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.
No comments:
Post a Comment