Powerful Panther Power

Movie Reviewed: Black Panther

Director: Ryan Coogler

Date: 20 June 2018

jamesintexas rating: ***1/2



Ryan Coogler's Black Panther is a marvel, dramatically rendered in textures and special effects that enhance the storytelling.  He's out-Star Wars-ed Star Wars this year, and his film fits with his previous two films Creed and Fruitvale Station in their strong casts and well-developed character arcs.  Here, Coogler explores the hidden African country of Wakanda, led by T'Challa, aka Black Panther, (Chadwick Boseman) and the much more captivating and interesting warriors Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and Okoye (Danai Gurira), as well as sister Shuri (Letitia Wright).  The film's prologue in Oakland features a contrast of styles in how to confront injustice in the modern world with some devastating consequences of choices made by leaders that may not be fully felt for many years.

Coogler's steady hand leads us to London, where Erik Killmonger (Michel B. Jordan) espouses a philosophical reclamation of tribal artifacts and African history from the London Museum before leading an actual reclamation of a vibranium axe, the element being an integral part of the technology that makes Wakanda so strong.  Killmonger works with Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis, sans CGI) but has his own personal reasons for challenging T'Challa.  There's also the sleuthing of Nakia and T'Challa, as they try to figure out the next moves of Killmonger and Klaue. The teaming-up-with-the-CIA part of the film is probably its weakest aspect, even though Martin Freeman does as much as he can. There's much to like here from the elaborately conceived and majestically purple-colored dream sequences where T'Challa communicates with his elders, as well as the ritual combat set against thunderous waterfalls and edges.  Coogler handles the intensity of this world by giving us so many characters to care about, with Nakia, Okoye, and Shuri leading the way.

Chadwick Boseman's work is more subdued in contrast and less interesting.  Nyong'o, Gurira, and Wright are given much to do, humor, and significant screen time.  Alan Hook's art direction, Ruth Carter's costumes, and Jay Hart's set decoration should all be remembered come Oscar season.  The film really looks original and unique, and though I've fallen off the Marvel bandwagon and am many, many movies behind, Black Panther succeeds as a stand alone film because of Coogler's confident streamlining of the story and rooting it in characters that we care about.  For my eyes, the final fight sequence with T'Challa and Killmonger loses its power in CGI muddled imagery, with the final moves that end the fight being hard to follow. But in nearly every other respect, Black Panther is one of the best films of the year.  The film ends back in Oakland with a philosophical unpacking of isolationism vs. globalism, the idea of sharing, not hoarding what you have that makes you special, exploring elements of social consciousness in a film far more interested in ideas and characters than in the superficial.  Bravo!