Black Panther Review

Black Panther is a great movie and another fantastic addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  This movie is about T'Challa who must rise to the throne of Wakanda after his father was murdered.  He must also deal with a vengeful outsider and an old enemy who has returned.  Chadwick Boseman gives a fantastic performance as T'Challa.  He perfectly plays every aspect of the character.  Lupita Nyong'o gives a  really good performance as a spy and T'Challa's love interest.  However, she is severely underused.  Danai Gurira gives a great performance as Okoye, the head of T'Challa's Royal Guard.  She has some truly incredible moments during the action scenes.  Daniel Kaluuya gives a good performance as W'Kabi one of T'Challa's friends and advisors.  However, after seeing him in Get Out last year he was distracting and out of place at times. Winston Duke is hilarious in a small role as M'Baku, the head of a rival tribe.  Forest Whitaker gave an okay performance, but I kept getting flashbacks to his character in Rogue One. Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger is a great villain, but he does not really play a huge role until the second half. Andy Serkis returns as Klaue after a small role in Age of Ultron. He is clearly having a ton of fun playing the villain and the movie gets a boost of energy anytime he is on screen. Also returning is Martian Freeman's character from Civil War. Much like Andy Serkis, he brings a fantastic and fun presence anytime he's on screen. However Letitia Wright as Shuri, T'Challa's sister, steals this entire movie. She has tons of great lines and her relationship with her brother, T'Challa felt real. Ryan Coogler does a great job directing this movie, especially the 2nd act which felt like a James Bond Film.  He also did a fantastic job co-writing the movie with Joe Robert Cole. All the characters have real motivations and the humor felt mostly natural. As for the humor it is really funny with a few standout hilarious moments. The music by Ludwig Goransson was very good and was a good mix of traditional African and modern music.  Special mention to Rachel Morrison's cinematography and the visual effects. Wakanda was truly stunning to look at at times. The costume design by Ruth Carter is also notable. Much like the music, it was a good mix of traditional African outfits and modern ones.  The editing for the most part was really good, although an opening action sequence was a bit too choppy and darkly lit.  As for the action sequences, while I could have used a few more, what we got is quite good. The standout is a big chase sequence at the end of the second act. It was a ton of fun and easily my favorite part of the movie. The finale, while entertaining, did not feel as epic as the movie thought it was. At 134 minutes the pacing moves fairly fast although slows down a bit too long at the end of the second act. Overall, Black Panther is a great movie that despite some flaws I would recommend to any fans of the genre. 

8.5/10