REVIEW #218 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Wakanda Forever is the highly anticipated sequel to Black Panther, set one year after the death of King T’Challa. Queen Ramonda now rules Wakanda and faces new threats from nations across the globe, without the protector (Black Panther) they must find a way to keep their people safe. 

Ryan Coogler has created one of the best sequels within the MCU, letting the humour take a backseat and pushing the emotional core straight to the forefront. The film handles Chadwick Boseman’s death beautifully and gives the late actor and his character T’Challa the send off he deserves. The opening twenty minutes or so is simply outstanding, it consists of three main sequences, each with a different vibe but they all effect you in different ways, whether it’s getting you teary eyed, giving you goosebumps or having you in awe of the performances on display. I would say it’s at least in the top three in terms of best marvel openings for sure. Now the main theme that runs through Wakanda forever is grief and mourning, I love how they tackled it, showing the different effects it has on the characters and how they choose to handle it. Now although Marvel has tackled tough subjects and had audiences in tears before, I felt like this film really broke the mould because as I mentioned earlier, the humour takes a real backseat, which isn’t the normal route for the MCU. This particularly benefited Shuri, who Letitia Wright played to absolute perfection. We see that transformation from lighthearted teenager who constantly cracks jokes, to a women broken by loss and suffering. This results in an internal psychological struggle to decide what type of person she will become and this creates a wonderful arc for Shuri. As a matter of fact, the entire cast benefit from this tonal shift, everyone gives such great performances. Angela Bassett produces more than a few amazing speeches, that reaffirms the tone and never fails to impact the audience. 

Now as we all knew from the trailer, Namor is the main antagonist for the film and I didn’t know what to expect from Tenoch Huerta, I had not seen any of his work before but I must say he knocks it out of the park! The Mayan twist works very well and the city of Talokan and it’s history was explained wonderfully, it clearly identified Namor’s motives, whilst giving him a brief origin story to provide the audience with the necessary context to the character. We have a fully fledged mutant established in the MCU now, (excluding the vagueness behind the Ms Marvel reveal!) and that’s very exciting. Like the original, Wakanda forever has a fantastic soundtrack combined with amazing cinematography and it’s a style that has become so distinctive to the Black Panther films, in a similar fashion to the unique style of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. We also see the introduction of Riri Williams and she works into the storyline nicely, contributing more than I thought to the central plot. I have to say though, I am not a fan of her suit design for the final act of the film, it gives off clunky Power Ranger vibes and I hope that changes for her solo series. So to wrap the review up, Wakanda Forever has to be one of the best MCU films for me. The emotional core is something that needs to be implemented in many other projects and it’s unique style shows that Coogler got the freedom to explore his own vision, producing a perfect send off to T’Challa and paying respects to late Chadwick Boseman. It’s a must see film and although Phase 4 has received heavy criticism, Wakanda Forever has ensured that it ended in style! I can’t wait to see what’s next for this group of characters.

Overall (9/10)

Thanks for reading.

Callan