Black Panther (2018)

Notable Cast:
T'Challa/Black Panther- Chadwick Boseman
Erik Killmonger- Michael B. Jordan
Nakia- Lupita Nyong'o
Okoye- Danai Gurira
Everitt Ross- Martin Freeman
Shuri- Letitia Wright
Ulysses Klaue- Andy Serkis (aka Gollum from LOTR fame)
Zuri- Forrest Whitaker
Ramonda- Angela Bassett
N'Jobu- Sterling K. Brown (aka Randall from "This is Us")

Awards and Nominations:
OSCAR- Best Original Score
OSCAR- Best Costume Design
OSCAR- Best Art Direction
nomination-OSCAR- Best Original Song ("All the Stars")- lost to "Shallow" from "A Star is Born"
nomination-OSCAR- Best Sound Editing
nomination-OSCAR- Best Sound Mixing (lost both to "Bohemian Rhapsody")
nomination-OSCAR- Best Picture (lost to "Green Book")
nomination-Golden Globe- Best Picture (Drama)- lost to "Bohemian Rhapsody"
nomination-Golden Globe- Best Original Score
nomination-Golden Globe- Best Origianl Song (lost to "Shallow")

Write-up:

Yeah, after all the hype and all the awards and nominations, I didn't see this movie until over a year since it came out. I'd thought a couple times after all the accolades starting coming in that I should see it too, but just never got around to it. 
Then my dad saw it in-flight, where he sees a bunch of his movies and he said the hype was unwarranted and it made no sense. Mind you, he's not one of those people who really follow these sci-fi Marvel movies, so he's probably just the wrong audience for it. I finally just bought it on DVD. What's $20, right? 

I'd seen it twice so far and I thought it was a good time as any to write about it. I usually give movies I see on DVD the first time at least two views before I write about them, just so I can make up my mind and in case I missed any crucial details. 
My first impression was that it was really good... I just wish I was able to stay awake for more of it. It was Friday night and it'd been a long week at work where I get up at 5:30am every morning. I think i fell asleep three times and a couple times were towards the action scenes at the end. I felt like such an ass for missing so much of it. Especially cuz I was getting into.

For starters, by Marvel movie standards, it's incredible. The effects and battle sequences really have advanced over the past 10 years. So visually, this was one of the best looking movies in the franchise. Possibly the best. 
Second, the characters are very vibrant and have a lot of layers to them. Particularly the protagonist and the villian. They both have deep back stories that drive their character arcs. And it's hard to argue with the bad-ass-ery coming from the female characters.

Whether or not it deserved the best picture nomination... it depends on how you define best picture. It was a cultural phenomenon and one of the most talked about movies of last year, so in that respect, it deserved consideration. Especially since few Oscar nominated movies receieve that much viewership and box office earnings. I hate the fact a lot of movies nominated come out months before Oscar season because it's not representative of the whole year. 
But considering it's the first superhero movie to be nominated... if this is the first one to receive that honor, I'm a little skeptical. Sure, Iron-Man spent 40 minutes stuck in a cave with little story progress, but if superhero movies can get nominated for best picture Oscars, why couldn't Iron-Man get that nomination too? Sure, that was the year of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire and there were only 5 nominations at that time so it wouldn't have stood a chance anyway. But still... Part of me still feels like Black Panther only got best picture nominations because it was the most successful movie with a primarily black cast and Oscars have come under fire in recent years about not being inclusive of minorities. 

On the other hand, though, the progress towards being inclusive has been done the way it should. It's not just about having a more diverse cast. It's about writing stories for people of color to really shine and show their abilities. And lately, a lot of those types of movies have come out. They're also stories that are universal to all races. "Green Book" got some backlash for its Oscar win, but I thought that was the type of movie people would support- black and white coming together to work toward a common goal. I hadn't seen the movie, but I'd heard from friends that it's really good. 

I just watched it for a second time last night and I got a lot more out of it. Not just the fact I was awake for the whole movie this time, but there were certain lines of dialogue that resonated more this time around. Maybe because I wasn't working so hard to soak everything in. 

Right away, I really liked how many issues that this movie goes into. The opening mission (every Marvel has to have one, apparently) was giving a proper ending to something that happened in real life-- that story that prompted all of the celebrities to share Instagram photos holding the sign "Bring Back Our Girls"-- the girls in Africa that were kidnapped and forced into marriage and those that weren't Muslim were converted. In reality, there's still over 100 that haven't been rescued. But at least in this movie, they got to rewrite history and rescue 20 of them. Among them was T'Challa's ex-girlfriend, who planted herself there as a spy and even though they reached the result they wanted, she still gave him a hard time for infringed on her operation.
Just one of many examples as cool as the Black Panther is as a hero, he doesn't accomplish his feats alone. 

This is also one of those movies where you have to kinda pay attention throughout because everything does come together later and make sense. Like the opening scene where the previous Black Panther, T'Challa's father, visits two people in Detriot and one of them is played by Randall from "This is Us" and he talks about how there was a betrayal. It didn't make sense, but it turns out it does link back to the villain and why he's motivated to take over the throne. 

