BLACK PANTHER:
WAKANDA FOREVER
(directed byRyan Coogler, 2022)
** (out of 5)
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> After seeing this bloated franchise sequel (Marvel’s 30th feature!), my buddy John quipped that WAKANDA FOREVER was the perfect film… if you happen to be an 8-year old girl.
. I get his point! Even though these overblown superhero action flicks are not my cup of meat, I quite liked the original BLACK PANTHER for its high production values, its fascinating take on what has come to be known as “Afrofuterism”, and for the authoritative performance of its star Chadwick Boseman. As you can plainly see, I was not nearly as enamored of this feminized sequel.
. Chadwick is sadly gone now, so for this cash cow to keep giving milk, it needed to be reimagined. In a long-overdue age of increasingly empowered female characters, I am down with the central gender swap. The female action hero is an archetype that should have entered the marketplace of ideas 40 years ago- at least. (I remember my screenwriter friend Stacy suggesting it as a potent, commercial idea when we went to college together in 1978!) But with men pulling most of the levers in Hollywood and at the investment banks, it’s an idea that took decades to take hold. (Hey. Maybe 8-year old girls deserve screen heroes too. Ya think?) With Boseman’s regal King T’Challa dead, Queen Ramonda (an imperious Angela Bassett- very good, as always), must lead her elite army of Amazon warriors into a future strewn with deadly minefields.
. The greedy developed world has its eyes set firmly on the rare mineral which is the source of Wakanda’s unequalled power. On the verge of a big find, using a newly developed vibranium detector, U.S. special forces are ambushed by a mysterious race of blue-skinned sea-dwelling humanoids, led by the immortal Nakia: a ruthless leader with winged feet, like the Roman god Mercury. He kidnaps Princess Shuri (a waiflike and relentlessly intelligent Letitia Wright, who seems far too physically slight to be the new Black Panther), and brings her to his kingdom at the bottom of the ocean, hoping to form an alliance with Wakanda against the rest of the world. But this us versus them mentality is not a part of the Wakandan character. It seems increasingly inevitable that Nakia and his soggy secret civilization will not be a Wakandan ally- but more likely a potentially deadly foe.
. WAKANDA FOREVER is broad fantasy of course, but it is also, in the truest sense, science fiction. As in the initial chapter, the fictional science is a crucial element of the story. It is the speculative technology that imaginary vibranium enables that drives the backstory. But all that was far more developed in the first film. This installment is more action flick than headtrip. Some of the action is pretty good. But it gets repetitive fast. (Did I mention that WAKANDA FOREVER gets repetitive fast? It bears repeating.)
. One of the very good things about this not very good film is the extended cast of fresh-faced actors- most of whom have dark skin and names I couldn’t possibly pronounce. As in the original, it is just so very nice to see these underutilized actors get a chance to show what they can do. The pervasive racism of our world relegates Black actors to marginalized stereotypes where they only exist in relation to their ethnicity. That’s a thing here too, of course, with the power differential flipped on its head, it is both less limiting and less defining. The white cast includes Wakandan ally Martin Freeman (not a trace of British accent), and villainess Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but they are just supporting characters. How did I not notice that Lupita Nyong’o is so very beautiful? I must not have been paying attention.
. Sadly, the longer this flick went on the less appealing it became. It just feels written by committee- or worse, by an A.I. algorithm. When ignorant Floridians rail against “woke media”, this is the kind of product they are decrying. Despite my sympathies, it sure feels painfully politically correct. Regarding culture as a zero-sum game, no doubt such ignoramuses are likely to see this celebration of Blackness as “anti-white”. It is nothing of the kind. But neither is it very original or compelling.
. Interesting that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose to honor two massive blockbusters in the Best Picture category for 2022: AVATAR 2 and TOP GUN 2. That’s unheard of. Though this film was not similarly honored, it’s just as rote and plastic as either of those ventures.
– KPK sez: skip it.
*
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