It was really good. Maybe not the best of MCU, but in a top part of the list.

What I liked:
- Wakanda with its Afrofuturism. That's definitely something new when it comes to superhero films and blockbusters.
- Music. Marvel improved that part of their films in the last few titles.
- Other thing that Marvel is improving is their villains. Both were quite good for different reasons.
- T'Challa and Shuri interactions. Marvel is pretty good with writing siblings as presented in Ragnarok with Thor and Loki.

What I disliked:
- T'Challa was more formidable character in Civil War than in his own film.

Spoiler

- They really should leave at least one villain alive since it's not like BP has too many of them that can carry the film. I suppose Killmonger can return as he did in the comics, exploring this part of the BP's lore.

What I disliked outside of the film (the tie-in comics and interviews):
- Suggesting that Shuri is better with tech than Tony Stark. It's my personal dislike to build up newcomers by bringing down already established characters.

 

When did they say Shuri was a better tinker than Tony?

 

Quote from one of the producers, Nate Moore:

 

Did Tony just get Worfed?

 

Logically the advantage she might have would have been a society that is at a higher base technological level than the U.S., presuming the comparison versus Stark. So she would be working off of a higher base technological level(and potentially higher quality of materials, not to mention access to unobtanium, that is, vibranium, which can apparently be leveraged to doing almost anything), but that does not mean she is actually better at utilizing or developing advancements in technology, relative to Stark's capabilities at such.

She is still, of course, likely a genius-type character, though, just on a lower level of such.

[EDIT]
Hmm, I didn't realize the developers chose to do that. It kind of detracts from their other girl-empowerment character who I just discovered when doing a search for the smartest Marvel characters (Earth-specific). Since they had already released a nine year old black girl going to public school in New York City, as the smartest character on Earth. I think I read that it was related to a latent Inhuman gene, though, which I suppose does mean that it's not technically innate like the other characters I looked up.
She, Lunella Lafayette, only came out in 2016, too, and they want to replace her so quickly? Or more likely, they don't know that she and "Devil Dinosaur" even existed. As I didn't before a few minutes ago.

That being:
1/2 Reed Richards/Doctor Doom competing for top spot
3 Hank Pym
4/5/6/7/8 Tony Stark/Bruce Banner/Peter Parker/Hank McCoy/... and apparently T'Challa
[others]

 

Watched the film on Friday. It was...ok. A pretty standard origin story. Good visuals, pretty good acting for the most part.

The thing that stood out to me, that made it not so good, was how goddamn preachy it was. I get that I'm not exactly the target audience, but it was awfully direct with the 'white people bad, black people good' thing.

@Fenraellis I assume you're talking about the comics when you mention them bringing out a 'smartest character on earth' last year. I think we have to remember that 1) the comics and the films are being made by different people, and 2) the circle of folk who read, let alone care about, the comics is dramatically smaller than the circle of folk who watch the films.

 

We must have watched a very different movie, because I don't recall any preachiness about white people vs black people. Maybe Killmonger's scene in the museum complaining about how the British stole things for their museums could kind of count, but that was coming from the villain, and right before he and Klaue did a whole bunch of gleefully sadistic murdering that rather undermined whatever point he had.

Hell, the entire central message of Killmonger's character was "Obsessing over past wrongs, however legitimate, will turn you into a toxic hate-filled monster."

 

Obviously different folk are going to take different things from the same film. But I certainly felt it was a message that was coming from more than just Killmonger, it was clearly written to be very preachy in order to appeal to a certain audience demographic.

 

Yeah, I can see why the movie would give that impression with its 'stupid Americans' and 'colonizer' jokes. It got a little defensive in its celebration of the African culture, but to be fair, historically they have been oppressed. Even so, I didn't get the impression that it was implying white people were bad or anything of the sort, hell, a white guy took a bullet for Shuri and had a vital role in stopping a disaster of their own making. The message of cooperation was loud and clear I think.

 

I haven't seen it yet, but I have a big problem with the idea of a MCU character being smarter than Tony Stark. Lest we forget:



It wasn't the clunky suit he was talking about there. It was the miniature Arc Reactor.

 

Did this thing '16yo we never heard of and likely won't be central to the main plots being smarter than literally The Smart Guy of the Avengers' even serve a purpose on the movie or the producer said that just for lols? She can't be just very smart by herself, she has to better than Stark?

https://www.cbr.com/black-panther-suit-tech-iron-man/ apparently that's irrelevant.

 

So the argument that she's smarter than Tony basically comes down to the idea that she has access to a metal that is actual magic and can only be found in her backyard. I see no reason to think Tony wouldn't build something better if he had his own Vibranium mine. He's already created a stable element that didn't exist on the periodic table beforehand.

 

I am not sure if I would call it preachy but to me at least one of the central points of the movie was clearly "look how much better Africa (and in some ways the world) would be if it weren't for the westerners/colonizers" which is certainly a valid argument to make but one that in my opinion was executed a bit too bluntly. But then again this is primarily an action superhero movie so it wasn't that surprising.


And I have to admit that I couldn't care less about who is supposed to be smarter than everybody else, especially since the primary measurement of how smart somebody in the MCU seems to be the power/destructiveness of her or his weapons which hints a what I think is a generally pretty limited idea of what being smart/intelligent actually means.

