Blog Review: Black Panther

Blog Entry: Pessimist Review on Black Panther

                                                               Black Panther

  Imagine this. You are in the movie theatre, watching the highly proclaimed movie that was dubbed “the most epic Marvel movie ever.” You have popcorn, too much Fanta inside of you that makes you want to go to the bathroom, but you stay in your seat for the whole two hours because you are a dedicated Marvel fan who drinks the essence of comic book characters. When the movie ends, you get up from your seat, wondering what the hell just happened. 

  Don’t get me wrong. The concept and costumes were brilliant. The reason I went to see it in the first place was because there was an all black cast (yeah, racial equality, whooo!! :D) and as for portraying the different cultures and tribes in Africa, I think they did a spot on job. 

  But as you know, I am a highly pessimistic person who can count her favorite movies on one hand. So here goes nothing. 

Disclaimer: Spoiler Alert (as if you didn’t see this coming) 

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I am a huge Marvel fan, if you guys haven’t noticed. But I also am very critical on plot. 

To be honest, I felt no plot. Some would argue in highly intelligent answer: “What are you, blind?” , but that’s how I felt. Sure, the whole thing was about T’Challa establishing his rule over Wakanda and confronting his father’s past, and in the middle, going to South Korea to chase a villain and then getting beaten in a fight and becoming king again, but there was no driving force behind it. It felt like a bunch of semi plots being woven together, and then never really getting concluded. Take the first issue—Wakanda with foreign affairs and whether it should offer help to other countries. The movie seemed to forget about that part before resolving it with a nice UN conference at the end. A rather sloppy conclusion, if you ask me. 

  And the whole messy thing with Killmonger and his father. I saw T’Challa’s father in Civil War and I honestly thought that it was just a weak attempt to make a plot twist. I mean, I get why he killed Killmonger’s father, but after that, why didn’t he just adopt the boy? If he was truly that wise ruler who was able to put his rule over that of his brother’s bond, could he not have foreseen the whole messy affair? So to be clear: he killed the boy’s father, who is also his nephew, left his corpse in the apartment, and just hopped onto his shuttle and left, leaving him. 

  I am going to be straightforward, that’s messed up, even by my standards. T’Chaka was portrayed as this wise king who took responsibility, something he preached in the UN council during the Civil War movie, and you see him just leaving his nephew to deal with trauma. It’s not character development, that is just straight up cruelty which doesn’t match his character traits at all. I think he could have at least paid for the child support bill, but I guess that’s just me. 

  As for Killmonger, himself, I thought he had a fairly interesting backstory, which was never developed. They could have done more on him so that his death could have been more emotionally impactful, perhaps include more flashbacks on how he became that assassin. 

  Moving on to T’Challa and romance shit. I hated it. Not only was the whole “hooking up”with ex thing predictable, it was cornier than my high cholesterol inducing popcorn. In my opinion, they could still stay good friends and have the necessary effect on each other—with Nakia persuading T’Challa to participate in global affairs without doing the traditional lip kissing ritual. 

  What else is left? Oh, right. One of my two main critiques is T’Challa’s “death.” Please, the minute I saw the fighting ritual, I knew that T’Challa was going to get beaten up in the second round. It’s a well used cliche—the fighter winning the first round and then losing in the second because that’s supposed to create character development—or else, why would they introduce the fighting in the first place? Not to mention that I have a problem with how he survived. He technically should have broken his vertebrae and all his nerves. But because he has plot armor, he survived—-how happy for the viewers...

  South Korea. Remember that old South Korean lady who let the golden trio into the casino-esque place? I honestly, almost 150% felt like they just chose a random Asian woman to depict her. Because apparently, Asians all look the same. She spoke the worst Korean I have ever heard in my life. Trust me, I would know—I’m Korean. If she was trying out a new dialect, she was failing horribly because her accent was distinctly American. Don’t you just love racial stereotypes? 

 The question that you lovely readers might be having at this point is: “So what the hell did you like about the film, Miss. Critical?” 

  First off, it’s The Miss. Critical to you (JK) and my answer is Okoye. Not only is she badass, she’s willing to kill her lover to protect Wakanda and the throne—a true captain in my opinion. 

  So, what did you guys think of Black Panther? Yay or nay? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below, or if you want to start a flame war with me...that’s ok too....