Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The first “Black Panther” was released almost four years ago and starred the late movie star, Chadwick Boseman. He was the face of the franchise, and when he sadly passed away in 2020, it left the future of the Black Panther movies in jeopardy. The whole world assumed they wouldn’t make a sequel to the movie, but four years later, we saw Marvel do something bold. Marvel decided to honor the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) in the film, but slowly shift the role of power to his younger sister Shuri (Letitia Wright). The thing that makes a quality Marvel movie is when there is a compelling villain. The type of villain you either think is scarily cool, but also gets under your skin and makes you hate them. Namor, the main antagonist, did a phenomenal acting job. He could breathe underwater, possessed winged feet, and had super strength. There were some phenomenal fight scenes between Shuri and Namor toward the end of the movie. Overall I’d give Namor a 7/10 for his villain work. He was a great character, but it took too long for his intentions and character to develop.
Another one of my complaints is that the first half of the movie was fairly slow. In the first part of the movie, Marvel had to explain the death of the original Black Panther, which led to some main plot points in the movie taking a while to develop. Then they transitioned from talking about the old Black Panther to creating a very fast, but interesting origin story for Shuri, who becomes the next Queen of Wakanda after her mother tragically passed away in the movie. The movie is two hours and forty-one minutes long, so it is a commitment, but it’s very worth it if you’re a Marvel fan.
Throughout the movie, Shuri is trying to figure out who she is and her role in the Kingdom of Wakanda. The general of the army in Wakanda takes Shuri out in the field to rescue this girl who created a vibranium-finding device, and Shuri ended finding sort of her counterpart in the sense that they both didn’t quite know their purposes yet, but they were both geniuses. They end up helping each other through hard times and the girl that Shuri rescued helps her cope with her mother's murder, and when she becomes queen of Wakanda. Once Shuri became Queen of Wakanda she found herself and did something that had never been done in the history of Wakanda and created the first female Black Panther. She ends up peacefully defeating Namor.
Another thing that makes this movie special and what I may love most about Marvel is the post-credit scenes that they have. They lead to the fact that the original Black Panther had a son, and that he will start training to become the new King of Wakanda. This movie was very good and I highly recommend watching it. Overall, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was an 8/10.
By Avner Belsky