King to Queens
Director Ryan Coogler heads back to Wakanda without the king, with a headache for a lead, and the weight of the MCU on his shoulders.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Director: Ryan Coogler • Writers: Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole
Starring: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Wintson Duke, Dominique Thorne, Florence Kasumba, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, Angela Bassett
USA • 2hrs 41mins
Opens Hong Kong November 9 • IIA
Grade: B-
Director Ryan Coogler has his work cut out for him. If he thought the expectations placed on 2018’s Black Panther – its success or failure was being carefully watched by industry heavyweights, as was its ability or inability to represent all Black people everywhere (hahahaha, sure, no problem) – were sky high, he’s likely intensely aware they’re even higher for round two. A round for which he’s lost his leading man, the Black Panther himself Chadwick Boseman, who sadly died in The Shittiest Year (2020). He’s probably also aware of how sequels to surprise megahits (defined as films without all wypipo in them) tend to follow a pattern: Do the same thing, but bigger, louder and longer. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Wonder Woman 1984 and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (whose title isn’t nearly as witty as it thinks it is) were all obnoxious, exhausting hot messes that murdered whatever charm their respective first entries had, despite being steered by their original masterminds – James Gunn, Patty Jenkins and Lord & Miller.
And let’s admit it: Even though there’s been plenty of cash earned, the shine is off the MCU. For a lot of us, the series ended with Avengers: Endgame, and Kevin Feige’s sandbox isn’t the cool kid anymore. The entries in so-called Phase 4 have been middling: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder all evoked a massive “Meh.” Black Widow is best known for getting its ass sued by Scarlet Johansson. Spider-Man: No Way Home (yes, yes, it’s technically Sony) was mostly just fanservice and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings… was a movie. Wakanda Forever is the end of Phase 4, and part of its job is to get us all excited for Phase 5. So where does Coogler land with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever? On shaky ground, but it would be even shakier if he didn’t have one of the strongest rosters of incredible female talent carrying the movie for him. I mean, this is a serious list of queens.
Not a job I want
Let’s start at the top. Coogler is saddled with a problematic lead in Letitia Wright as Shuri, King T’Challa’s little scientist sister (oh, the irony), a character that, it turns out, is best taken in small doses. Admittedly, that’s not her fault; she was forced into a position as the accidental star of a major franchise tentpole. But accident or otherwise, she lacks Boseman’s charisma, grace, inherent wit, and seriousness, and without it, there’s not a whole lot to latch onto with Shuri.
Moving down the list, we have yet another villain serving up weak tea. Shuri’s antagonist is s spin on the comics’ Sub-Mariner, King Namor (relative newcomer Tenoch Huerta, sporting some awesome or horrifying high-waisted green swimming trunks, depending on your POV) of the vaguely Incan Talokan, Marvel’s version of Atlantis. Namor’s underwater kingdom is threatened by assorted government and CIA types who are butt hurt that an African nation has control of a valuable natural resource and won’t share, so they’re going full-on in surveying for it beyond Wakanda’s borders. Turns out vibranium is native to Talokan too, and the Talokan most definitely do not want anyone getting up in their bizniz. They reveal themselves and go to Wakanda for help – and wind up getting into a spat that ends in conflict. Given the state of the world right now, pitting a Black nation against and Native American nation is… uncomfortable.
This is essentially a drama about grief wrapped around a story about war with singing fishpeople. We start with T’Challa dying suddenly from an undisclosed illness. As Wakanda mourns, Queen Mother Ramonda (Q1 Angela Bassett, just… fabulous) returns to the throne. One of her first accomplishments is catching France sneaking into a Wakandan outreach facility to steal vibranium. The Dora Milaje – led by General Okoye (Q2 Danai Gurira) and her lieutenants Ayo (Q3 Florence Kasumba, even more fabulous) and Aneka (Q4 Michaela Coel, I Shall Destroy You) – hand the mercenaries their asses, then dump them on the floor of the UN for Ramonda, who proceeds to read the UN for filth about double standards. It. Is. Glorious, and for a few minutes, it looks like Wakanda Forever will avoid the curse. Bassett commands the screen like few can, and she almost singlehandedly steers Coogler’s ship where it needs to go. Alas, neither of them can keep the Marvel machine at bay quite the way Coogler did the first time around. The product/spectacle starts seeping in when the Talokan kidnap Shuri after she finds the “scientist” who built the CIA’s vibranium finder: MIT student Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne, If Beale Street Could Talk), a mad genius inventor à la Tony Stark, who builds her own Iron Man-type suit to help in the Wakanda-Talokan war. She takes the name Ironheart: look for the Disney+ series coming soon. No, seriously. It’s coming in 2023.
More M’Baku, please
Can they have their own movie?
What does save Wakanda Forever from being a drab, silly (and this one is supremely silly) Marvel slog is its willingness to lean into grief, and deal with it head on – easily the first MCU film to really tackle loss on a personal, intimate level. Ramonda, Shuri, Okoye and mostly retired superspy Nakia (Q5 Lupita Nyong’o) each have their way of dealing with the loss of T’Challa, and Coogler and returning co-writer Joe Robert Cole let the characters breathe in those moments, some of the film’s strongest. They range from rage to stoicism, seeking comfort in the trappings of tradition to withdrawal from the world, and each is entirely right. Wright’s at her best in these sequences, especially the closing frames when Shuri takes a moment to finally let herself feel sorrow. Her arc, which could have been swifter, from reluctant regent to Princess in line to lead Wakanda, searching for the right guidance, propels the story but her quiet tears are far more affecting. There’s extra heft in all these facets, too, knowing that Boseman’s not absent because of a salary dispute, or because he dodged a vaccine mandate. Coogler essentially is letting us all grieve again, if for a little too long.
But that emotional elegance can’t withstand the Hand of the MCU and the ridiculous anti-physics nature of the low-stakes boss fight at the not-so-exciting conclusion. Despite Coogler and Cole’s pithy commentary about the the legacy of empire (not just in Africa), our continued Eurocentrism (AKA “whitey’s in charge-ism”) and how geopolitical balances of power can shift, much of Wakanda Forever feels like a cog in the Marvel wheel. The narrative clears the table and racks for the next film – Winston Duke’s totally engaging and agitating Jabari chief M’Baku gets a few scant minutes to shit-disturb again – and so goes off a cliff by the midway point: It’s all Coogler – the senstive observationalist of Fruitvale Station and Creed – until a HUGE Act 2 moment, then Feige & Co. the rest of the way. By the end of the closing credits we all know where Black Panther 3 is heading. It’s just not on the docket yet. But hey! Black Panther: Wakanda Forever coaxed new music from Q6 Rihanna. So, props for that. — DEK
Black Powers
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The Meteor Man (1993), d: Robert Townsend
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Blade (1998), d: Stephen Norrington
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