’t feel necessarily that I could really get behind Namor. He got his ass kicked in the end fight scene by Shuri, he even lost a wing. Can he even fly anymore? His army of “millions” couldn’t even finish a few hundred Wakandans. He yielded to Shuri for a “bigger picture” scheme but I don’t know. That’s weak if you ask me, either be a good enough villain to get the job done or die on your sword! Speaking of villains…
Killmonger
That’s right, he’s back! Well at least in the ancestral plain. Was I happy to see him there? Absolutely not. Is it his fault? No. I understand what they were trying to do having Shuri see Killmonger when she takes the herb, it’s a part of her character arc to let go of the vengeance that is consuming her. She needs to do this so she does not end up like Killmonger. However, I feel like this was a miss due to the fact that this scene could’ve been more emotional and tugged on our heart strings. (Reoccurring theme here, not emotional enough.) Why not have an interaction with her mother? Maybe even her father. If we’re feeling bold maybe Chadwick’s voice at some point. But instead, we got Killmonger with longer dreads. Didn’t work for me.
Shuri
Her suit was awesome! It looked super fire. Also, Letitia Wright did an amazing job in this roll. Her acting was spectacular. She literally loses everyone she cares for in this movie and you can feel her grief through the screen. I don’t have anything bad to really say about her that I can think of at the moment. Should she have turned Namor into a filet-o-fish? Most definitely, but you know we all need a plot for future movies to come. She did beat his ass though, which was dope. I’m interested to see what her role as the black panther will be in future films especially after that end credit scene.
End Credit Scene
Okay this guy could not be more wrong. Yes, we find out T’Challa has a son, which is awesome, marvel did great with that storyline, but come on dude it does not make up for the movie being subpar. Was it emotional? Yes. Is it exciting he now has a son who may be black panther in future films? Yes. Also, it means T’Challa and Nakia were getting freaky deaky! Man froze up when he was rescuing her in the first movie and froze up when he was supposed to pull out! But after seeing her in Black Panther 2 we all know why!
Rating
After everything I would probably give this movie a 7.5. It had a tough task to compete with the first, even if Chadwick was still in the role. His passing made things even tougher and it showed. Marvel has been churning out a lot of shit as of recent, and I would say this is probably the least shit, of all the shit. But still not great. I’ve still got a ton of questions; will Shuri or T’Challa’s son take the mantle of Black Panther in the future? Will M’Baku also have some sort of mantle with it since he posed a challenge at the end of the film? (This may have just been a call back to the first movie but still.) Will Namor still be able to fly? (It pissed me off a lot when he lost a wing and I need to know.) And last but certainly not least the biggest question I have from Wakanda Forever… does Toussaint (T’Challa’s son) need a stepfather?
I agree with your review my friend. I think they did a great job using this as a filler movie as they move into this recast of T’challa. Her suit was fire and Valentina keeps peering her head around that’s leading to something huge.
Can Namor still fly though? That’s the real question.