Formula: Black Panther - Chadwick Boseman
A lot of movies have production issues that they have to work around. All
the Money in the World had to fully replace Kevin Spacey. Furious 7
had to restructure around the death of Paul Walker. I don't know what the exact
plans for The Dark Knight Rises were, but I have to assume not even
being able to mention the Joker had to affect it. However, I struggle to think
of a movie with as big a challenge as Wakanda Forever. The film lost the
centerpiece character. A machine like the MCU has contingencies to everything
except that.
Wakanda Forever doesn't make a seamless transition into a post T'Challa
(Boseman) world. The film begins by quickly establishing his absence/death and
shifts to Letitia Wright as the new lead. There's no perfect way to do this,
but the film does well enough getting over with it respectfully before moving
into the proper plot. That plot is that a secret civilization living under the
sea with access to their own vibranium deposits reveal themselves to Wakanda.
An American scientist built a device that can detect Vibranium which threatens
to expose Namor (Tenoch Huerta), their leader, and his people. They threaten
Wakanda with war against the surface world unless the Wakandans bring the
scientist to them so they can dispose of her. In all honestly, that story is a
little rough. Namor is appropriately powerful, but the logic of why his people
are so militant after years of hiding is weak. And I don't think that could be
blamed on Boseman's death.
The dirty little secret of Boseman's death is that it does give Wakanda
Forever something of a free pass. Any criticism lodged at the film has that
as a caveat. Throughout the film, I couldn't stop my brain from guessing about
changes necessitated by Boseman's death. For example, with Shuri moved to the
lead role, they introduce this scientist character (Dominique Thorne) to fill
Shuri's old role. Killmonger destroys the plant that gives Black Panthers their
strength, so they have to make a synthetic version of the plant. That doesn't
mean every issue I had would've been solved with Boseman still being alive, but
it's hard to untangle it all.
The film does OK rebalancing things without Boseman. He wasn't the most
compelling of the MCU heroes. His greatest value to Black Panther was as
the stabilizing force for the stacked cast. He could do the boring hero stuff
that let Michael B. Jordan, Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, and
others let loose. That makes him more replaceable in his franchise than, say
Tony Stark in Iron Man, but it does throw off the equilibrium. Wright
steps up nicely as the new center, and Nyong'o, Gurira, Winston Duke, and
Angela Bassett all step up their roles to help. I was disappointed that a lot
of the fun of Shuri was sanded down and replaced with grief and vengeance. I
get why. I just wish I could see a little more of the character that became a
fan favorite in the first place. I imagine she'll shine in the next Avengers
movie though. Tenoch Huerta is fine as the main antagonist. Namor has some
silly looking visuals; namely his winged feet*.
*They repeat a few times how he's so different because of the wings on his
feet and his pointed ears. I found it funny every time, because the ears are
barely even noticeable. You can stop with the winged feet part. You don't need
to keep mentioning the ears.
I was down on the first Black Panther movie versus the consensus.
While acknowledging its greater overall significance, I was annoyed by the
number of people talking about it like it still wasn't fundamentally still a
MCU movie. Wakanda Forever feels less like a MCU movie to me in that it
is much more somber and less quippy. There's still the silly mythology, people
in super suits, and the somewhat forced conflict though. The costuming remains
amazing. The film struggles to make the underwater world as compelling, but
Ryan Coogler still has unrivaled world-building above water. There are some
very cool effects using water bombs throughout, although the action sequences
did feel surprisingly small at times; especially in the climax.
In what is becoming a trend this season, the movie is absolutely longer
than it needs to be even though it flew by. Kind of like Tar, weirdly
enough. Coogler is a great filmmaker. I like seeing his work. Wakanda
Forever passes the Blade Runner 2049 test of being a world that I'm
happy to hang out in for as long as I can. The movie does drag at points
though. It's an understandable challenge. When a character dies, you need to
pause to pay respect, but how can you do that where it doesn't feel like the
entire movie is being put on hold? Wakanda Forever, while entertaining,
doesn't know how to fill that hole.
Side Thought: Am I alone in thinking that had Killmonger not been
killed in the last movie, they would've found a way to rehabilitate the character
and make him the new Black Panther and lead of this movie after Boseman's
death? Michael B. Jordan is a superhero in waiting at all times. The character
has a claim to the throne. He was a great villain because he was right about a
lot of things. There must've been a meeting at some point to see if they could
'Captain Barbosa' the character for this movie before Coogler or Jordan or someone
shut it down.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend