My first movie review. I’m going to be vague as to not ruin this movie for others. I’m aware the films political popularity but going to base it on the film itself.

Got to see this today. Place was crowded as rumored but the crowd wasn’t too bad of a disturbance. Enjoyed the film. Enjoyed the characters. The film was action packed. Can’t wait for the sequel if one ever comes out. Going to add this to my movie collection when it comes out on dvd.  

Thought the movie could’ve been cut shorter. You can tell the length of the movie affected the story such as the end fight sequence btw the protagonist and villain (didn’t foreshadow something prior).

This is my two cents. Can’t wait for others opinion on the film.
Gabe

I saw it last night in 4DX (where the chairs move, and you get blasted with wind and water depending on the scene to replicate the onscreen experience).

It was OK.

It was a generic superhero film. There was no innovation in the fight scenes, or in the plot. The acting was largely wooden, with everyone trying so hard to stick to their African accents, when they're all either American or English, they didn't have time to actually act.


It all felt very stale, to me.

The "baddie of the week" formula, who always die, so you never get a sense of growth or continuity, the lack of humour and character development.

It took elements of the Lion King, Avatar and others and never found an identity of its own.


In terms of its politics, it was pretty racist to both black and white people. It exists in that mythical, left wing world where all white people were slave owners and all black people have been enslaved by white people. Where all the problem of the world are caused by whites, and all blacks are part of some homogeneous ethnic group, undivided by culture or opinion.

Written by Identity Politics Edict, the film didn't know whether it was trying to bring people together, or start a race war.

In one sentence the"villain" decries that "our people" [2 billion black people]are being oppressed, and in the  very next sentence says that as everyone is "descended from Africans, isn't everyone our people"?


Well, yes. Pick a side.


The increasing problem with the politicisation of films is that if people are going to preach, then the film must be taken as a political manifesto, rather than just as entertainment.

As such, it's message was extremely confused:

They tried to portray Wakanda as some kind of Utopia, with the blueprint to save the whole world, when it's portrayal was of a racist, bigoted, isolationist kingdom, running on a hereditary, patriarchal system where decisions are made by the most violent. They had been fighting amongst themselves for centuries, and had a full out civil war by the end. Despite their resources, the rich still lived in Palaces that nearly touched the stratosphere, whilst the poor lived in pretty, but tiny, shanty little towns....there is absolutely nothing to learn from them.

Their only positives come from the genius of the young sister, and their access to a magical resource.

Just give us the sister and your resources, and keep your Tribalism. Colonial style. The film actually makes that side of the argument more strongly, which is somewhat ironic.

That, perhaps, is the problem when Western writers, whatever their colour, try to write about other cultures. They don't realise just how Western they really are.


Disappointing.

The worst of the Marvel Universe movies by a long distance, but still enjoyable.

It's very a generic story truth be told. It's not bad but not nearly as great as everybody proclaims. Scar Tissue is spot on with the comments above.

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films The increasing problem with the politicisation of films is that if people are going to preach, then the film must be taken as a political manifesto, rather than just as entertainment. As such, it's message was extremely confused:

To me, this is backwards. The fact that the "politics" of recent films are incoherent is a feature, not a bug. I think that instead, the "politics" of a film should increasingly be considered an "aesthetic" or marketing feature. These films are made to be sold in a world where a pretty big group of people likes arguing about politics, but roughly the same as ever (very small) group of people likes actively thinking about politics.

In earlier times, films like Dirty Harry were clear, concise, and coherent in their politics. Today, I think it's relatively rare to see a coherent political message even in overtly "political" films -- was there any actual political thinking in, I dunno, The Post, for instance?

If you take recent blockbusters as political manifestos, all you get is that every single one of them is confused and incoherent. If you take them as the same market-tested junk food as always, but now in a world where people are more excited by the aesthetics of politics (the topic but not the ideas, as it were), what you get is that they're the same formula as always -- money first, with movies incidentally being sometimes good and sometimes bad. The latter is more convincing, to me.

I had a weird experience watching Black Panther in that I couldn't fault it at all, it was superbly crafted, but I found myself drifting quite often. If id' have been watching this on Blu-Ray, I would have been tempted to hit the fast-forward button several times. I actually found it quite dull and wasn't engaging at all. My wife even fell asleep!

But, it's fast approaching the number 1 Marvel spot and everyone seems to love it so it must just have been me, or maybe the mood I was in when I saw it. However, I do not feel any desire to watch it again.

Quoted from MarkRenshaw I had a weird experience watching Black Panther in that I couldn't fault it at all, it was superbly crafted, but I found myself drifting quite often. If id' have been watching this on Blu-Ray, I would have been tempted to hit the fast-forward button several times. I actually found it quite dull and wasn't engaging at all. My wife even fell asleep! But, it's fast approaching the number 1 Marvel spot and everyone seems to love it so it must just have been me, or maybe the mood I was in when I saw it. However, I do not feel any desire to watch it again.

I would say that the reason it was a bit boring were twofold.

1. Weak forces of antagonism. Andy Serkis was not in it long enough to matter. Killmonger was more relatable than The Black Panther.

2. No stakes. It was all to do with a world that didn't exist and so, doesn't matter. If each and every character had died, or Wakanda collapsed.. Who cares?

Saw this...or attempted to see this, over the Holidays with kids.

At first...and pretty much as long as I lasted, I was clueless as to what in the world was going on and why.  Once the kids told my girlfriend and I what we were missing, I decided no more questions were necessary, because there weren't going to be logical answers available.

We fought as hard as we could to stay awake and into this film, but alas, we're only human, and IMO, this is a terrible, senseless film with cheap looking FX and a plot that is so simple, yet so absurd.

I don't want to rile any feathers around here, but it's shocking to me that any adult or even child over 12 would enjoy this.

Grade - D-

Quoted from Dreamscale Saw this...or attempted to see this, over the Holidays with kids. At first...and pretty much as long as I lasted, I was clueless as to what in the world was going on and why.  Once the kids told my girlfriend and I what we were missing, I decided no more questions were necessary, because there weren't going to be logical answers available. We fought as hard as we could to stay awake and into this film, but alas, we're only human, and IMO, this is a terrible, senseless film with cheap looking FX and a plot that is so simple, yet so absurd. I don't want to rile any feathers around here, but it's shocking to me that any adult or even child over 12 would enjoy this. Grade - D-

Jeff - I agree. It was tedious

Ha, looking above, I never weighed in on the movie itself.

It was boring crud. They all are, but it was worse.

The challenge fight was fun, though, even if they couldn't properly set up the stakes.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who didn't enjoy this film. Incredibly over hyped.

Zack

To Hollywood, having a black cast in a superhero film is a gimmick that sells in today's climate. They don't give a shit about anything else.