Wakanda Forever (2022)

 

So the biggest release to come from Marvel Studios is "Wakanda Forever" starring Angela Bassett, Lititia Wright, Lupita Nyongo'o, Danai Gurira & Tenoch Huerta.  To say that the film is an ambitious foray into the Marvel Universe is an understatement. The film is directed by Ryan Coogler who directed the first Black Panther movie with Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther.  Mr. Coogler to his credit did not recast Boseman's character.  Both Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole wrote the screenplay of the second one, and in it they tell of the Black Panther's death by an illness.  After all how can you recast Chadwick Boseman?  Boseman played Black Panther with such grace and charisma that it is almost impossible to think of re-casting the film. Yet life continues & for the studio needs to continues the franchise and after all business is business.   Instead of permanently using Lititia character to become the Black Panther they  use her character as a transition.  Yes she becomes the Black Panther but she re-creates the flower that gives Black Panther his agility & strength.   In the 2018 film Black Panther's nemesis Eric Killmonger played by Michael B. Jordon destroys the flower and where it is grown. So Disney can now be assured of Black Panther  throughout the coming years replacing him or her when it suits the storyline & their budget.  Making movies these days is an expensive proposition and Disney who has the rights needs the franchise to continue since the original Black Panther grossed $1.38 billion worldwide.  With that box office it is advantages for Disney to continue the franchise.  It did hit a particular zeitgeist when it premiered in 2018.  The sequel has already hit $202 million in its domestic weekend opener.  So the sequel is already on its way to becoming a juggernaut in earning serious box office.

But is the film good?  That all depends.  The film is rated PG-13, so like this weekend many families are going to the theater to see it.  I saw it with very young children who may have not been the ideal audience to bring since they were a bit noisy, but in a way it's fun watching & hearing the young ones cheering on their hero or in this case heroine.  The movie clocks in at 2 hours and 41 minutes, and it would behoove you to watch for the end-credit scene.  It sets up for ALL the next Blank Panther films.  In my opinion it is not a movie for very young ones to see.  It was hard for a lot of them to be quiet when the quieter scenes happened.  After all we were all young at once and at that young it's hard to keep young kids interested in talky dialogue. BUT! And I say that with a big but.  It's a super hero movie.  The young ones will LOVE the action.  So be fore warned, but please don't get angry at the young ones they're just seeing their super hero kick some butt, and you're only young once.  A really great idea would be to rent the movie theater & invite all their friends.  I do believe that the theater I saw it in (AMC theaters) did that for a showing, and it was closed to that particular group, which isn't too bad if you and some other families can chip in for the cost of reserving the theater.

Back to the movie.  Was it fun, yes!  Was it a good story? Yes.  I really liked the film as it mixed the action with a theme of meditation of loss and grief.  It had meaning to anyone who has lost someone they loved and in that way the film succeeds in an unparalleled way as compared to the first film. What I did not like is the films pacing.  It seemed way too long and a bit over-hyped.  Surely the filmmakers could have made it more tighter.  I have no problem with long movies but pacing matters and their were 3 editors involved with the editing of this film.  Trust me I counted, which astounded me.   I do know origin stories take a bit longer, but the original Black Panther film was 2 hours and 14 minutes.  It was tighter and more focused.  The length in "Wakanda Forever" may have something to do with re-imaging of the Black Panther franchise and making way for future actors & actresses to take the mantle  of "The Black Panther".  Ala the James Bond franchise.  Hence the slower parts of this movie  & what I call the soliloquy of the film.  Not great for younger audiences but it certainly adds to the story and why the character's do what they do. In an era of block busters I'm sure this will help the franchise, but one cannot serve two masters.  In this film we serve the story & it's corporate masters (Disney/Marvel).  By doing both you have an uneven mess. 

It's a neat trick that in the story the enemy (Namo or Tenoch Huerta Mejía) provides Shuri (Letitia Wright's character) the ingredient that will help her grow the flowers that create the black panther.  Yet it was no secret & I saw it coming as soon as Namo handed her that bracelet.    It is an imaginative and smart plot point while all at the same time it serves Disney's future plans for the franchise.  I guess this lengthened the film but in no way is it better for it.  The actors are ALL stellar.  The dream cast was there.  The makers of the film should have trusted its audience in inferring things and not explaining them to death for us.  Yet I enjoyed the film.

Does that make sense?  Because I can understand why it may not.  Watching great actors in a story that is both heartbreaking and action packed is a difficult thing to do. Explain too much & you ruin the pacing, but don't explain enough & you loose your audience.  I just felt that there was something they could have done that would have worked without loosing the films pacing & quickening the stories pace.  Maybe it would have been better as two films?  Letitia's character is worth exploring more, yet we only see her as a one dimensional character.  Of course a more in-depth look into her grief and relationship to T'Challa would of been interesting, and would gives the film a more serious tone.  Maybe use shots or scenes with Boseman & Wright's character that may have not been used in the first movie.  This is of course all guess work since I have no knowledge of what they used and what they had.  Maybe they did not have the material to do so.  But it would make a very much more interesting movie and I believe it would have strengthened it.

This film is also a love letter to Chadwick Boseman who passed in 2020.  He was a gifted actor who was extraordinary & all who worked on this film knew that and wanted to give him a proper send off.  At the end the movie we are given clips of Mr. Boseman  as T'Challa/Black Panther and we all can see how wonderful an actor he was and what a loss it is for us to not have him around.  The film is about sorrow and loss, and how poignant it is that we see this film nearing the end of the pandemic.  The film is familiar to it's audience because it's audience has lived with loss for the past two years.  "Wakanda Forever" is a film for our times & it could only have been made at this particular time and this particular moment. I think that's why I enjoyed it.  I felt the pain of loss.  We as a collective understand loss.  The film shows this without preach to us.  For an audience to identify with Wright's charter as she struggles with the death of her brother.  To do all this is why the film seems off.  These are all valid and complicated emotions.  To fit it all these themes and narratives in one film is very hard to do, yet the film manages to do so.  It just does it a bit clumsily.  

So if you have a child who loves super-hero's and who enjoys their exploits go see "Wakander Forever".  It's more then just a super hero movie it's a life lesson for our times.   At the end of the film you will feel invigorated because just like it's characters life continues on even though some do not. That is the hardest lesson to take from this film.  In the end you'll also believe:  WAKANDA is FOREVER and Black Panther LIVES on, and after all isn't that why you came to see this film to smile and be entertained by our hero's who live to fight another day.