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Black Panther (17/20): There is SO Much To Talk About Here...

Oh boy, there’s a lot to say about Black Panther. We’ll begin spoiler-free of course, but we might have to stray a bit. I’ll let you know before we drift into dangerous territory. Seriously though, we have a lot to get through. So let’s figure this out.

(Actually, before we get into it, I just want to note something that struck me. There’s a lot of hype surrounding this film. Much of it is because it’s a pretty damn good movie. But a significant amount is due to the fact that it’s a black super hero movie with a mostly black cast, written and directed by a black filmmaker. And yes, I agree, not only is this awesome, but these levels of excitement are exactly the correct response. What struck me however, (and what impressed the absolute hell out of me) is, though representation and race are vital elements in the meta-narrative of the film’s release, they actually play extremely small roles in the in the story itself. No, the MCU’s first black super hero movie isn’t about racism. It’s about toxic nationalism. About tribalistic selfism. Not unrelated, I know, but as a theme it allows for a more nuanced, more interesting moral discussion. And it’s at least as topical as race. There is no doubt in my mind that Black Panther was written partially in response to the modern political landscape. I love the front it chose to fight on. It didn’t just go for the low-hanging fruit, and that’s rare.)

(Okay, back to the review.)

Black Panther easily stands out as one of the best films in the MCU franchise. Partly, this is due to the fact that it sets aside a lot of the baggage and detritus that’s built up over the many, many … many installments. Partly (of course), because it’s the well-conceived, well-executed passion project of a group of very talented people. Partly (and I may be alone in thinking that this is the smallest part of it, but even so it’s fairly significant), it’s because the film offers a fresh aesthetic that we (or at the very least, I) have never really seen in this kind of movie before.

DEFINITELY A MARVEL MOVIE

To begin, while in many ways it offers refreshing film-going experience, I wouldn’t dream of saying Black Panther is a game-changer for the MCU. Here’s why:

- The cinematography is very much in line with the rest of the franchise. We’re given dozens of hero-shots, rotating cameras, and sweeping arcs over grand structures and landscapes. Colours are bright; costumes are busy and elaborate. Action is smooth, fluid and easy to follow. All of this is what we usually expect to actually see in a MCU film.

- So too does Black Panther’s tone match other in-franchise films. Action-heavy, quippy (we’re going come back to ‘quippy’ later), never too dark, never to serious, with character tragedy that exists for the sake of plot rather than emotion (using pain to motivate characters to act, rather than to draw any strong feeling from the audience).

- Additionally, the tropes surrounding character motivations are vary-much in line with what we have seen before: Proving yourself worthy. Daddy issues. Old enemies returned. Secret histories discovered. Etc.

Now to be clear, I’m not saying any of these things are bad. Or that they automatically make for a good movie. Not at all. Hero shots are awesome. Marvel has carefully cultivated an extremely watchable balance in the tone of their films. And the motivations I mentioned are used so often because they are both relatable to the audience and chocked full of drama. But these are merely the composite parts with which the MCU likes to construct its films. Black Panther is no different in this regard. It is, however, a variation in the construction.

DIFFERENT THAN OTHER MARVEL MOVIES

This can be seen in a distinct lack of incestuous MCU Mythology. There are no major heroes or villains from other movies here. No carried over plot-lines or setting up future, bigger plots. But then, that’s hardly unique in 3rd Generation MCU, Hero-Introduction Films. (Though I would argue Black Panther is 4th Gen.) While Spiderman is balls-deep in mythology, both Ant-Man and Doctor Strange stand fairly isolated. But common to all three is the creation of a pre-packaged hero ready to ‘be the person they were meant to be’. Ready to join the fight. To become a piece of the larger mythology. Such intentions are unmistakable in these films, a character-shaping trope not present in Black Panther. Black Panther stands on its own four paws. It barely hints that it might be a part of a larger universe, a reality it almost seems to want to hide. This self-containment comes out in levels of creative freedom rarely found in present-day Marvel films.

I mentioned above how quippy dialogue gives the film a measure of MCU-ness. This however, was only a partial truth. I mean, it does, but less than we’ve come to expect. The watchable tone I mentioned above has caused MCU films to drift together. With a few exceptions, every character sounds the same. Most the major heroes are all arrogant smartasses. Everyone’s quippy. All the time. And as the franchise has advanced, this glibness has become more central to character and dialogue. To the point where character and honesty to the moment is regularly sacrificed for the sake of a cheap laugh (what I like to call, ‘crank calling the Hux’. At its best we get a legitimately fun and funny moments like the banter between Thor and Hulk/Banner in Thor: Ragnarok. But more often than not we get Doctor Strange’s cape acting like a Disney animal sidekick. Black Panther’s quippiness on the other hand doesn’t feel like painted-on humour. Jokes suit the characters telling them. Also, rarely are they told in a vacuum. Most often they fall into beats that actually advance the plot. They’re fewer and further between so the film feels less jokey. But ‘jokey’ is a crutch and this film doesn’t need.

But more than anything, Black Panther benefits from its MCU divergence in the formulaic plot structure / character type formula it avoids. We see it again and again and again and again in these movies, and when people say, I’m sick of these Marvel movies, there’s little doubt in my mind, this is why. Black Panther breaks away from this structure. It offers narrative scape I’m not actually sure I’ve ever seen before. It’s as fluid as the most formulaic MCU film but with the energy and excitement of one willing to break away and follow its own unique path.

