BLACK PANTHER (2018) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

black panther (2018) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   TBA minutes

Released         |   15 February 2018

cast

Chadwick Boseman ... T'Challa
Michael B. Jordan ... Erik Killmonger
Lupita Nyong'o ... Nakia
Danai Gurira ... Okoye
Martin Freeman ... Everett K. Ross
Daniel Kaluuya ... W'Kabi
Andy Serkis ... Ulysses Klaue
Angela Bassett ... Ramonda
​Forest Whitaker ... ​Zuri

director

Ryan Coogler

writer

Ryan Coogler ... (screenplay by) &
Joe Robert Cole ... (screenplay by)
 
Stan Lee ... (based on the Marvel comics by) and
Jack Kirby ... (based on the Marvel comics by)

cinematographer

Rachel Morrison ​

music

​Ludwig Göransson

film editor

Debbie Berman
Claudia Castello
Michael P. Shawver ​

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box office result

Worldwide               $? million

Australia                 $? million

North America        $? million

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the best dialogue

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BLACK PANTHER (2018) MOVIE IMAGES

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BLACK PANTHER (2018) STORY SYNOPSIS

​T'Challa, after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king.

BLACK PANTHER (2018) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 11 February 2018
Pop ​Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐

BLACK PANTHER is a solid installment in the ever-growing Marvel catalogue of movies. There will be Marvel fans who may tell you that BLACK PANTHER is the best Marvel movie yet, but don’t be fooled by the hyperbole. The film’s narrative is nothing extraordinary. Some of the performances are what you would expect from people who are paid reasonably well to do such things. Ryan Coogler’s direction sits comfortably within the predetermined parameters established by Kevin Feige and the Marvel senior production team. The only thing that is unique about BLACK PANTHER is that it embraces a Black person’s perspective within the Marvel Superhero setting. However, that, in itself, is not enough to warrant anything more than an acknowledgement that Marvel’s homogenized approach to moviemaking needs to get better at incorporating all kinds of diversity if it is to remain a relevant, long-term creator of wanted entertainment.

Not confident that CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR was enough of an introduction to cement “The Black Panther” (Chadwick Boseman) in the minds of the viewer, Ryan Coogler opts to use this first feature-length BLACK PANTHER movie as an origin story focussed upon the struggle Boseman’s T’Challa is confronted with upon ascending to the throne of Wakanda, a small supposedly impoverished African nation. In doing so, Coogler, and fellow screenwriter Joe Robert Cole, serve up a mish-mash of pre-existing Marvel Cinematic Universe mythology, awkwardly transpose Black American race politics into an African setting and inadvertently deliver audiences a movie that feels like a live-action update of THE LION KING. The film opens with a prologue set in 1992 designed to drive the film’s narrative and provide a powerful plot twist later in the story. Moving to the present day, the action kicks off with T’Challa, in his Black Panther guise, on the trail of human slave traffickers. Among the trafficker's prisoners is T’Challa’s former girlfriend Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), who has allowed herself to be deliberately captured in an attempt to identify the people behind this terrible criminal act. It is interesting to note that T’Challa’s decision to intervene in the situation is one of pure self-interest. His motivation driven by his desire to have Nakia present for his crowning ceremony as King of Wakanda!

(For those paying attention, the manner in which T’Challa becomes the King of Wakanda, and “The Black Panther”, will give pause to how T’Challa was able to do what he did in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR… Marvel have been pretty good at keeping track of continuity, but the plot oversight in this instance is considerable.)

