Black Panther Wakanda Forever

Released in theaters on Nov 11, 2022

Released on Disney+ on Feb 1, 2023

Runtime: 2 Hours 41 Minutes

Rated PG-13

The sequel to Black Panther (released back in 2018) is finally out of theaters and streamable on Disney+. All of the original cast are back, except for the late Chadwick Boseman, who passed away after Endgame was filmed. Instead of trying to recast the actor Marvel brought his passing into the movie, which I think was the right thing to do. The story revolves around his family (and friends) left behind as they grieve and are forced to deal with a new enemy that wants to see the world punished for it’s sins. There is a nice memorial moment in the opening credits for Boseman and the movie starts out with the loss of King T’Challa. This is a character driven story and we watch T’Challa’s family process and grieve his passing.

Themes:

Themes in the show include family, death, doing the right thing, culture, revenge, following in a family member’s footsteps, grieving, loss, leadership, responsibility, honor, fate, terminal illness, heroes, meekness, holding back one’s strength, hatred, evil, mutants, nation’s history (good and bad), compromise, trust, dreams/goals, treason, selfishness, community, and love.

Language:

As of late it seems the Marvel Universe movies and television shows are using the “sh-t” word more. I counted at least six times it was used. There is some other cursing and name calling as is typical for an MCU movie.

Stuff to be aware of:

As with any super hero movie there is lots of fighting. People get punched, stabbed, thrown, and bleed. Lots of fighting. There are a number of shirtless men from a race that lives under water. A mother gives birth in water. There are some scenes where people are in a trance and walk off a boat to their death. It isn’t suicide, but they do this because they are controlled or in a trance.

There has been conversations on the net about Aneka (Michaela Coel) and Ayo (Florence Kasumba) being in a relationship. These characters are both female. There is a scene at the end in which one character kisses the other on the forehead and they embrace. This could be interpreted many ways, but my understanding is it is supposed to imply that they are in a relationship.

Overall:

I feel like some of the latest MCU movies have been a bit underwhelming, repetitive, and predictable. Wakanda Forever moves in a bit of a different direction than many of the other movies. Starting off the movie with the loss of a well known, loved character will do that. There are some things I think this movie did really well, and some things it didn’t. Starting with the negative: Riri’s introduction feels forced, the movie is a bit slow at times and has a lot of dialogue, it is very long, some characters seemed forced into the script to set up other things (marvel does this all the time), and the script has some pacing issues and at times tries to do too much. The positive: the character development is amazing, Shuri really struggles and her journey feels real, the grief and processing is well done, and Namor is a jerk )so they nailed that just right from the comics).

The movie I thought was good. I didn’t like it as much as the first and I got a little drowsy during the middle, but I enjoyed it. It didn’t surprise me any, it was a little predictable, but the characters and their journeys are what are really the prize here.