Going to the main two guys for a second... Chadwick Boseman has had some BIG shoes to fill in his career... he's played Jackie Robinson and James Brown (I still need to see "Get On Up"... just cuz Prince was inspired by James Brown and I hear he emulates a lot of his moves on stage)... now he's taking on a superhero role and his main movie has finally arrived. There's a line in the movie that really sums up T'Challa as a person- "you're a good man with a good heart and it's hard for a good man to be king"... he's taking over for his father, who he'd seen die in the last Captain America movie (highly regarded as Avengers 2.5 because it has nearly all of the Avengers in it), and he's trying to live up to that legacy. He's admirable because he never takes the easy way out. He tries to be just and fair. Like when people challenge him for the throne of Wakanda- he accepts their challenges because it's the proper way to do things. Even later on when the demand comes from an outsider, as crazy and sudden this is, he still goes through with it because it's best for his country. 
No matter what he's up against, he always does the right thing, something that can't be said about many of the other Avengers. 

Michael B. Jordan- I'd known him since my time watching "All My Children." I got into the show because Jesse McCartney had played J.R. Unfortunately by the time I had a chance to watch, he'd been long gone. Funny thing is finding out how Chadwick Boseman had played Reggie before Michael and he'd left the show due to conflicts with the writers. Reggie was originally a gang member adopted by Jack Montgomery and Chadwick thought it was playing to racial stereotypes. And supposedly the character evolved when it was offered to Michael. I don't remember much about him on the show except that he was protective of his family, particularly Jack's other adopted daugher Lily who has autism and struggled in several social situations. 
It's amazing to see where his career went after that, although it took a decade until he hit it big as Creed. He's really good in that role. I will say, though, I'm glad I saw Creed first. Because even though he has good reasons for being the way he is, I find his character extremely unlikeable when his intentions become clear.

There are three great female characters that kick ass in their own ways. His younger sister, Shuri, is the comic relief in several scenes, but she's super smart and designed a lot of the weapons. How she designed the Black Panther suit to come out of the fang necklace-- as much as Iron-Man's suit had advanced over the course of the movies he'd been in, Black Panther has him beat there. Not only super convenient, but it has this cool mechanism where it absorbs damage and throws it back at enemies. Nakia and Okoye from the Royal Guard are great to see fight. Okoye especially, if she and T'Challa got into a fair grappling match like he had to do to defend the throne, she'd probably kick his butt. It's funny in one scene where the three of them go to South Korea to find a piece of Vibranium stolen from a museum and she has to wear a dress and a wig and she's so over it. 

At the start of this Marvel franchise, Vibranium was just the strongest metal on Earth and a disc of it became Captain America's shield. But it's crazy how much they advanced its usage in this world. It was used to make Ultron's suit in the second Avengers movie and a lot of it had been mined for his benefit. But to find out it originated from a meteor that hit Africa and Wakanda used it to advance their society and way of life... wow... it's amazing how many uses that metal had. 

They bring up some interesting political issues too. Some more obvious than others. The scene introducing Erik Killmonger has him in a British Museum. I thought when I saw the title of the place "yeah, full of artifacts the British stole from other countries" and that's ultimately where they went with it. He makes a note of this with a pickax AND corrects a curator about its origin in the same blow. 
His devious nature also comes out when he hired someone to steal the hammer from the museum, only to kill him and bring him back to Wakanda as his ticket in. He has roots to the country and wants to take over the throne with his own agenda. And after that, he starts to become very unlikeable. Not just because he defeats T'Challa, despite the fact he'd defended the throne once already.. although I don't think I'd have supported him if he showed up that first day. But when he has them burn all the heart shaped flowers so nobody else can get the Black Panther powers... that was the breaking point for me. I understand how he wouldn't want anyone to have the ability to overthrow him... but it's not as if he's going to live forever and there won't be a need for any more Black Panthers after he dies of old age. 

Another one that's a little touchy... the reactions when T'Challa was overthrown and another Black Panther took over... Nakia wanting to overthrow Erik as soon as he won the throne in teh battle and Okoye saying how she doesn't like the guy but still is obligated to serve the throne... it brought back to the 2016 election and clearly they were leaning towards it when they wrote this part of the story. So many people were so upset about the results that riots and protests broke out and to this day, people are still #Resist... I can understand not liking someone elected to political office, but I'm under the opinion you need to eventually accept the results and move on and wait for the next election to change things. Bear in mind that 2016 happened because enough people were so sick of Obama's policies that they voted to change them... 
the scenarios between this and the movie are still not quite the same. Our election was legit because the candidates campaigned for that entire year or so opposed to the movie where an outsider suddenly burst on the scene after everything had been decided and changed things.

The biggest political issue... and it's a heavy one because there's a lot of sides to it. Wakanda is a country of great wealth and technological advancement, but it keeps all of that to itself. There are men of color throughout the world struggling and whenever they try to rise up, they're unable to overcome their oppressors. Then there's whether or not to offer refuge to displaced people. Addressing the immigration situation and racial tensions all in the same blow... I don't think a Marvel movie has made me think so much about the state of the world in a long time, if ever. 
Prince had an album called The Rainbow Children where one song ("Family Name") talked about how all the minorities coming together would make them the majority. Several other songs on that album drummed up conversations like this that make you reflect on the world and your beliefs, political, religious or otherwise. I'm not particularly a fan of this album because it leans on preachy about the Jehovah's Witness faith, something he'd become a part of and was very enthusiastic about. Not to mention his first wife Mayte wrote in her memoir about her interpretation of the album and how people from that faith worked to alienate Prince from her. A lot of fans will say it's one of his best composed albums and it is musically very strong.
Part of me is glad he's not around in this political climate, from the presidency to the R. Kelly thing... but I would have liked to hear what he had to say about Black Panther. I know he liked movies and I think he'd had a lot of great feedback about this movie and might have even written an album about things that inspired him about it. 

So overall, getting back to reality, this is a really great movie I enjoyed and I'm sure I'll get more out of it the more I watch it.