 

Good lord.

 

Saw it yesterday and really liked it. Probably the best origin story movie Marvel did so far, certainly one of its better movies. Wakanda was a fun place, really liked the ceremonial stuff and I have a thing for spear wielding fighters so I was well served on that front. Shuri and M'Baku took over the scenes whenever they appeared and were the most fun characters in the movie. Had a few laugh out loud moments and action was pretty good.

Kinda dragged a bit in places but overall, had an enjoyable time in the movies. Never felt preachy to me and the message "western nations did some shitty things but that doesn't mean being shitty right back when we can is the right answer" is pretty tame as far as these things go and hard to imagine to object to that.

 

Saw it last night and liked it, though I thought the talk of it being the "best Marvel movie ever" – even just of the recent ones, I thought Thor: Ragnarok and Spiderman: Homecoming were better.

Was I the only one who thought it's strange that Wakanda is a super-advanced society that still uses spears, and settles succession disputes with fights to the death?

Spoiler

I am also annoyed that Marvel keeps killing villains. Erik Killmonger was one of the first Marvel villains with understandable motivations (the other being the Vulture from Spiderman). Would have been nice to keep him around. I also liked Andy Serkis' brand of cheerful sociopathy a lot, and would have liked to see him be a side-bad guy in future movies.

Martin Freeman, who was less a character and more a plot device, I could give or take.

 

This was my favorite since Winter Soldier. Best origin story since Iron Man IMO.

Feel like people were calling it "the most important Marvel movie ever" more as to the social impact. The idea of representation on screen doesn't mean much to white folks (why should it), but can mean the world to other ethnic groups. Seeing people that look like you doing dope shit can be fucking awesome for kids. This as opposed to seeing people that look like you relegated (a lot of the time) to comic relief, or not at all. Marvel has historically been pretty good about that with both War Machine and Falcon, but they're sidekicks in the MCU. Will it change the world? No. But then most black folks don't think it will either. It's just cool to see people they can more superficially relate to be awesome on screen. It's a celebration of differences, culturally and otherwise, with a message of unity weaved throughout.

Killmonger was GREAT. His final line, while undoubtedly preachy to some, damn near had me in tears. Would've been great to see him without the sociopathic tendencies to make the audience think a bit more regarding his motives, but this was still a superhero movie after all. Top end Marvel villain for me alongside Vulture from Spiderman.

I actually didn't like Shuri that much, but that's more because I find the endlessly sarcastic, super smart trope to be played out. I'm not the biggest Tony Stark fan either.

Wakanda was lovely to look at. As someone who isn't familiar with the comics, learning a bit about the diverse factions/clans was cool AF.

Would've like T'Challa to be a bit more of a badass without the Panther serum. Mountain homie was giving him the business a bit too much for my liking. I understand in the comics that Killmonger is just straight up a better fighter than him, however.

The royal guards were dope, as was Martin Freeman in his limited role. He was playing off literally everyone else, and managed to turn in a solid performance with a good message being carried through his character. Loved Lupita N'yongo's character, and her foil for T'Challa, but I don't think she's ever turned in a poor performance.

tldr: going to see it at least two more times then download it.

 

In my opinion the only problem with this line is that it was said in the film by the character who definitely believe in it, but is in no position to use that comparison without being called on it. There is a big difference between chains of slavery and getting detained for being a war criminal.

 

I guess the representation thing feels played out to me because he's not even the best black Marvel hero...

#BringBackBlade
#JusticeForWesley
#WhyAmISpeakingInHashtags?

 

Just came back from the cinema, so those are very raw impressions. The sociocultural aspects have already been addressed above, so I’m not going to go into that right now. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable film. The cast was great, and Martin Freeman acted the heck out of his role. Andy Serkis was brilliant as well, and the chemistry between Boseman and Letitia Wright was outstanding. Daniel Kaluuya is great in everything, anyways. Can’t believe how far he’s come from when I first saw him in Johnny English: Reborn…

The visuals were obviously stunning, the direction and editing were well done. The only thing that didn’t quite sit right with me was the freefall towards the end. That looked fake.

Now for the parts that I didn’t like. The film is a bit long in places, but that is a negligible complaint. Heavy spoilers inbound…

Spoiler

T’Challa’s sudden turnaround in his policy towards giving up Wakandian protectionism felt a bit forced (I got the impression that they might have cut a scene or two between him and his love interest on that issue before Killmonger showed up). It’s one thing to bring Agent Ross back to Wakanda to prevent certain death, and quite another to give up a belief system that has held for what we are led to believe has been thousands of years. The total obedience the military showed to Killmonger, who was essentially an outsider usurper, was also slightly grating. It’s understandable to support one’s king, but I would have liked a scene or two more on this, especially regarding W’Kabi’s repeated flip-flopping. His motivation consists of easily missable details, and felt not at all organic. His character arc – including the barely mentioned romance with General Okoye – was completely butchered, imo.

All in all, an 8.5/10 and, despite its (perceived) flaws in the storytelling department, a status as one of my favourite Marvel films. Definitely on par with Ragnarok for me.

And now, the long wait for April…