Black Panther

Marvel's first African Superhero entry is here to terraform the Cinematic Universe and tectonically shift the status quo ever since its existence! Prepare to be shattered of all stereotypes and formulas in this bundle ball of energy that keeps on giving!

Producer Kevin Feige made the absolute right choice in selecting Ryan Coogler, the man behind Fruitvale Station and Creed to helm this project. As the audience member, you could immediately feel his ferocious power, passion and fire in storytelling direction! You would only need to take a look at the way he navigated the camera around a basketball game in the beginning to realize he meant business! We knew something more than an average Marvel film was about to be witnessed!

Wakanda 101 was told through a tremendously striking powdered caricatures in the most exciting narration possible! What’s the country hiding, who were they hiding it from, why were they doing so and who's The Black Panther were crucial expositions spelt to you in a swift go without hard notice! With this, we've stepped into a world never before been portrayed by any Marvel's motion pictures thus far.

What a breath of fresh air! The whole setting, tribes, rituals, policies, culture! Everything's fresh! You could literally feel your lungs open wide! Architectures blanketed under poverty, navigation plane made of powder and aurora painted ancestors realm with panthers sitting on trees were achievements in production design! The most beautiful thing about the movie was the perfect marriage between tradition and technology. Costumes laboratory, interior designs, micro-vibranium gadgets, animal shaped spaceships, hologram protection cloak, communication pods and hexagon medical beds were among the highlights. Even Klaue's (Andy Serkis) weapon filled prosthetic arm was awesome. The world erected was totally… great! Such work was not included for boasting purposes, but to relevantly serve the plot big time!

Ludwig Göransson's outstanding background music deserves mention of its own! Native text converting into English alphabets were true to the context. Colors were multitude and vibrant. Black Panther's and Killmonger's costumes were every man's dream to own. Visual effects wise, almost everything was perfect, such as the pretty luminous blue heart-shaped herb and spaceship hiding above clouds to name two. Rhinos, edge of waterfall and Black Panther's mask digitally covering T'Challa's (Chadwick Boseman) visage before zooming out at the climax would have definitely benefited from extra touches before rendering final. Not to forget, muted score with focus on echo-based sound design when the hero and villain fell into cave brawling was sheer brilliant!

One of the biggest issues with Black Panther was the film editing. While it did its job neatly for the majority portions, it's when doing the same quick and abrupt cuts for emotional scenes that proved to be counterproductive. It didn’t allow the emotions to ripe before plucking it out, thus the sentiments weren't earned, resulting in feeling the transitions weren't fluid. T'Challa's revival and Zuri's (Forest Whitaker) death were among the examples.

It's natural to expect action sequences when you walk into a superhero movie. King procession challenge twice, Busan club fight with a follow-up chase, Black Panther's costume charged with kinetic energy acting as detonator and treason-climax war were whistle-worthy episodes! Final battle between Black Panther and Killmonger could have happened in a lighted backdrop, as their dark costumes couldn't distinguish their actions in an equally dark train tunnel. Of course you're going to laugh out loud in a Marvel outing! Costume testing, Rhino licking in the midst of warfare, vibranium car shredding into pieces with Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) on her seat, M'Baku's (Winston Duke) jokes and laughter were hilarious!

Screenwriters Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole have put in so much effort etching out the characters and story. General Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Quartermaster Shuri (Letitia Wright) were memorable personas sharing strong relationships with the protagonist. Michael B. Jordan played an extremely formidable villain! His presence, actions and mannerisms were terrorizing! You could instantly see where the character's coming from and empathize with his beliefs by adhering to pre-conceived knowledge of a how a colored person would have grown up in the United States. Via him, necessary changes arrived for the protagonist and his nation. The moment he overthrew our hero to death and became king, we knew shit just hit the fan! In his hands, we were sure peaceful Wakanda will never be the same again. The writing had solid foreshadowing that would connect to form a wholesome tale later on. However, trouble in club came forced. Erik Stevens' girlfriend working as a barista just for the one day museum robbery wasn't believable. Set-Up too, was long.

From the start, the main character was underplayed, which was good. He wasn't sure of his position and responsibilities as the leader. He wasn't ready yet, until he had to re-surface, accept the Lie, correct all past mistakes and reborn as a new person! The part where he brought the antagonist to see sunset before dying was a charming proof enough to say this character's revised. He'll no longer watch from the shadows. He is now ready to help the rest of the world with the power and resources Wakanda possesses. As the two worlds merged, the soundtrack turned from traditional to modern, sending us off on a high note!