Black Panther Movie Review (Spoilers)

Hey you, welcome back to the channel. And guys, we finally got it! We got the Black Panther movie, very much anticipated, and I'm excited to bring you all the review as I saw the movie last night, and I was very much impressed and satisfied with the Black Panther movie. Wanna say this real quick, guys. This is a spoiler-filled review. I don't wanna do you the disservice of taking away the enjoyment of this film. So if you haven't seen it, please go watch it, come back later, we can talk about it, or do like I'm going to do, go back, watch it a second time, then come back. But I love this movie, guys. I really love this movie. Directed by Ryan Coogler. I felt he hit a home run. There, you know, there was— this was a big film, a lot riding on this film. Not just, not just a superhero film. This was a social film, a political film, and it affected a lot of people many different ways. And I feel that it delivered and satisfied many of the concerns that were originally, you know, came out with the— with what we would get with this Black Panther film, if it would live up to the expectations. One problem with movies on this level, this caliber type movie, is that when the expectations are so high. Even if it's a good film, um, sometimes that's not enough, right? And, uh, that was my fear with the Black Panther movie here. I felt that it was just put on such a high pedestal that even in it being a good film, it wouldn't quite be able to live up to what many of us were hoping it would be. And, uh, Ryan Coogler is a genius. He created a masterpiece in this film, and he did satisfy and surprise me. Something that I wasn't expecting. I was expecting it to be a good film, but I didn't think it would be able to just reach the level that in my mind I was hoping. And it surprised me, it did reach it. And, um, it did, in my opinion, it did everything right, even the pacing of the film. You know, with a lot of movies like this, even if they're good movies, and about, I'd say about 90% of movies I've seen over the last few years is, even if they're decent movies, they all hit these bumps where they just drag on way too long. And I always go, this is something that could have been cut out of the film. This movie moves too quick for me, and I mean that in a good way, because it's well over 2 hours. I think it might be 2 hours and 15 minutes, uh, and it doesn't feel like it. It moves along, it covers a lot, uh, it doesn't get stuck up or caught up at all, uh, anything that I felt it didn't need to. So I don't feel there's anything unnecessary, uh, in this movie. If anything, I'm left going, okay, I would have liked to seen a little, even a little bit more, uh, but knowing with the time constraints, uh, that's not going to be possible. So I appreciated that. I was just thrilled the entire movie. I was— it was an emotional film, it was a character-driven film, and everything worked great. Now, one thing that's going around and surfacing a lot is that, um, Chad Boseman, who plays the Black Panther T'Challa, that some people were surprised because, uh, Chad Boseman, uh was who everybody was looking at to really be the focal point and really steal the film, right? Really, you know, be— and what I want to say to that is I felt that Chad Boseman, uh, did a good job in his portrayal of Black Panther because this was a big cast. It was an all-Black cast pretty much, and everybody got their, uh, a good amount of time, a fair amount of time to do something with their character. And it just wasn't going to be, um, uh, possible for everybody to have a good amount of time if it was all just Chad Boseman and the Black Panther. And so, um, I felt that he portrayed this in a way where he was a team player, where he, he, he was a character who relied and depended on his family, on his country, on his advisors, uh, attributes and things I believe that a good king would do. And although at many times he just was seemingly more reactionary, to me it made sense in the particular situation he was in, as that there, when he takes the mantle of king reluctantly, you know, which is all the qualities of a good king Don't— it's the same, it's the age-old story. The prince who doesn't want to be king because he knows the importance of the job and he takes it serious and he knows that, uh, he wants to be more than ready when he takes on that role. And so we got that with, um, Chad Boseman's portrayal of Black Panther But with so much going on, he's really only able to really react to things because everything's coming at him. And I felt he found a very well balance on how to deal with the issues of what's going on in Wakanda, you know, being composed, creating plans and carrying them out. Um, and, and I, and I felt that's what I got from the character. I didn't feel that he was— I wouldn't use the word overshadowed. I felt he was more of a team player in the entire film, that he had his role to do and everybody had to create their, their own roles. Uh, of course, many of us were impressed with Michael B. Jordan's portrayal of Erik Killmonger. Uh, I mean, he's going down as maybe one of the best villains in the Marvel Universe, and I would have to agree with that. And I'll tell you why. Uh, if not the best, definitely one of the best, and that is because of his motivations, his backstory. Um, you know, many of the villains we get are drunk with power. They want power just