Saving the best for last is always incredible in terms of experience, and the MCU did just that, as their final film of the year 2022 and 7th in the Phase 4 roster was nothing short of incredible.
The track record of Marvel this year has been really appalling, with projects that ranged between controversial and just comically horrendous.
Movies which include Dr Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love And Thunder, TV shows which include Ms Marvel, She Hulk, Moon Knight and I Am Groot, comprising of the MCU works this year, all tragically fell short in several ways.
However, Ryan Coogler's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the sequel of the 2018 Box Office blockbuster and Oscar winner, while not being a masterpiece itself, is indeed better than every single one of these previous projects.
Given the soul-crushing death of our hero, Chadwick Boseman in 2020, there was a lot of pressure surrounding this film, as it not only had the responsibility of carrying on the legacy of one of the most prominent black actors of our generation, but also stand on its own two feet as a solid entry to Marvel's ever-growing Cinematic Universe.
The movie succeeded exceptionally on both fronts.
The story begins with the death of the legendary Black Panther and King of Wakanda, T'Challa, which leaves both his family and his people in a state of grief and dismay.
Now assuming a matriarchy under Queen Ramonda, Wakanda strongly opposes the U.S. in the latter's attempts to acquire Vibranium, leading the U.S. to conduct a clandestine search operation at the bottom of the Ocean, which ends in a mysterious and brutal massacre.
This unfortunate incident was caused by a secret underwater empire known as Talokan, lead by Namor, who now blames Wakanda for his nation's discovery and endangerment.
Namor infiltrates Wakanda and proposes to Ramonda that they find and kill the scientist who built the device used to track his nation's vibranium or risk their nation being invaded and destroyed by Talokan's forces.
I'm starting off the review portion of this article with the area which the MCU mostly succeeds in, the production values.
The first Black Panther film won 3 Oscars, all in the production criteria, and this film displayed a replication of that award-level grace and quality in its creative work.
Every aspect of the creative design of this film is truly magnificent.
The set designs applied to both the worlds of Talokan and Wakanda were extremely gorgeous, and this is backed by the impeccable cinematography to make it's sceneries truly beautiful.
The visual effects were as flamboyant as ever, both during fantasy/sci-fi explorations and when impressively applied with stunning choreography to its action sequences in making them as exhilirating as possible.
An aspect of the production which is looking to standout and get nominated for yet another Oscar is the costume design.
The costumes were truly elegant, each perfectly suiting their character and representing the cultures of the concerned nations in a luminescent manner.
The Music is another previously awarded aspect the film that it once again exceeded spectacularly, and looks achieve even more. Aside Ludwig Goransson's teeth-rattling score, we were also blessed with game-changing original soundtracks, most of which lead by talented Nigerian artists and the most prominent track being vocalized by the one and only music legend, Rihanna.
Going into the story, Director Ryan Coogler did an incredible job in translating and adapting real world heartreak and emotions into this story.
The film was dedicated the franchise's beloved hero, the late great Chadwick Boseman, and the tribute was immaculately executed through captivating emotional expressions from its characters, as well as genuine moments of serenity that's enough to pierce one's heart.
Aside this tribute, the film was filled with passion, driven by the exceptional performance of the entire cast, elevating the empathic value of this film to match its entertainment value.
This film had extravagantly layered worldbuilding and character development covering the worlds of the protagonist and antagonist, both sides being made to have visceral and sensible reasons behind their actions.
Letitia Wright who reprised her role as Shuri, who's now the grieving sister of the late hero and the one to inherit the role of Black Panther. She was obviously presented as a surrogate for the viewer to mourn, and she displayed a remarkable level of talent in doing just that.
Her performance was truly fantastic, with passionate displays enough to instigate an empathic reaction and an overall charisma that makes her a suitable lead for a film of this nature.
The film also did an impressive job of making it's side characters, particularly the returning cast relevant pieces in the story.
Angela Bassett, Daniel Kaluuya, Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong'o and the rest of the supporting cast all gave stunning performances, representing their amazing characters in this story.
That brings us to the antagonist, Namor, spectacularly portrayed by Tenoch Huerta.
Antagonist is a more fitting word to describe him than villain, because as previously stated, most of the big actions he made in this story were driven by reasonable and even altruistic desires.
His backstory made it clear that his weariness of the human world was born from past influences of slavery, disease and death.
He's just a noble king who wishes to protect his people and preserve the paradise he built underwater, and every action he made in this story was driven from this virtue. The story even established a parallel between his character and that of Shuri, both of which having faced painful losses and being driven by that same desire to protect their nations.
This made the end-result of their clash really satisfying to say the least.
There were some points in the film where Namor was almost being forced to look evil through irrational deeds. One of which includes sending his soldiers to disrupt the mission to retrieve the scientist and kidnapping princess Shuri, even before giving the Wakandans a chance to meet their agreed stipulations.
Even the logic behind the stipulations are a huge lapse in reasoning because, (1) how did he even know the vibranium tracker was acquired from a single living scientist and not either mass produced in a company or invented by the late Tony Stark?.
And (2) there was literally no need to incite the kidnapping anyways, because the Talokan was still unknown, all supposed witnesses were killed by his army and Wakanda was already set to take the blame for everything.
These and a few more rash writing decisions on Namor's part in an attempt to make him seem evil does affect his character's overall worth, but his development in the story still makes him a solid antagonist.
Long story short, Namor is a good king, a great antagonist but a terrible villain.
Speaking of character-based shortcomings in this film, the biggest issue with the film is something that wasn't even necessary in the plot and falls more on the MCU rather than Ryan Coogler.
Every Marvel movie nowadays has to feature a new hero that'll light the way for their future projects, and in this film, I guess Shuri Black Panther wasn't enough, we also got Dominique Thorne's portrayal of "Ironheart".
Aside from the aforementioned plot hole regarding Namor which made her the macguffin for at least the first act, the existence of Riri Williams (Ironheart) in this story was literally a pain, as it created more plot contrivances that could've been avoided.
For one thing, the idea that a normal teenager in University could recreate the life's work of the greatest inventor in the MCU as well as a vibranium tracker is just ridiculous.
Can any smart teenager make an Ironman suit now?
How did she even get the vibranium to test the vibranium detector?
She then goes on to create a more perfect Ironman suit using Wakandan technology which she somehow instantly got good at, and joined the war between Wakanda and Talokan. All flimsy aspects of the writing, added to make a new hero debut in addition to the MCU.
Also, since the MCU insists on making every new young hero a comedian, she brought in a bunch of cringey jokes to what was mostly a serious film.
To be fair, other side characters as well contributed to the hit-or-miss humor of this film aside Riri, and there were a few other logical errors, such as Ramonda sending a single soldier in form of Nakia to infiltrate Talokan, a world which the latter's never been to before, filled with superhuman monsters in order to rescue Shuri and Riri, and Nakia accomplishing this seemlessly.
All in all, weighing the good and bad, this film deserves an 8/10.
Even with its few glaring issues, the film showed the immense creative effort put into its writing rather than its fan service, something which can't be said about the other two MCU films this year.
The epic and serene moments were properly executed with the stern efforts of the production team, making this an impactful film, whether by virtue of entertainment or empathy.
To many it'll definitely not live up to the first movie, and to some others it will be hated due to social and political representations, but Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is definitely a solid film.
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Expect more reviews on the hottest movies, TV shows and animes of the year.
Stay safe guys.
Amazing review as always. You're doing a great job brother. Also the flashback at the ending was really touching. And the mid-credit scene did well in continuing the legacy of T'challa.
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