Chadwick Boseman is the main reason BLACK PANTHER succeeds on any level. Despite some questionable underlying motivation driven by the plot, Boseman’s performance transcends the script to deliver a likeable, natural turn as T’Challa. Where the likes of Tony Stark, Thor, Captain America and Doctor Strange feel disconnected from the everyday, Boseman’s T’Challa feels more like Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang; a man whose first concern is about the people he’s been charged to protect. Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia and Letitia Wright, as T’Challa’s younger sister Shuri, also bring a lightness to their characters that deliver both humour and humanity to the story. The likes of Michael B. Jordan, Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker seem to be taking themselves far too seriously. After all, this is a movie about a man who runs around in a Panther suit fighting crime! Andy Serkis has the right idea. If you’re going to “perform” in a Marvel movie, then go really BIG! Ulysses Klaue felt like a bridge-too-far in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, but Serkis manages to take the character to whole new level in BLACK PANTHER. The over-the-top Afrikaans accent, the Nicholson JOKER-like quips and the manic, crazy look in his eyes make Serkis memorable (as opposed to effective). Martin Freeman’s casting as an ex-Fighter Pilot turned CIA Agent is the most questionable. At no point does he seem capable of being either.

BLACK PANTHER is a different kind of Marvel movie; one that comes from a Black person’s perspective. Despite the film’s all-too-obvious politics, the change-up perspective is a positive move from the studio. It opens the door for Marvel to now assess opportunities that may not have been possible 10 years ago when they launched the studio with IRON MAN. That is not a suggestion that there should be more films about women superheroes, or LGBT superheroes or any other kind of superhero that may warrant a movie. All of these will happen. It’s more an issue of genre. Marvel Studios is built upon a base of superheroes, but not every movie produced by every studio is about superheroes. Enduring studios are built around the diversity of film genre. Drama, Romance, War, Music, Horror, Comedy, Noir, Fantasy, Crime… Marvel needs to look beyond their current parameters and assess how their very large catalogue of characters might fit into a genre that breaks the brand out of the narrow, Science Fiction Adventure channel that the bulk of their current 18 films sit within. 20th Century Fox broke their genre mould with DEADPOOL and appear to have done it again with the 2019 release of NEW MUTANTS. That movie looks like a genuine Horror Thriller and appears to have adopted the Blumhouse micro-budget approach to minimize the financial risk. Marvel needs to do the same. Not every Marvel movie needs to cost $200 million. A great story, told in the right genre, will engage audiences irrespective of whether its costs $1 million or $1 billion. (Studio accountants would probably prefer to make $50 million per movie on ten $1 million investments than $500 million on one $1 billion investment.) It’s not unreasonable to think that the someone like the resurgent M. Night Shyamalan could have a crack at a Marvel character...

BLACK PANTHER does as much as what it needs to do to be successful. It’s not a ground-breaking film by any stretch. Ryan Coogler shows that he’s competent with directing big action, but much of BLACK PANTHER’s set pieces rely on post-production visual effects. This has not been a strong point for Marvel and, once again, very few of the effects come anywhere close to being photo-realistic. Another element of the production process that is extremely disappointing is the film’s cinematography. Rachel Morrison has been receiving praise for her work on MUDBOUND, including nominations for an Oscar and from the American Society of Cinematographers, however, BLACK PANTHER belies that recognition. At points throughout the movie, the scope of the shots feels very limited, it looks like a middle-of-the-road TV show. Scenes shot on sound stages are all too obvious; the digital photography failing to suppress the “manufactured” look of both the costumes and the sets. The vibrant colours of the Wakandan traditional dress look like they’re straight from the Costume Department in every scene irrespective of where the film’s story is at any given point. These types of issues create an impression that the BLACK PANTHER production team had a “close enough is good enough” approach. Given that this film and THOR: RAGNAROK were pushed back several months to accommodate the mid-2017 release of SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, this should not have been the case. THOR: RAGNAROK is the better of the two films, despite being released first. BLACK PANTHER’s lack of originality, incongruous supporting performances and lacklustre visual effects make it a lesser film. The film succeeds off the back of Chadwick Boseman’s performance and for what Writer-Director Ryan Coogler has conceptually attempted to deliver; a superhero who can be embraced by all races, colours and creeds.

BLACK PANTHER (2018) USEFUL LINKS

​Black Panther (2018) - IMDb
​Black Panther (film) - Wikipedia
​Black Panther (2018) - Rotten Tomatoes

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