MCU Sunday #18: Black Panther

 

 Preface: As promised last year, I plan to review every single currently available movie in what is known as the  Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) over the year 2024. These will appear in order of their release over that time period. This is the eighteenth installment. (Oh, and by the way, after I've exhausted all of the currently available MCU movies I will be rounding out the year with some of the other available movies made from the Marvel comics pantheon.)

Notes: In each of the MCU installments you will be seeing references to two recurring events that occur in nearly every MCU movie.

Where is Stan Lee?: Stan Lee was the driving genius behind Marvel Comics.  He usually shows up in a cameo.  Sometimes these are so quick you gotta be sure you don't blink. Occasionally he gets a line  of dialogue.

And the Credits Roll: You should always stay in the theater for the credits when watching a MCU movie, because during the credits and at the end there is a teaser (or two) that is worth the wait.  Often they were a teaser for the next installment of the films.

 

 

 

Way back in 2005 a project to bring the character to the big screen was going to be made starring Wesley Snipes.  I imagine Snipes would have acquitted himself quite well if this had come about, since he had already done a quite decent job as another "superhero", Blade, beginning in the late 90's.

Eventually when Marvel Studios began producing their own movies, Black Panther became one of the hopeful superheroes they wanted to bring to the big screen.  He was first introduced in Captain America: Civil War. The mantle of the character has always passed down to the current king of Wakanda.  When King T'Chaka (John Kani) was killed, T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), his son was destined to be the new king and thus also the new Black Panther.

Black Panther garnered a lot of accolades over the awards season.  It was one of the few superhero movies  to be noticed by the Oscar committee.  Of course, you may know 1978's Superman won the first Oscar (a Special Achievement for Visual Effects). And, usually, if a superhero movie did manage to get attention it was for one of the lesser awards like Best Sound.  Superhero movies rarely got beyond that level however, and one of the rare exceptions was when Heath Ledger was given the award for Best Supporting Actor. (Not that  his award was not well deserved, but I really think some of the attention was due to his untimely death.  You can argue that point, but I remain convinced of  that.)

The technical and script writing and even the acting in Black Panther surpassed the standard  fare that had been the standard, enough so that it became the first superhero movie to ever garner a nomination for Best Picture.  And in another year, maybe it would have even won.  But it's competition that year included Green Book and BlacKKKlansman, either one of which was probably fated to win the award. (As it turned out. Green Book  walked away with the statuette.)

 

 

 

Black Panther (2018):

The film opens with a little background as the history of Wakanda is told. Millions of years before men rose to become the predominant species on the planet Earth, a meteor made of vibranium crashed into the African lands.  When men started to come into play, the people of the area that became Wakanda banded together and put it to use in creating a technologically advanced  society.  Four of the five tribes banded together, with the fifth becoming an outlaw band.

In 1992, the king T'Chaka (Atandwa Kani) comes to California to confront his brother, N'Jobu (Sterling K. Brown), to accuse him of betraying his country by intending to sell some vibranium to a nefarious black market weapons dealer, and has plans to have him taken back to Wakanda.

In the present, not long after the events which led to the death of his father, T'Challa is preparing to take on the mantle of king.  During the proceedings, all of the tribes resoundingly back him as the new king, with the exception being the outlaw tribe, the Jabari.  M'Baku (Winston Duke), as the champion representing the Jabari challenges his right, which is settled in combat.  T'Challa defeats M'Baku and is installed as king, with the rite of passage that is required; one in which he meats his dead father during the "burial" ceremony.

After he becomes king, T'Challa is tasked with a new quest.  He is required to bring the weapons dealer, Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) back to Wakanda to face trial for his crimes against Wakanda. T'Challa finds out that Klaue is planning on selling a stolen Wakandan weapon on the black market in South Korea so takes a member of his security force / bodyguards, Okoye (Danai Gurira). (The security force is all female and all with shaved heads.  I'd like to have these women on my bodyguard team.  They are damn good fighters.)  

He also  takes his ex-lover (and would-be queen, i he had his way.) Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o), who is not only a former member of the bodyguard elite, but has apparently been spending the last few years as sort of a female James Bond.

Where is Stan Lee? 

