Black Panther
(2018)Chadwick Boseman reprises his titular role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's 18th film. Directed by Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner Ryan Coogler (Creed).... More
When Black Panther's leadership is threatened by two of his foes who join forces, he must fight back along with the C.I.A. and the Dora Milaje. Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) has been revealed to be one of said foes.Hide
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Directed by Ryan Coogler ('Creed', 'Fruitvale Station')
Starring Chadwick Boseman, Andy Serkis, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Sterling K. Brown, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya
Written by Joe Robert Cole, Ryan Coogler (based on characters created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee)
Studio Marvel Entertainment
Out Now (On-Demand,
DVD or Blu-Ray)
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
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Black Panther
BY Newt superstar
Black Panther excels in presenting a unique central character with a memorable supporting cast. The soundtrack/score is without question, one of the better ones of Marvel's. The Killmonger serves as a middling villain - he's very compelling but a little cliched in motives. Andy Serkis, also a highlight.
BY HMJ lister
So here we are, one month after it's release and the Black Panther is still screening an garnering praise. Well deserved praise.
Is this a perfect movie? Of course not. Armor with built in nipples? Again? When WILL they learn?
As for those CGI rhinos. I'm can live with that.... More After all, rhinos are not as easy going as elephants. Hand-reared rhinos that are tame enough to cover with motion capture dots and lead around in front of a green screen or in a set are few. Or non-existent. Seriously. Don't mess with rhinos.
As for the pacing of the movie, it's repeated moments and the length and plausibility of the actions scenes, well that's just a matter of personal taste. You'll never please everyone.
What pleased me most about this movie was the way I saw the building of the Black Panther universe. Broad strokes are used. Nothing is over explained. The purpose of an all woman royal body guard is not touched on. The different responses of his people to their king when he is or is not wearing his mask was so lightly used it was hardly noticeable. And I am deeply thankful to see not one hint of the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda!
I dearly loved the scene where the C.I.A agent, ever so accustomed to being taken ever so seriously was shut up so firmly it rocked him on his heels! So much comic history in one delightful moment. You didn't have to be a comic book reader to get that one. I wasn't the only one laughing my arse off.
The cast was first rate. This is very much an ensemble movie. I couldn't single out an individual for top honours. Time after time I saw hints that the actors/script writers/director knew the history of a comic series that goes back to 1966 and thus has a rich history to draw upon.
I exited this movie both hugely relieved and grinning from ear to ear.Hide
BY adamatdramatrain superstar
Take Wonder Woman, a perfectly good action movie, that falls apart in its final act, with a pretty silly villain. A solid three-star movie, that entertains and offers heaps of fun. But, as a long-overdue cultural “happening” its importance as a female superhero movie led to many critics heaping praise... More that in retrospect likely owes more to the woman at its centre than to cinematic wonder.
Another case in point is Black Panther. On Monday 19th February, after the movie smashed various US domestic box office opening records, former First Lady Michelle Obama Tweeted:
“Congrats to the entire #blackpanther team. Because of you, young people will finally see superheroes that look like them on the big screen. I loved this movie and I know it will inspire people of all backgrounds to dig deep and find the courage to be heroes of their own stories.”
Five stars for relevance. But is it a good movie? In a word – yes.
Fun, exciting, fresh (in terms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at least) and downright entertaining. But, solely as a movie, it’s over long, unnecessarily repeats key scenes (the waterfall fight sequences being a stand-out example) and contains more than its fair share of wonky CGI (yeah, armoured rhinos, I’m looking at you!)
But, it has arguably the greatest “villain” (Michael B. Jordan fantastic as Killmonger) since the bad guy in Captain America: Civil War, a rounded three-dimensional human being with relatable motives, if questionable means to achieve his ends.
Best of all, it’s not a solo movie about one central protagonist, it’s a team movie with an ensemble cast, and it’s actually about something more than superhero punch-ups and CGI explosions.
Taking up his mantle as new king of Wakanda, following his father’s death in Civil War, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is surprisingly one of the least interesting characters in a film that introduces not just a full cast of supporting characters, but a whole new world.
Yeah, ok, Wakanda veers between a lively, less-dystopian version of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner cityscapes, a colourful utopian version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. The subtext ain’t too hard to see here. Imagine an Africa free from history, an Africa without slavery, white imperialism and colonial rule.
Director Ryan Coogler presents an Edenic vision of a free, science-driven culture that has embraced its tribal heritage and fused the two, with the fictional ‘Vibranium’ replacing oil as the economic driver.
Coogler has moved from the riveting drama of Fruitvale Station, to the surprisingly superb Rocky spin-off Creed, and now delivers on the blockbuster front. With a slow, evenly paced first act, leading to the action pay off of the second and third climactic battles, Black Panther is blockbusting popcorn entertainment with a brain, and the chief villain in its sights is colonialism.
Black Panther, King T’Challa, at first supports isolationism, wanting to keep Wakanda secret and safe from the outside world. By the end of the movie, his position has changed and the new King wants to share his people’s advances with the world, much as the first Iron Man ended with a press conference and Tony Stark’s frank admission: “I am Iron Man,” so Black Panther ends with an outstretched hand.
