“Black Panther” Steps Into The Spotlight

Set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, main character T’Challa returns home after the death of his father and takes his rightful place as king of the African nation, Wakanda. But an enemy emerges to threaten T’Challa’s plans to take on the mantle of kingship, as well as put the rest of the world at risk. Thus, T’Challa must don his alter-ego of the Black Panther to rally the allies he has left and secure the safety of his people.

I’m so glad I’ve finally gotten to see this movie, with my anticipation growing for this ever since Captain America: Civil War was released. For the most part, I was extremely satisfied and relieved to say this was an amazing movie. Still, it definitely has its flaws.

The first half of this film runs a tad bit slow, and I wanted more to happen during some key scenes. In addition, I found one specific joke in this movie to be truly awful and extremely unnecessary.

However, the rest of this movie is flat-out amazing.

Chadwick Boseman, as the title role of T’Challa, is outstanding and really owns the part. Boseman brought a lot of emotion and soul into bringing this character to life and it really shows as this film progresses. Everyone else in the film does an incredible job as well, but Boseman is the film’s shining star. Another great character is the villain, Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan.

The Marvel universe has a tendency to be a bit lacking in the villain department (Tom Hiddleston’s Loki being a notable exception), but Michael B. Jordan really knocks it out of the park with his character, and gives Loki a run for his money as best Marvel villain. Killmonger is a surprisingly sympathetic character with a backstory, so you actually feel for him. This gives the character a lot of depth and range instead of the usual “oh-look-at-me-I’m-evil” caricature of many villains.

The action in this film is also incredible, although the final fight scene is a little too flashy and animated-looking because of the CGI, it’s not terrible, and it’s something that I can easily get past.

The soundtrack is impressive, featuring songs like “All the Stars” and “Pray for Me” by artists like Kendrick Lamar, SZA, and The Weeknd. I’ve listened it to more than a few times.

Overall, I still prefer a few other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe over this one, including Iron Man, The Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Still, Black Panther is easily in my top five favorite Marvel movies, and since T’Challa is my favorite character in this entire series, this movie just makes me all the more excited to see more from him in Avengers: Infinity War this May. I give Black Panther a 9 out of 10 stars.