Wakanda Forever

So I did manage to get out and see this during November, but you're not reading about it until now because of all the other stuff I was doing in November. Incidentally if you like stream-of-consiousness un-revised poetry, you should go read all of these. There's some genuinely good stuff in there. Also poems about Wonderbread and Cheeze-Wiz.

None of that speaks to the subject of today, which is, of course, yet another Marvel movie. You'd be forgiven a certain amount of skepticism regarding the value of this movie based solely on that understanding. If you would, however, please stand by on judging a film simply because of its association with an existing property. Think of Wakanda Forever not as a Marvel movie, but as a sequel to Black Panther. You know, the superhero movie with exceptional representation for both Africans and black Americans that made an entire demographic of viewers feel seen in a way they never had before in a huge blockbuster production.

If you think about it in those terms, Wakanda Forever was always going to be an interesting movie, whether it was executed well or not. To make things even more interesting; the passing of Chadwick Boseman and the revelation that the character of T'Challa would not be re-cast in his absence. This was done to honor the impact Chadwick had in the role, due in large part to the afore-mentioned representation of a demographic in Black Panther. In essence, that would mean this is the first real death we've seen in a Marvel movie. So there was a lot to intrigue me going into Wakanda Forever.

Honestly the least-intriguing thing about the movie was the revelation that the villain would be Namor from Marvel Comics, the self-absorbed prick-prince of Atlantis, who in today's comic and movie landscape just reads as a bad rip-off of Aquaman (yes I'm aware the Sub-Mariner was around first). I've never been that interested in Namor, mainly because his attitude is obnoxious, and I really wasn't interested in seeing another bad take on an overdone fictional civilization that was honestly best rendered in an animated Disney movie back in the early naughts.

I wasn't paying much attention to the Wakanda Forever trailers leading up to the film, so I missed that there were some extreme ret-cons for the character of Namor in the works. The result, however, is a character I like way better than the Marvel Comics Namor, and also another super-powered character that is high-profile representation for an entire demographic of people chronically under-served by Hollywood. I... like, just can't with the track record of the Black Panther films. It's almost like they started by writing down a list of under-represented cultures in blockbusters and sorta just... threw a dart at it.

I'm all in for that by the way, especially since they then took that conceit and turned it into something that, from the perspective of the MCU, just feels so believable! And honestly I cannot complain about the fact that the only group/organization I came away from the film angry at was the CIA, which is a reaction I feel like they have earned via their real-life actions over the years. Overall the movie was fascinating, engaging, and at moments a touching memorial to Chadwick Boseman and an acknowledgement of the good he did via the role of Black Panther. I was interested going in, I was pleased coming out.

Also, generally a ton of fun to watch with very high-quality visuals and fights and whatnot. Because yes, it is still a Marvel movie. It's very polished.

That doesn't mean the movie is perfect, of course. Without getting into spoiler territory suffice it to say that I felt like Shuri's internal conflict, which was the primary driver for a good portion of the plot, was resolved rather suddenly at the end. I feel like her change of heart was not set up particularly well, such that it just... happened. Like, way too fast. I got a bit of whip-lash from that moment, which threw me out of the remainder of the movie. It's not a major flaw, but it is noticeable, and did affect my overall satisfaction with the movie. 

Also, there's no end-end credits scene, just a mid-credits scene. So you know going in.

Overall, then, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I loved that we didn't get another Atlantis and a rip-off of Aquaman. I loved that instead of that we got a villain from a rich, existing cultural background who's motivations I understood but who, given his attitudes toward other people, could at best be an anti-hero going forward. We don't have many of those in the MCU. I love that we got Shuri as Black Panther, Ironheart, and more of the Dora Milaje. I loved the music, which followed up on Black Panther's incredible soundtrack in a way that, say, Love and Thunder absolutely failed to do. I love that the movie was willing to just let the character of T'Challa rest with Chadwick Boseman, cementing his performance as the definitive one. I loved the action sequences, the raw grief on display, and Angela Bassett's entire performance.

She was literally perfect. And I don't know if she worked out to prepare for this movie or if she's just always that cut, but either way she really sold that she was T'Challa's mother.

So overall the movie does very well. Not quite as good as the first Black Panther, I'd say, but still excellent in almost every facet. I'm not sure when we see Namor again in the MCU, but I hope it's sooner rather than later.