'Black Panther' Review (Spoilers)

This is your fair warning. There are many many spoilers in this review. The first part will be spoiler free, and then we'll get into spoiler territory. There'll be a banner indicating where that flip is

So I went to see Black Panther today with my friend Christina! Getting there involved a five minute chase of a bus; some fearful moments where we thought we were on the wrong bus, and an ultimate arrival on time at the theater.

We arrived at the theater maybe fifteen minutes prior to showtime, on a Friday night, at Black Panther, which as you may know is incredibly successful and the seats fill up quickly.

In an odd stroke of luck, we met a woman at the front who had two tickets to Black Panther that she couldn't use because of some emergency that propped up, so we bought them from her. We were happy because we got better seats than we probably would have buying them at the box office, and she was happy because she got her money back. She also said this was going to be her second time seeing the film, so I think that provides some sort of testament.

Christina and I settled down in seats H6 and H7 (after politely kicking out two strangers who had sat in our seats by mistake (or who bought tickets in poor seats and were hoping nobody would show up)) and sat through the previews.

We also munched on theater snacks, which I mention here so I can consider them a business expense and can write them off. The popcorn was salty and good. (If I review the product it technically counts as business, IRS agents).

I neglected to bring a notebook with me, so all of my notes are written on the back of our concessions receipt. This review will be structured similarly. Lots of nitpick random points without connection.

But before I launch into that criticism, I want to make clear a duality with this film.

One one level, this film is a cultural artifact. It truly is a groundbreaking film for both representation, inspiration, subject matter, and movie money things that I still don't fully understand. It's a film that has brought countless people joy, and for that alone I commend it. I appreciate things that bring me joy, and I appreciate seeing other people enjoy things. 

That being said, this is also a film, more specifically, a Marvel movie. While you can't divorce the cultural impact of the film from its box office stats or audience response, it's still a film that like all other films before it, is made of elements that make me happy, elements that make me go 'eh', and elements that I don't enjoy. This review is predominantly my own reaction to the film, rather than an attempted objective value ranking of the artistry, as I don't have enough of a background in film to do that. I can tell you what made me smile and what didn't make me smile, and nitpick through that. This does not detract from its function as a cultural artifact or the fact that it brought joy to a crazy number of people that haven't seen a film like this before.

And one last thing, I've seen a lot of reviewers discount the cultural significance of Black Panther because other diverse cast films exist, especially ones further towards the artsy realm and the Oscar realm, like Get Out and Moonlight. My response to that is that Black Panther, being a Marvel movie is considerably more accessible than other films. Get Out was popular, but had an R rating, and films like Moonlight just aren't the pop culture phenomena that Marvel movies are. Having a diverse Marvel film is a double edged spear (if you will), because to one degree it offers that accessibility that you don't get with other films, but then it also falls into the traps that the rest of Marvel movies fall into (foreshadowing here).

The following is a back and forth criticism sandwich of things I enjoyed (good things #imo), things I didn't enjoy (bad things #imo), and random notes (neutral things #imo)


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Bad Thing:
The film opens with the Marvel storytelling rule of "tell don't show." Some little kid voice says "tell me a story," and then we get an animated sequence explaining the origin of the black panther that is somehow too long but also not detailed enough.

Like, the film makers were clearly trying to give a throwback to the oral tradition of storytelling, but used it as a cop out for what could have been a more fulfilling form of exposition.

Neutral Thing:
Michael B. Jordan's teeth were so strikingly white that it often distracted me during the run of the film. Like, not that other actors had yellow teeth or anything. His were just really really bright.



Good Thing:
The part right after the opening when the two women with spears show up and slam the ground with their spears and the lights go out had me shook.

Bad Thing:
The opening wide shot of Wakanda gave me Wall-E vibes. The building structures were very spindly, and the color palette was similar.

Neutral Thing:
The scene where they're cruisin' on their ship in the water and they use their spears to activate something out of the ocean floor gave me Legend of Zelda vibes.

Good Thing:
The tighter shots of specific areas of Wakanda were less Wall-E. Some of them were giving me Tron vibes, but that was okay.