The supposed villain, Killmonger is all for taking the advantages of Wakandan science and using them to climb to the top of the World-power pile. His vision is nothing short of an uprising of the poor, the oppressed and the progeny of the formerly enslaved.
Explicitly at one point he says he wishes to be buried in the sea, where so many of the stolen people of Africa died at the hands of slave traders: “Bury me in the ocean like my ancestors that jumped from the ships because they knew death was better than bondage.”
Too political? Not if you read the original Black Panther comics and remember not only the context in which they were created, but take a few seconds to think about the title. Black Panther. Yeah, Killmonger hails from the Californian city of Oakland, where the Black Panther Party was established in 1966.
It’s this subtext that makes Black Panther so important. In all other black superhero movies the black hero has ultimately been reliant on, or a side-kick to, a white hero. In Blade, Wesley Snipe’s Daywalker vampire relied on Kris Kristofferson’s Whistler, his white friend and aid. In Captain America and Iron Man, Falcon relies on Tony Stark’s suit technology for his power and on Steve Rogers to lead the team. Heck, even Samuel L Jackson as Frozone in Pixar animation The Incredibles played second-fiddle to a white hero.
Reading too much into it? Ok, well what about all those references to James Bond’s gadget shop, in which this version of Q is a young, black woman, Shuri (played by Letitia Wright) Wakanda’s chief of technology and T’Challa’s cheeky younger sister, who says, when surprised by Martin Freeman: “Don’t scare me like that, colonizer!”
Yup, throughout Black Panther, women of colour are represented as strong, independent and highly skilled. Danai Gurira rocks as General Okoye, and there’s a lot of fun in the line about Wakanda’s “Grace Jones-looking” all-female militia. The costumes, make-up and art direction for Wakanda and its inhabitants are fabulous – vibrant, colourful and simply stunning to see on the big screen.
Yes, Wakanda is a fictional city, because Africa’s is a history interrupted and invaded, but in Black Panther Ryan Coogler and his team of top-notch collaborators have created a fiction capable of not just entertaining, but inspiring.
If that’s not worth an extra star I don’t know what is.Hide
BY Alissa-Warren superstar
BY Bayly lister
'Black Panther' is a exciting movie in most scenes.
I recommend This To Definitely watched on the Big Screen.
Showing 5 of 11 reviews. See all reviews
The Press Reviews
We didn't know we'd been yearning for it until it arrived, but now that it's here it's unmistakable that the wait for a film like "Black Panther" has been way longer than it should have been. Full Review
Most big studio fantasies take you out for a joy ride only to hit the same exhausted story and franchise-expanding beats. Not this one. Full Review
The intriguing thing about Black Panther is that it doesn't look like a superhero film - more a wide-eyed fantasy romance: exciting, subversive and funny. Full Review
Celebrates its hero's heritage while delivering one of Marvel's most all-around appealing standalone installments to date. Full Review
Confident, assured and athletic filmmaking. Full Review
With uncanny timing, Marvel takes its superheroes into a domain they've never inhabited before and is all the better for it in Black Panther. Full Review
A giddily enjoyable, convention-bucking 134-minute epic that somehow manages to simultaneously be a comic-book blockbuster, a pulsating espionage thriller and an Afro-futurist family saga. Full Review
A vibrant, exciting, relevant slice of Marvellous entertainment. Full Review
Could Black Panther be any more exciting? Yes. Full Review
Its execution is well-realised by Creed director Coogler, but this Black Panther doesn't unfortunately quite roar when it should... Full Review
BY Liam Maguren Flicks Writer
With his regal demeanour, noble disposition, and unquestionable ability to kick an ass or 20, Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa proved himself worthy of the Black Panther suit in Captain America: Civil War. Had his solo film expanded on these three qualities, while delivering the necessary fights and funnies that define the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it would have made for a good film. Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther does much more.... More
Like most of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the plot runs by a tried-and-true blueprint. This time, it follows the footsteps of the first Thor with story beats surrounding royalties, loyalties, betrayals, outcasts and family secrets that feel familiar (sometimes predictable). However, they play naturally to the majestic and technologically advanced world of Wakanda.
If anyone deserves to retire as kings and queens, it’s the art department. There’s so much creativity displayed in the makeup, costuming, sets, and sci-fi designs that a single watch cannot absorb it all. From the striking attire of the Dora Milaje warriors to the sand-like magnetic thingy-ma-bobs that power Wakandan tech, every detail adds wonderment to a world that imagines an African culture gifted with near-unlimited resources and untainted by colonialism.
The poisons of history play a big part in Black Panther – not just with colonialism, but with any past act that later proves to be problematic. This is what powers Michael B Jordan’s Killmonger, a vicious yet sympathetic adversary with enough depth to make him one of the more memorable villains in the MCU.
However, the true knockout stars are Lupita Nyong’o as Wakandan spy Nakia and Danai Gurira as Dora Milaje general Okoye. They’re given multiple times to shine using both their heroic fists and their stand-up comedy routines while sticking to their own rounded subplots.
Weirdly enough, Get Out’s Oscar-nominated star Daniel Kaluuya ends up falling a little flat as commander W’Kabi, using a casual ‘did you just fart?’ face for almost every confrontation. His relationship with Okoye also seems non-existent until the film coughs it up during an otherwise exciting climax. But those are minor complaints for a film that feels gargantuan in almost every other way.Hide
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