For me Black Panther is the strongest mini-franchise within the MCU... by a mile. While the MCU focuses on palatability to the mass market and interchangability of its vanilla characters, Black Panther is the one that challenges the status quo, tackled colonialism outright, blended elements of afro-futurism and modern blockbuster sensibilities, and built a strong cast of predominantly female characters. They could have a done a lot after the passing of star Boseman but they chose with Wakanda Forever to lean into what made the first film great and in doing so they have made a strong sequel that lives up to the original legacy and pays tribute to the lost star.
With Boseman gone the film does put its strong female characters front and centre from Shuri who takes on the title role, to Nakia who plays an even more central role than one might expect, to Okoye who earns her place as a stand out fan fave, to my personal favourite in the whole film, Queen Ramonda who stole the whole thing. Bassett is a revelation and reminds us that she should have had an Oscar by now.
Coogler shows off his strong action movie sensibilities telling a rather complicated and layered story with an accessible style while also filling it with great action set pieces. Wakanda is a crowd pleaser while also pushing our boundaries. Make no mistake, the US is the enemy here. Almost all the choices made by players here are in response to the risk the Western World poses to their homelands and the US is the front for that. Brave take in a mega blockbuster from a huge corporate studio. The film doesn't even couch this in some way out a la #notallamericans. Martin's character has to commit treason against the US to do the right thing and is likely never going home after the events of this film.
My only complaint is how much the film spends it time pitting two colonialist-resistant nations against each other so brutally. Yes I get the symbolism here and its historical significance and the film tries to make its point at the end by having them make an alliance against the real enemy at the end. But this is sort of undercut by Namor's continued bad faith negotiations right through to the end. Also the film's need to insert another male heir into the story at the very end despite setting up just how capable Shuri and the other women of Wakanda are at carrying on the Panther's legacy.
Still, Wakanda Forever is one of the MCU's strongest and most compelling films.
Black Panther Wakanda Forever
Starring: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Domnique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Angela Bassett, Michael B. Jordan, Trevor Noah, Lake Bell, Chadwick Boseman
Director: Ryan Coogler
Writers: Joe Robert Cole, Ryan Coogler
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