Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Theater Whore: Black Panther


Black Panther 10/10

There will be some spoilers. It has been so hard not to see or hear spoilers about this movie and waiting until I could see Black Panther with my cousin yesterday. This movie is fucking awesome. Its dazzling. I was sitting there with my mouth open too much to even take in everything that I was seeing on the screen. I will try not to bounce around too much but I'm sure I will because that is how I am in writing and conversations. This starts off with the telling of five tribes that would one day form the nation of Wakanda. It is done with this cool ass sand animation and gives hundreds of years of history in about two minutes. There. I have gotten upset with movies in the past doing this exact thing but the way it was handled here worked perfectly. All five tribes huddle up except the Jabari Tribe who decide to post up in the snowy mountains. These people all use vibranium (which is what Captain America's shield is made of) and have ultra advanced technology while to the rest of the world they look like regular ass Africans. It's cool.


The origin also covers the creation of the first Black Panther. They harvest this weird purple herb, cook it up, and the Black Panther drinks it giving him super strength, agility, and durability. In a flashback to Oakland in 1992 we see King T'Chaka (John Kani) visit his brother who is working undercover. By the way, whoever designed the apartment in the 90's knew what the fuck they were doing. It looked like a Black house in the 90's right down to the shelves in the background. And Too Short playing? Come on. So T'Chaka finds out that his brother has dreams of using vibranium to help Black people everywhere fight back. After a quick betrayal he gets a panther claw to his chest. We shall never speak of this again...


One week after T'Chaka's death in Civil War T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is on the hunt with Okoye (Danai Gurira) and helping rescue his ex girlfriend Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o). And by rescue I mean fuck up an undercover mission she was on because as we will quickly find out there is not a single woman from Wakanda that needs rescuing. The Dora Milaje are a group of women that are the military and protectors of Black Panther or whoever is king. They are fucking awesome. T'Challa let's Nakia know that his father is dead and he is about to become king. She is down with it but wants Wakanda to start helping out more of the world and to stop keeping all its cool shit to themselves. During a ceremony where people can challenge to become king T'Challa is de-powered and he faces off against this dude from the Jabari named M'Baku. Loser must die or submit. T'Challa wins. Yay.


At a museum Erik Stevens (Michael B. Jordan) with the help of Klaue (Andy Serkis) steal a weapon made of vibranium. Klaue was in Captain America as well and a total dick. He has a new cybernetic arm that shoots sonic waves. This leads to a bad ass chase where they manage to show things that I've never seen in a chase before. T'Challa's younger sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) who builds all the cool shit you see is driving a car using virtual technology that looks like sand for her. Its so awesome! They end up taking Klaue for interrogation. W'Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya) whose parents were killed by Klaue wants Klaue brought back for justice or killed. T'Challa fails at both because of Erik. W'kabi is like “New king, same shit.”


We end up finding out that Erik's father was T'Chaka's brother which means that Erik has a rightful claim to the throne. And he has the best damned reason to be mad. This kid had his father killed and his history taken from him. He is mad as fuck and a killing machine. He joined special ops teams and each marking on his body is a kill. His nickname was Killmonger! T'Challa had found out what his father had done and is super pissed but does not want this psycho to take the throne. During an epic ass battle T'Challa is defeated and tossed off the cliff. His family is like “We gotta bounce!” and leave. Okeye can not leave because she serves the throne, not T'Challa personally.


Now that Killmonger is in charge he wants to war with everyone. The kingdom is split between people who wanna fight and others who are like “Can we just keep hiding from the world?” T'Challa's body is found by the Jabari who are keeping him iced down. Erik/Killmonger goes through the ceremony to get the Black Panther powers and speaks with his father. He then has the remaining flowers that give power burned but not before Nakia steals one for T'Challa to use. They are able to bring him back from the brink of death but not before he confronts his father and lets him know that shit is going to be different now. Killmonger is sending out troops and weapons so they can start killing folks. Brothers are fighting brothers. Sister versus sister. It's an all out battle royal that is incredible.


T'Challa is back and battling Killmonger who has his own armor. Aah! It is nuts. I don't wanna mention anymore because if you are reading this and not seen the movie I want you to be surprised by some of the nutty shit that happens. I haven't even talked about half the stuff that happens in this. My body was not ready for all of the things in this. The one thing I was super bummed out about was Florence Kasumba not having a larger role in this. I thought that her spot was the one taken by Danai Gurira since she had my ass intrigued with one sentence in Civil War.


Marvel has gotten much better at having bad guys that have a right to be bad. They are not smoke monsters or just want to take over the world because they had a bad day. Killmonger uses factual history regarding Africans and Black people to support his cause. Not saying it's right...but I understand. In two hours this movie manages to cover so much history without me having more questions. I don't have anymore questions regarding what the Black Panther is or why he is important. They say and explained it well.


The music was done very well and was noticeably different than other superhero films. It had its own vibe. The movie did too. This did not look like other Marvel movies but was similar enough to have other characters from them involved. This movie was beautiful and looked real. It looked lived in. The characters seemed like they were actual friends which made betrayals seem more realistic. I have not gotten caught up in all the stuff about this being a Black film because that term means nothing to me anymore. I just like that Black kids have shit they can dress as for Halloween or cheer for that looks similar to them. I remember how hype Black kids got for Blade and I even drew the tattoo design on my cousins sons' head one year. Go see this movie because it is different, looks awesome, and makes me want to continue growing my hair.

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