for the sake of having power, right? And in Erik Killmonger's case, it's more about trying to uncover a wrong, an injustice that's been done to him. Although he goes about it in a wrong way, we get to find out that T'Challa's father, T'Chaka, wasn't maybe as noble, you know, as we thought, uh, that he had made, you know, many mistakes and, um, and had a dark past he tried to cover up. He had murdered his brother, uh, and this is where the, uh, the social aspects of the film came in where it kind of ceased to be this superhero movie and then it starts to address many social problems of our day. Poverty, Black Americans in the inner city, the separation of groups of people and cultures, the stealing of cultures, the murder of cultures. And we get Erik Killmonger addressing this many times throughout this movie, even in the beginning of the museum scene where he's looking at all these various artifacts and he knows what they are, but he's letting the curator give him the information on them anyway, you know, only to tell her that if he were to take these items, that it would be no different than how they had came in contact with them as they came in contact with them by theft, murder, and stealing them. Um, and, uh, this starts to open up the conversation. A lot of the conversation is deep underneath many cultures that, uh, has held many, uh, cultures back in the world from being able to heal from wounds and go forward as one group, one people, by addressing this, by talking about this, and by showing it in film. And then you're able to heal from the wounds. And that's the message I got from this film as Ryan Coogler was, um, you know, putting this forth in this film. Also very important was at the end when, uh, T'Challa defeats Erik Killmonger, uh, they talk about— he talks about when he was a child. Erik Killmonger talks about about when he was a child to T'Challa about how his father spoke about how beautiful a sunset was in Wakanda. And that, and at his death, you know, that he always wanted to see that. And we again see this, the nobility from T'Challa, where not only does he take him to see the sunset after this battle ensued, But he wants to save Erik Killmonger. He wants to cure him and hope that he can rebuild, you know, things can maybe find some healing. And this just isn't who Erik Killmonger is. He's trained all his life to, in his mind, right this wrong. He's trained all his life to battle for the throne. This has all just been his driving force. And he talks about how he would rather die a free person than live in the type of bondage which he felt he would be subjected to living in Wakanda as this outcast, right, who tried to take over the throne, caused all this death, that he would be imprisoned. He killed Zuri, and all of the various deaths, lives he took of the Dora Milaje, Rajah, or the Dora Milaje, rather. And then he also references to throw his remains in the oceans where his ancestors were. And when we go back in history, that goes into slave ships that came from Africa to America, how some slaves rather than be a slave and rather than be held in bondage would rather choose death than to be, um, uh, in bondage, to, to, to not be free, that they had the option of death and that they were going to take it. Now, um, around, I've heard some people say they felt that that was a little bit too— and this was another big concern with a Disney Marvel film, that these uncomfortable issues, uh, it would be better if, you know, maybe they were left out. Some people even feel it was a bit, um, irresponsible in a sense for Ryan Coogler to put that last part in there where there isn't any redemption for Erik Killmonger. But, uh, I kind of disagree with that. Uh, I think that T'Challa was the good balance of representing a group of people and a philosophy to go forward, to heal wounds, to become a new people and go forward together. Whereas Erik Killmonger, in my viewpoint, he represented a view of these wounds haven't been healed, and until they're healed, this is gonna be the way of thinking for some people. and that the going forward would possibly have to happen in a certain time frame when certain conditions are met. As we reflected also back to the inner city kids who were much like Erik Killmonger, still left behind. They are symbolically left behind, whereas Erik Killmonger was literally left behind. And in the end, we kind of get to see T'Challa makes this right. He goes into the inner cities. He buys all these buildings, kind of like a memorial where it all started, where his father killed his brother and created Erik Killmonger. They all together had created this monster. And that's kind of representative, I think, for me of the world, that the world collectively all together created the monster, created all these social issues, that everybody played their parts. That everybody covered up and still to this day try to keep it covered up so that they don't have to deal with it. And then the old wounds resurface. So the social impact of that to the movie— and this is why it, I think, it meant so much to, uh, cultural people, people of color, minorities, uh, that it addresses this And not only does it address it, but it kind of creates a solution for it, right? It gives us this noble, a hero who's able to overcome it all and be this shining beacon of hope that we all could be. And, uh, I love that, guys. I thought the movie hit a home run with