So let’s stop comparing it to other films and talk about Black Panther by itself.

THE GOOD

I walked out of Black Panther with no real gripes about the film. I mean, I thought of one or two small ones later, but in the moment, none. Loyal readers will know just how rare an occurrence this is for me. I ALWAYS have something to complain about. Because so much of the film was done right.

The Characters: This film is its characters. There are more interesting, distinct, watchable characters than I really knew what to do with. Six characters that could easily have carried their own movie—including T’Challa (the Black Panther) himself, of course. They’re interactions were strong and felt extremely honest, giving life and substance to the film.

The Visuals: I mentioned above, both that the film closely follows Marvel visual tropes and offers a fresh and appealing aesthetic. This aesthetic is a beautifully crafted vision of what we might see in terms of art, architecture, design, fashion and just … in the appearance of society if an technologically advanced African civilization came into existence without any outside influences. It is gorgeously imagined and fashioned and it permeates the film, adding a level of beauty from which it’s hard to look away. Not than a layer of paint really, but much more mural than roll-on.

The Action: Again, Black Panther’s action can best be expressed in a comparison to other MCU films. (Sorry, but that’s just how it is.) Something about its many fights chases and battle sequences feels cleaner than most the action in Marvel films. It took me a while to figure out why. But it’s this: virtually all the action onscreen moves the narrative forward. Each beat of each fight is a turn in the story. This is to say there is very, very few shots of people doing cool fight moves just for the sake of showing cool fight choreography. As a result, the action sequences all have very well controlled pacing and never slow down the film’s narrative.

The Structure: Okay, here’s one of the things that I found really interesting (and unfortunately this is where things are going to get spoiler-y. So if you haven’t seen it yet, and you don’t want it spoiled for you, I’m afraid this is where we must say ‘goodbye’. Thank you for making it this far though my oh-so-long, and ever-so-dry review of the film! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!).

(SPOILERS)

Okay, here’s the thing about the film, and it could very well be considered a flaw, even a plot hole, but I don’t actually see it like that. Anyway, I certainly found it interesting. So you know how Killmonger shoots Klaue and dumps his body to the border to gain access to the city and make his challenge? Well, why didn’t he just do this to begin with? The whole second act of the film has little to nothing to do with the rest. It could be cut away altogether and nothing would change.

Or would it…

Let’s look at Act One:

1) T’Chaka confronts his brother

2) T’Challa pulls Nakia from her mission

3) Klau and Killmonger steal the axe

4) The Challenge and ascension ceremony

5) T’Chall goes to the Plane of Ancestors and returns to the throne as king.

An apt title for this part of the story would be T’Challa takes his place as king. Act One. But after this—immediately after this—we get two little throwaway scenes that absolutely define the rest of the film. First, T’Challa and Nakia walking the streets and Nakia urging him to open the border and offer help to the rest of the world. He resists. The next scene is T’Challa and W’Kabi, the leader of his War Dogs. Here we get W’Kabi urging him to open the borders and enforce justice on the rest of the world. And yes! THIS! These two scenes encompass the entire conflict of the film—just moments before they get distracted with chasing Klaue. And of course, these are what come through in spades when Killmonger makes his challenge.

You see? All through this unnecessary second act, we have a shadow act in the background, hidden in plane view. It is there. Right up until the second challenge fight, it’s the film’s actual second act. The Klaue scenes are more or less an short film overlaid over top of it.

So why Klaue at all then? Well it gives T’Challa a chance to see Killmonger’s father’s ring so he can learn the truth about what happened. But that’s just exposition. They could have done that any number of ways, including showing the same explained flashback after Killmonger enters Wakanda. No, that whole thirty or forty minutes is there because if he just showed up at the border with a body and demanded to challenge T’Challa, we the audience wouldn’t have given two shits. It’s expository alright; it’s not informational exposition though. It’s dramatic exposition. Those thirty or forty minutes where they’re chasing Klaue, attach dramatic significance to him. And the rather intense scene where Killmonger (who at that point has done very little in the film) shoots him, transposes that significance onto him. So when we learn Killmonger’s heritage, when he appears to make his challenge, none of it feels out of nowhere. It feels like he’s the rightful villain of the film. It’s great.

Now, of course, there are other ways this might have been accomplished. I can think of one or two. I think most of these however would likely have veered dangerously close to the formulaic MCU plot structures I mentioned above. This does not. I’m not saying it’s an intrinsically good structure. But it’s interesting. And, in this context at least, it’s new. And best of all, it’s elegantly executed.

GRIPES

As I mentioned, I left the film with noting to complain about. Of course, I have since been able to find some things. But these are very minor.

First, when Killmonger throws T’Challa off the waterfall and his not-quite-dead royal body shows up in exactly the place his loved ones flee to. That’s some pretty damn strong plot armour. Ultimately, I found this fairly forgivable. Of course we knew he was going to turn up. And the act of ‘killing him’ led to some pretty strong moments in the story. Like when Nakita assumes Okoye will flee with her and Okoye is shocked at the idea. That was a beautiful scene.

Also when the M’Baku tribe shows up like the riders of Rohan, just when things in the battle are starting to look grim. That was both clichéd and overly projected.

Also, some tiny gripe about when they choose to speak English and when they don’t, pulling me out of the movie. But this review is already way too long. This didn’t actually bother me at all, I just kind of noticed it because I was looking for it. So fuck it.

#Black Panther #Marvel #MCU #Movie #Film #Review

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