Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Review
Messy, overstuffed and without the same cohesive vision as the original, this sequel coasts by on memories of the first film, and touching tributes to Chadwick Boseman.
The death of King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) throws the geopolitical sphere into disarray. While Shuri (Leticia Wright) retreats into herself and her technology, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) fronts the UN accusing the nations of the world of increasingly brazen attempts at securing Vibranium from Wakanda. Little does she know that there’s another party concerned about these attempts; the centuries hidden aquatic race of Atlanteans, led by the superpowered Namor (Tenoch Huerta). Mixed in amongst a search for scientist Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), Namor implores Shuri and the kingdom of Wakanda to ally with his people to destroy the rest of the surface world, but Shuri’s initial attempts at diplomacy are scuppered after a violent incursion and tragedy. Now, Shuri must find a way to resurrect the Black Panther and protect her people - and she might just lose herself in the process.
Directed once again by Ryan Coogler, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was always going to have to overcome the tragic passing of the man who made Black Panther what it is today, Chadwick Boseman. The film bookends itself with touching tributes to the late actor, and indeed winds T’Challa and Boseman’s presence throughout. The grief feels real for everyone involved in the project, and it grounds everything in a sense of portentous drama that brings a weight to proceedings that otherwise would feel flat.
There’s also some great acting on display here. Huerta is spectacular as Namor, and indeed the entire mesoamerican sub-aquatic species is rendered in beautiful interpretation, stunningly realized without a shred of fear to shooting endless underwater scenes. It’s a bold vision for the comic book character, but one that comes off extremely well.
Bassett is fantastic also. One particular throne room scene of hers stands out, as she lets her grief at losing her family fully overwhelm her. Winston Duke returns as M’Baku and once again steals the show also. That being said, while Wright is a perfectly capable performer, some of the scenes that stretch her talent more reveal hard bounds on her performative capability. There’s lots of fun to have here with her performance, but the louder and more dramatic the scene is, the more it falls flat.
Then there’s the action. After a briefly brilliant fight scene on a bridge with series standout Okoye (Danai Gurira), and occasional flashes of iconic work with Namor, the rest of the CGI-heavy battle sequences feel flat, dull and frankly more than a little disappointing. The final battle suffers from Waterworld-esque ocean action issues, and relies way too heavily on CGI suits, flying around and poorly choreographed set pieces. Particularly in a month where we’ve just seen such inventive action in The Woman King, to see the main fighting force of the Wakandans - who previously had so much joy, choreography and color in their battle moments - reduced to flying around in Iron-Man style moth suits was a tremendous disappointment.
Script-wise too there is a distinctly underwhelming feeling. For a 2 hour 41 minute film, it’s shocking how much here is just completely irrelevant. There’s a whole universe connecting subplot with Martin Freeman’s Everett K Ross that could be entirely lost with literally no impact on the film. There’s also no dialogue that comes close to touching the first, except perhaps a throne room scene with Bassett.
The original Black Panther had broadly sweeping emotional beats that felt taut, and paid off. Here, those beats are more ethereal, less formed. They hit way less than the originals. There’s nothing here to match the Astral Plane scene of the first film, or the classic Michael B. Jordan monologue in his final moments at the end of that movie.
Perhaps most importantly, there’s no Chadwick Boseman here. Although that’s not quite true. There’s quite a bit of Boseman here, in memory shots and tribute shots, art and words. But the man himself isn’t here, and that tragedy doesn’t just ripple throughout the story on display; his absence crushes this movie. There’s nothing that the film can do to take away from the fact that Boseman was Black Panther - he inhabited this genre defining, world changing role in such a way that it could never be repeated, and while the movie is undoubtedly respectful of the man while passing on the mantle, it never escapes the fact that it is markedly worse for not having Boseman in the suit.
It would be trite to blame all of the issues of this movie on the passing of the original lead. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever does great work in building up Namor and his people. But it loses so much of what gave the first film an identity. It does away with everything - from soundtrack up - that made the original a cultural touchpoint. And while you could easily make the case that Wakanda Forever is much better than a lot of the superhero fare we’ve had in the last few years, it also doesn’t even come close to holding a candle to the original. There was a magic in the first Black Panther film, and whether it's because of the quality of the filmmaking or the necessary lack of casting, it’s fair to say that the magic is gone in this sequel.
