One-word review: Boring
It’s hard for a movie like this to live up to the hype. And Marvel has burned me before, so I wasn’t expecting much. Except to be entertained. And on that one, final expectation, Black Panther failed me.
The plot to this movie is thin, to say the least. It begins with two back-to-back prologues, or the movie equivalent thereof. The first prologue was the history of Wakanda told in a child’s story format. The second prologue took us to 1982, and a bit of family betrayal between the old king and his brother.
After that, it was hard to say what the movie was about for a while. Things happened. A king got crowned in an overly long, dull ceremony. We meet random people. There’s a museum heist involving unnecessary carnage that frankly ended up leading into a mid-movie distraction from what, in the end, I think it was about.
Politics. Yep. This movie was ultimately about Wakandan politics. Which is a made up place which allows duels to the death determine the ruler. So, how can that possibly go wrong?
Honestly, when the “bad guy” showed up to challenge the sitting king, I wasn’t at all invested in the outcome. I think that’s when I knew the movie was hopelessly broken.
I wanted to like this movie. Yes, it was overdo for a blockbuster movie to have an almost entirely black cast, but wouldn’t it have been nice if they’d also brought a plot with them?
This movie’s one saving grace were the women – Black Panther’s sister, mother, love interest, and the general of his personal guard (who I thought should have challenged him and become queen – I’d have rooted for her) The women’s quiet strength and intelligence, IMO, completely outshone Black Panther’s. ss