Review: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

  The latest MCU installment “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” was released on Nov. 11 after long-awaited anticipation, and it left me sobbing as I headed home from the theater. 

  The film picks up right after the Black Panthers, T’Challa’s, death, sadly because actor Chadwick Boseman passed away in 2020, due to colon cancer. The film is very much dedicated to him, having many parallels to some of his iconic moments as the Black Panther, and heavily dealing with the grief of his loss since his unexpected and tragic passing. 

  Due to that fact, the film is much more somber and an emotional rollercoaster compared to the original film. Although, there are still great moments of humor and excellent suspense building with the incredible action scenes throughout the entire film. 

  Director Ryan Coogler did a visually creative spin on this sequel, not common for most other MCU projects. The use of slow motion is used many times throughout the film, being very appealing and adding to the weight of the action sequences. The overall cinematography was stunning. You could make a poster if you were to pause at almost any moment in the film.

  The women of this film truly carried it. The beautiful Anglea Bassett (Queen Ramonda), delivered a spectacular performance, and was the heart of the film along with Letitia Wright (Shuri) and Lupita Nyong (Nakia). All three women delivered strong and emotional performances, making them enjoyable to watch.

  Although I was disappointed that Okoye (Danai Gurira) did not appear more in the film, her scenes still showed through and were funny and badass like always. 

  The new character introduction of RiRi Williams (Dominique Throne), who is playing the new hero Iron Heart, was a nice addition to the film. Throne did a good job at adding humor to the film, but has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to her hero work, especially line delivery. There are multiple moments throughout the film where I was taken out of the seriousness of the situation because of stiff one-liners delivered by her and her co-stars, in particular Tenoch Huerta (Namor). All superhero films have a fair share of cheesy one-liners, but some of the ones delivered in this film were just ridiculous. 

  Namor as a whole character, however, was satisfying. He served as a powerful and worthy adversary, and he was interesting to explore as a character. The world-building done with his home Talokan was neat to see, with the CGI and VFX being spectacular, aside from a few rough-looking shots. 

  The overall plot was entertaining, starting very strong in the beginning, but the middle of the film felt like it drew on for a little too long, and had some off pacing at times. The build-up to the end was done well, and there are a few shocking moments in the film I truly did not expect which was interesting to see, although heart-wrenching and wild. 

  ”Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was not the best the MCU has produced, but was great. It did a fantastic job at paying tribute to the late, great Chadwick Boseman, and was exciting to watch in the theater, which I would advise anyone planning on seeing it to go do.