Bad Thing:
The score got really melodramatic at times, most noticeably so during the sequence where T'Challa experiences the Djalia realm.

Neutral Thing:
The two instances of arm-mounted super rockets were fun, but they would definitely break the user's arms if not attached to a larger exoskeleton.

Good Thing:
Other parts of the score that featured Black American and Black African inspired music felt less melodramatic and helped establish the two sides pitted against each other in the film.



Bad Thing:
Poison affecting a victim suddenly and at a timed dramatic moment is a shameful plot device if the rules of your universe aren't campy.

Neutral Thing:
Letitia Wright's character is essentially Q from James Bond, but she performs it in a way that redeems the trope.

Good Thing:
Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright give great performances and characterize their roles well.



Bad Thing:
The script doesn't let T'Challa be anything more than a quintessential well-meaning good guy who tries his hardest and wants to fight evil by punching things.

Neutral Thing:
Nobody gets more than like one costume change, which I want to say is to help sell toys.

Good Thing:
The marketing of the costuming and aesthetic of this film was 100 percent justified. The aesthetic is everything. Even as a viewer ignorant to a lot of the references and research behind it, it's just wonderful to look at.



Bad Thing:
The CGI war rhinos gave me 2007 The Golden Compass vibes, and the dude without an arm felt like a dude with an invisible arm. Like, yeah, the arm wasn't there visually, but the way he acted and the way the sleeve fell, it felt like it was just under an invisibility cloak.

Neutral Thing:
I see so many memes online of people fawning over Michael B. Jordan, but I found myself more attracted to Chadwick Boseman and Daniel Kaluuya? I can only think this is because Michael B. Jordan came across as a bit of an edge lord to me. That or maybe it's the fact that I haven't consumed a lot of black marketed media in my life, and that I've been conditioned with a different standard of beauty? IDK, Jordan just wasn't doing it for me.

Good Thing:
The world building in the first two acts of the film was genuinely interesting.



Bad Thing:
The set up of the 'kinetic energy' storing nonsense with his suit was blunt enough to the point where I actively cringed when the script verbally reminded us of how it worked a couple of minutes later.

Neutral Thing:
I genuinely wonder if any of the actors got anything adjacent to trench foot from filming in that pool of water for presumably long periods of time.

Good Thing:
The ritual water battles were a good ole romp.



Bad Thing:
The black panther's abilities are very poorly established, so I had no clue what to expect. There were very few limits established, and honestly Viola Davis was standing her ground without the super suit or super flower, so like, what even is his power.

Neutral Thing:
The internet led me to believe that Wakanda was so advanced because of the people and the status of 'never been colonized' but the film makes it out to be more of a 'we have an endless supply of this super rock'.
mining vs intelligence

Good Thing:
I think the set up of the flower juice super power thing is pretty cool. Like, the super hero isn't necessarily one person, but like it kind of is? Like the power of the black panther can be transferred to anyone, but the true black panther has the morality of T'Challa


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Bad Thing:
Every time the film started to do something exciting and new, one scene later it would revert back to a typical Marvel fight scene / car chase / casino shoot out / dried canned character monologue.

Neutral Thing:
I can definitely see what people were saying about the film feeling Shakespearean. Like, whenever there's a dad and an uncle and murder involved, it's hard to not think Hamlet even though everything under the sun has that plot. Michael B. Jordan was giving me Macbeth meets Richard III ​crossed with real world Vladimir Putin.

Good Thing:
The high stakes monarchy drama was fresh and interesting for a Marvel movie.

Black Panther is, at its core, a Marvel movie. It falls into many tropes and plot/character wise doesn't take too many risks. But, as a Marvel movie, it is incredibly accessible to a common audience, which has made it an undeniable success. There were moments that had me shook, the aesthetic had me shook, and there was also CGI that had me shook in a bad way, but overall I had a fun time.

This is definitely a movie you should go see if you want to have fun, just know that it's still a Marvel movie. Marvel definitely has enough money as is, so supporting the film is still supporting a super monster, but at the same time, every bit more successful this film is, the more convinced Hollywood executives may be in the future to take a leaf out of this film.