‘=I first watched Black Panther in a movie theater the first weekend it premiered in February 2018. The theater was more populous than normal with movie-goers wanting to see the film. In the theater I was assigned to, there were roughly 30 people attending the premiere. I chose to watch this movie, because I had been waiting on it since The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War featured sneak peaks that lead up to what was to come in Black Panther. I had also never been let down by Marvel movies, so it made sense that I go see the newest one.
I believe Black Panther has been nominated for Best Picture due to its amazing use of digital effects to simulate the beautiful lands of Wakanda and the technology advancements they harbored as well as given life and action to fight scenes. The film begins by explaining the history of Wakanda and the Black Panther before moving to 1992 to see Wakanda’s king T’Chaka visits his brother and accuses him of betraying Wakanda by giving inside information to Klaue, who stole vibranium from Wakanda. In confrontation, T’Chaka kills his brother and abandons his nephew to keep the murder a secret. We cut to the present day and T’Challa is set to become the new king of Wakanda following the death of T’Chaka during the events of Captain America: Civil War. After earning his crown by succeeding in combat, T’Challa finds out about an artifact made of vibranium stolen by an arms dealer, Klaue, from a London museum, and plans to intercept the sale of the artifact in South Korea. T’Challa is determined to bring Klaue to justice but he seems to merrily escape T’Challa’s attempts at imprisonment and ends up getting killed by N’Jadaka, son of T’Chaka’s murdered brother. T’Challa finds himself in a war between the judgement of his people at the newfound news, and the fight to keep Wakanda’s advancements a secret. T’Challa must rally his allies and make difficult decisions to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people and the rest of the world.
I would place Black Panther into the action genre because the entire movie is filled with struggle after struggle that keeps the attention of viewers. The typical stereotype of a hero’s life being perfect, then disrupted, then brought back to an equilibrium is met in this movie as T’Challa goes through challenges. T’challa also changes into a stronger person and has an epiphany due to the hardships he experienced that changes how he views the world, which is another stereotype that is expected in a movie. The director of Black Panther is Ryan Coogler who is known for directing Creed (2015) as well. Creed is a movie also starring Michael B. Jordan, the actor who plays N’Jadaka in Black Panther. Creed, much like Black panther, tells the story of a boy whose dream was to carry out his father’s legacy, which was also the goal of N’Jadaka. Other main and supporting characters in Black Panther are Okoye, leader of the Dora Milaje, T’Challa’s mother and sister, Ramonda and Shuri, and T’Challa’s ex-girlfriend, Nakia. The performances of these actor were exceptional and are what made the film believable. Each of these characters as well as T’Challa and N’Jabaka had their own personal conflicts and storylines that added to the overall complexity of the plot. They also had resolutions that either portrayed them as their true selves or changed who they were in the beginning. The MPAA rating of Black Panther is PG-13 for violence and language.
I agree with this rating because the action in the movie could be too intense for young children. The length of the movie was very adequate, but I do think there should have been some more elaboration at the end to completely resolve the film. I would strongly recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of the superhero universe or even just action movies in general. The visual effects in Black Panther are outstanding and create a sense of excitement through the movie. Throughout the film, I find myself drawn into each character, and surprised when conflicts do not end the way I expected. The movie also brings resolution to previous movies in the Marvel franchise as well as foreshadows future events in Marvel movies to come.
As far as Best Picture is concerned, Black Panther should definitely win the Oscar. Black Panther is also nominated for Best Sound Editing, Best Original Music Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design; however, I believe that it really stands out in the Best Picture Nomination. But it would not surprise me if it also won the Best Costume nomination due to the elaborate tribe costumes seen throughout the film. On a scale from unimpressive to spectacular, with unimpressive being the worst, adequate being the middle, and spectacular being the best, I would rate Black Panther as Spectacular.