that. I thought it did an excellent job with that. But now, Michael B. Jordan A lot of people are saying he was the best actor in the film, and in my opinion, he was the best actor. But there were also a lot of other great performances I felt that we got to see in this movie. And of course, everybody loves Shuri, right? Shuri being this very smart, intelligent princess sister of the Black Panther, creating all this cool technology and kind of being the comic relief too, right? Uh, you know, Shuri's this kind of hard-headed, witty, very intelligent, very fun-loving character in the movie, and it plays well. Uh, Shuri is played by Letitia Wright, I believe her name is, uh, and I thought she just played the role excellent. Uh, we also had Lupita Nyong'o who played Nakia. The Black Panther's love interest, a spy. I really loved her parts too. I liked how, uh, she was shown as this kind of this, uh, person who, uh, love interest, uh, or ex-love interest of, uh, T'Challa, but felt duty and responsibility was more important than that. And I kind of like that. I kind of like seeing Black Panther have to kind of, kind of have to kind of chase after Nakia a little bit. Because in the comics, we know Black Panther, he's a, he's a ladies' man, right? And that the Dora Milaje, I believe, at points have been lovers as well to the Black Panther, right? And Nakia is this type of hybrid, you know, character. In the comics, she is part of the Dora Milaje. But in this film, they do kind of pay homage. I heard a lot of people kind of complain they said, well, she's supposed to be in the Dora Milaje, and why isn't she the Dora Milaje? And why isn't she? But she kind of— she does kind of play homage to that, and that in the end she has to wear the Dora Milaje armor, right? And so we got that in the film, and I liked it all because she had to kind of play the love interest of, you know, Black Panther as he there was nobody else that, you know, we couldn't have any Storm. Would have been cool to have Storm in there, but I don't know, it's probably some type of, uh, rights with X-Men and, yeah, being owned by, uh, Fox and all of that, right? So, um, that, uh, probably couldn't happen. Or I would even love to see a little intro. That would have been neat to have like a post-credit intro Storm. I would love to see something like that. But anyway, that's what we got. I thought it was all great. Got Daniel Kaluuya. Now Daniel Kaluuya didn't do a whole lot in this film. He played W'Kabi, and he was Basically a traitor, you know, a traitor to Wakanda, um, or what some in the African culture probably might call, uh, well, I don't know, he might have— wouldn't have been classed as a coon because, uh, in a sense, in a kind of reverse fashion, maybe W'Kabi on his end, he was kind of, uh, honoring the idea of the isolationist conquering type thing. Whereas that's not the definition of a coon, but he was a traitor to the Black Panther. But what I found a connection with Daniel Kaluuya and this Black Panther film as well, just kind of outside the film, is his role in Get Out. We know Daniel Kaluuya had already been in one of the greatest socially impactful films of last year, He goes into another one. So, uh, but, uh, um, so it was a very— a lot of similarities in Get Out, what it meant to, uh, cultures of people, and this movie Black Panther. So I found that also very interesting. And we also got, um, um, Okoye, um, who played the Dora Milaje general, right? Uh, Dora Milaje general of Wakanda. And just Her roles were excellent. Her fight scenes were awesome. She did just such an excellent job, and I really like this character. And she also kind of reminded me of any time you get the king and the emperors in these movies, like this type of like Roman, Roman type history, where is it, is it a situation where you serve the king, the emperor, Or do you serve the realm or the republic? And so we find that Okoye would represent the type of loyalty that follows the principles of the country. She doesn't follow the king. She doesn't follow the ruler. She follows the principles of the country. And that's why she follows Erik Killmonger because by right, by law at this point, He is king in their eyes, and so she honors that. That's what she stands for. She's the epitome of loyalty, right? And of course, Forest Whitaker. Forest Whitaker— some people have, you know, kind of been down on Forest Whitaker a lot lately, uh, especially coming off of, uh, some Star Trek films and various things. But I love Forest Whitaker. He played Zuri, and Forest Whitaker Um, he's always a good actor to me. I felt he did a good job. Of course, he played a very pivotal role and, and, and kind of being a part of catalyst that started the— excuse me— the entire deep secret, uh, in Wakanda because his life was threatened by, uh, Erik Killmonger's, um, uh, father, right, to kill him. And that's why he's actually killed by T'Chaka, T'Challa's father. And he's killed to save Zuri's life, and Zuri's keeping this secret because of that, as he's vowed never to speak of it. And of course, N'Jobu, played by Sterling K. Brown, is who played Erik Killmonger's father. Just very emotionally gripping film, very character-driven film. Guys, if you watch many of my reviews, you'll find out that when I look at these movies, and some of the best films for me have been very well done character-driven films. You know, one of my issues with Marvel have