Before Klaue shows up, T"Challa attempts to retain his cover by gambling, but leaves the table just as 014he has won a bet. Stan shows up a gambler and retains his winnings for himself.

At the casino where he deal is supposed to go down, T'Challa meets up with a former acquaintance. Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) with whom he had an association while trying to t5rack down Helmut Zemo (See the Captain America: Civil War link above).. Of course, you know things aren't going to go smoothly when both forces have opposing goals.  In the ensuing chaos, Klaue attempts to escape and Black Panther and his limited group give chase.  (And we get some of the most destroyed car scenes this side of The Blues Brothers). But eventually Black Panther and ross capture Klaue.  And he IS talking.  He tells Ross that his limited view of Wakanda and its resources are somewhat naive.  They actually have more vibranium than you can shake a stick at.

And Klaue  has a few more cards up his sleeve.  Including some allies who rescue him. But before he escapes he takes a pot shot at the group, and Ross, attempting to shield Nakia, jumps in front of her and takes a bullet. While Klaue escapes, T"Challa takes Ross back to Wakanda where, hopefully, his life can be saved. Meanwhile he noticed that one of Klaue's rescuers was wearing a ring that supposedly belonged in his family.

It turns out that T'Chaka's brother, the one who betrayed Wakanda at the beginning of this movie, had a child with an American woman, but that child had been left behind.  The child grew up,. and is now Erik (Michal B. Jordan), also known as Kilmonger,  who is now at odds with T'Challa (who is in reality ,his cousin), because he is now claiming a right to the throne of Wakanda. He has killed Klaue aqnd delivered the body to the Wakandans, but now he wants to be king. Of course, his claim is righteous, on the face of it.  He wants to give black people the power to rule all over,

He challenges T'Challa for right through combat. and ends up seriously injuring him.. Although many are willing to stay on the tradition route and serve the new king, who is now known as N'Jadaka. But his ex, Nakia, has more loyalty to T'Challa, and with the help of ross and a limited supply of allies, goes to the Jabari tribe, the same ones who challenged T'Challa's right to rule.  The Jabari, it turns out, although they objected to T'Challa's right to rule, have that unknown virtue of respect, since T'Challa spared the life of M'Baku in that original combat, even though it was within his rights to kill him.

The Jabari help revive T'Challa who goes on to challenge the new king.  But now the new king has his own power as the new Black Panther, so it's not going to be easy. Especially since N'Jadaka has that more well-known "virtue" on his side, revenge.  You see, he knows that T'Challa's father killed his father, T'Chaka's own brother.  Hence one of the driving forces behind his real desire to take the throne.

The group do manage to revive T'Challa so he can pose a threat to N'Jadaka's claim to the throne.  

And the Credits Roll:

In a mid credits scene T'Challa appears before the United Nations to reveal the true existence of Wakanda and its technology, and in a post-credits Shuri (Letitia Wright), T'Challa's whiz-kid kid sister helps Buck Barnes in his rehabilitation, so the Winter Soldier is hopefully on a new path.

This has been a very good movie, despite the fact that, like another movie in the series that I genuinely liked, the real slam-bang action is kept far too low for my tastes in superhero movies.  And although many lists put Black Panther as the top movie in the pantheon, that lack of intensity serves to lower this one on my own personal list.  But it is still in the top 5, so don't sweat that.

BTW, gotta tell you, those African names gave my spell check a run for it's money. But we got a couple of great African-American actors on this one whose names are not only familiar, but far easier to spell.  (Forrest Whitaker as Zuri and Angela Bassett as T'Challa's mother, Ramonda).

I wish I had some of those spaceship-like flying machines that the Wakandans have, though.  They are reminiscent of some of the alien spaceships that appeared in other movies in the series.  It makes one wonder why Stark industries, with the intelligence that they had with the likes of Howard and Tony Stark only managed to create a lousy bullet proof shield (Captain America).  But then, the Wakandans had centuries to work with vibranium and Stark Industries only had access to it for less than 1 century...  

Time to fire up the old Plymouth now.  Too bad it's body isn't made of vibranium.  But I won't be traveling in dangerous territory on the way home.  Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy