This was our first MCU film since the release of Thor: Ragnarok, and I just really can't help but be amazed at how consistently this franchise turns out such high quality films. And I don't just mean "the action is always fun" or something like that. Every aspect of these films is high quality, considering their "blockbuster" status and the requirement that they sell bajillions of tickets. There are compromises, of course, but there are compromises in every film as they try to target a specific audience. Marvel knows what their audience looks like, and they're really good at delivering exactly what they want in packages that still mange to be different enough from each other that they can release three of them in a year and make money on all of them.
Nobody else can do this. The whole thing seems frankly impossible. Yet here I am, impressed with Black Panther for delivering on audience expectations while still managing to feel different and fresh.
My biggest worry when they announced a Black Panther film was that it would be set in New York, London, or like, Paris. You know, some place patently stupid like that. And while there are some scenes in Black Panther that take place in cities around the world, the movie itself is set right where a Black Panther movie should be set; the fictional nation of Wakanda.
I loved this setting because, you know... I'm not boring, I guess? I mean, why wouldn't I love that? I like some variation in my popular entertainment. If I wanted to watch the same movie over and over, I mean... I do, sometimes, but that's why I buy movies. It's nice when new movies actually feel, you know... new. I have lived and do live in a western culture surrounded by entertainment that is obsessed with western culture. That even showed up in my flipping history classes, which basically pretended that the only nation to have ever existed outside of Europe was Egypt, and then only for about the hundred years surrounding the advent of Alexander the Great.
That always frustrated me, so I was massively reassured when trailers for the movie revealed that not only would the film be set primarily in Africa, the main cast would be pretty much entirely black. I've seen a lot of people talking about how "black" this movie is. I can't speak to that, since I really just don't have a frame of reference. But for my part I found people and things I related to in the movie just fine, and I'm as white as they come. The movie didn't strike me as being for anyone the way some people describe it, but there's no doubt some demographics will find much stronger representation in this movie than they usually do.
Now while I wouldn't say it's a movie for anyone of a particular background, Black Panther does tackle some serious subject matter that's woven into the main conflict through the character's motivations. The movie reaches the end of the conflict with the message of "If you can do something to help someone in need, you should do that. But your help should not come at the expense of someone else." It decries extremism on both sides of a serious issue, and that's a fantastic message to take with you into the world. But if you really want to know what this movie is, I'll tell you going in that it's not an exhaustive treatise on racial equality.
Because seriously, it's a superhero movie. Before the script was ever written, we all knew a third of the production would be explosions. That's uh... not a great background for an exhaustive treatise on much of anything. Except pyrotechnics, maybe.
No, Black Panther is an action blockbuster, and a darn good one at that. It's super fun to watch, the script is punchy and fun, the action is amazingly well choreographed, the characters are consistent and understandable, and the pacing is completely on point. Are there fantastic female characters? Absolutely. Are there amazing black characters? Of course. Do they handle race as a character motivation sensitively and in a nuanced fashion? About as well as can be expected for a movie with this much runtime dedicated to fisticuffs!
But does it also have some pretty standard white characters? YES! There's fewer of them than maybe you're used to (which is 100% a good thing and makes the movie feel different than everything else in the MCU, thank heavens), but they're there! There's no race requirement to enjoy what is undeniably the excellent blockbuster execution that defines Black Panther. The movie isn't "for black people." It's for everyone. It just so happens that there is more and better representation present in this movie for humans with actual melanin than any superhero movie before it. That isn't why Black Panther is a great movie.
But it's sure as heck great that it's there.
Nobody else can do this. The whole thing seems frankly impossible. Yet here I am, impressed with Black Panther for delivering on audience expectations while still managing to feel different and fresh.
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| Probably not the poster you were expecting, but she might just be my favorite character in the movie. |
My biggest worry when they announced a Black Panther film was that it would be set in New York, London, or like, Paris. You know, some place patently stupid like that. And while there are some scenes in Black Panther that take place in cities around the world, the movie itself is set right where a Black Panther movie should be set; the fictional nation of Wakanda.
I loved this setting because, you know... I'm not boring, I guess? I mean, why wouldn't I love that? I like some variation in my popular entertainment. If I wanted to watch the same movie over and over, I mean... I do, sometimes, but that's why I buy movies. It's nice when new movies actually feel, you know... new. I have lived and do live in a western culture surrounded by entertainment that is obsessed with western culture. That even showed up in my flipping history classes, which basically pretended that the only nation to have ever existed outside of Europe was Egypt, and then only for about the hundred years surrounding the advent of Alexander the Great.
That always frustrated me, so I was massively reassured when trailers for the movie revealed that not only would the film be set primarily in Africa, the main cast would be pretty much entirely black. I've seen a lot of people talking about how "black" this movie is. I can't speak to that, since I really just don't have a frame of reference. But for my part I found people and things I related to in the movie just fine, and I'm as white as they come. The movie didn't strike me as being for anyone the way some people describe it, but there's no doubt some demographics will find much stronger representation in this movie than they usually do.
Now while I wouldn't say it's a movie for anyone of a particular background, Black Panther does tackle some serious subject matter that's woven into the main conflict through the character's motivations. The movie reaches the end of the conflict with the message of "If you can do something to help someone in need, you should do that. But your help should not come at the expense of someone else." It decries extremism on both sides of a serious issue, and that's a fantastic message to take with you into the world. But if you really want to know what this movie is, I'll tell you going in that it's not an exhaustive treatise on racial equality.
Because seriously, it's a superhero movie. Before the script was ever written, we all knew a third of the production would be explosions. That's uh... not a great background for an exhaustive treatise on much of anything. Except pyrotechnics, maybe.
No, Black Panther is an action blockbuster, and a darn good one at that. It's super fun to watch, the script is punchy and fun, the action is amazingly well choreographed, the characters are consistent and understandable, and the pacing is completely on point. Are there fantastic female characters? Absolutely. Are there amazing black characters? Of course. Do they handle race as a character motivation sensitively and in a nuanced fashion? About as well as can be expected for a movie with this much runtime dedicated to fisticuffs!
But does it also have some pretty standard white characters? YES! There's fewer of them than maybe you're used to (which is 100% a good thing and makes the movie feel different than everything else in the MCU, thank heavens), but they're there! There's no race requirement to enjoy what is undeniably the excellent blockbuster execution that defines Black Panther. The movie isn't "for black people." It's for everyone. It just so happens that there is more and better representation present in this movie for humans with actual melanin than any superhero movie before it. That isn't why Black Panther is a great movie.
But it's sure as heck great that it's there.
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