been I found many of the Marvel films popcorn movies. They got a lot of comedy in them and things like that. And obviously Black Panther, although existing in this universe, wasn't one of those films. And though those films are fine and they're good, for certain things. But Marvel kind of created this blueprint where we see too much of that, I think. And so this film was a breath of fresh air from that, and I was very glad, uh, to see that take place. Uh, we didn't get a whole lot from Ulysses as Klaue. We pretty much find out that Klaue is setting up the villain. He's not the villain. He's setting up Michael B. Jordan. Um, and, uh, um, uh, you know, um, I felt that I was glad— I was— I liked how they used Klaue. I was glad that he just was in there to kind of set up and kind of get out of the way, you know, so to speak. Same thing with Everett Ross, uh, because these— this is really a standalone film. And that's another thing, that's something I really like, uh, about some of the best films for me have been standalone where they can pretty much just exist on their own. And this movie made sure it stayed about Black Panther and stayed in Wakanda. And guys, I really love that part of the film as well. Of course, we got our post-credit scenes. We got the Winter Soldier involved. We got T'Challa speaking to the UN that he's gonna stop his isolationist policies to a great degree. As now he finds out that that's a bit of the mistake of what had been the problem with Wakanda. So guys, to be fair, since I've just praised this movie, and I praise this movie just not because I'm a Black person and it's a Black film and I love the film, but I praise it because I really did think it was an overall well-done film, uh, outside of that. But to be fair in this review, Let's get into some of the things that maybe weren't good so we can have a full review and we can have a fair review. And that is— and this has always been my complaint, by the way, throughout a lot of Marvel films. So if you go back on my other reviews, you won't just see it for this one, you'll see it for most of the other films. And that is the CGI. I thought the CGI didn't move me at points like I thought it would. And, and this is my, this is my recommendation for when you do films with CGI: a film that was so well done like this, so character-driven, that you were entertained by the characters and the emotional-driven, uh, story, uh, you don't really need a lot of CGI. So when you do CGI, make it count. And what I mean by that is I'd rather see you do 5 minutes of CGI that's very expensive, very well done, very thought out, than just a lot of fumbling around and bumbling around. Of course, I think this has a lot more to do with the Disney Marvel blueprint. Remember, this was a— I believe it's PG-13, guys, but you know, you got to hit that 13-year-old to 17-year-old demographic. You know, to put on these expensive high-budget movies. Investors have to get their money back, you know. It is art, it is satisfying many social, uh, social, uh, problems in the world or addressing them, um, you know. It is an action film, uh, and all of that. It is a superhero film, but then at the end of the day, it's still a business involved with it too. So it's got to be a lot of stuff in here that is going to satisfy the minds of people from 13 to 17 years old. And we know when we were 13, 17 years old, you know, a lot of the topics we discussed about characters and films probably weren't that most important to us. We want to see cool stuff, so we got to let that get in there too. And so we get— they were trying to put, I think, enough of that in there CGI-wise, the cool stuff, the cool costumes. A lot of it was good. I mean, a lot of it was interesting because Uh, the term came up, Afro, uh, Afro technology, I believe, uh, Afro technical, something like that, where we kind of got this Black African culture, um, in Africa that's technologically advanced yet still has the other components of their culture, old and new, mixed in, right? And I love that, guys. And we got to see all these vibrant, gorgeous colors. Just an artistic palette. And I forget the costume designer's name, but she did an excellent job. And I hope she gets a lot more jobs in Hollywood or whatever she may be seeking to do because she does such a great job. So a lot of the CGI kind of worked out. A lot of, with the colors and all of that, kind of worked real good with the film. But I could have— I think it would have been just as great to do a lot less CGI. I tell you guys, I would have— if they could have almost eliminated a good bulk of CGI and just had like just your standard fight scenes with good costumes and good sets, uh, I would have been fine with that. But that's about the only negative part of the film I could pick up on, right? Just the CGI that, uh, uh, I could have did without some of it, right? Um, even though some cool stuff in it, but I mean, I just didn't feel like it needed it all. I think it would have done great without it. But guys, tell me what you thought about Black Panther. Uh, did it meet your expectations? Is it your best Marvel film? If it's not your best Marvel film, tell me what is your best Marvel film to date. Uh, if, uh, Michael B. Jordan isn't your best villain, tell me who's your best Marvel villain to date. Um, and guys, if you love content like this, don't forget to like and subscribe. And until next time, take care.