First Take: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever- the end of a era, and a tribute to a man who built it

Spoiler free as usual.

SYNOPSIS: The people of Wakanda fight to protect their home from intervening world powers as they mourn the death of King T'Challa.

It was a film which many thought should never happen out of respect to its powerful lead star. But nothing will ever stop the Disney/Marvel machine. After the untimely death of Chadwick Boseman, the sequel to 2018′s Black Panther carried a lot of expectation. Expectation which sadly really impacted what could be done with a formulaic superhero film of this nature. 

Ryan Coogler returns in the directors chair, co-writing the film once again with Joe Robert Cole- and what they are able to do considering the well-documented production issues is turn in a movie that deals with the heaviness of death, while setting the groundwork for the wider Marvel stories going into Phase 5- sadly it is a bit long for its own good, clocking in at 2 hours 41 minutes, and a script that hits the emotional highs expected but ultimately feels flat outside of the tributes to Boseman littered throughout. Ludwig Goransson returns to absolutely boss it on the score, and behind the camera is Autun Durald Arkapaw - the same DOP who worked on Loki - who really understands how to shoot the big setpieces as well as the more emotional sequences (of which there are a few).

On to the cast, and leading the charge for Wakanda’s new era is the trio of Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira, who continue their fine work within the MCU with no issues. Supporting them is Angela Bassett, Winston Duke (who reportedly added a Brian Blessed like edge to his performance as M’Baku), Martin Freeman and joining them is Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel and Tenoch Huerta- this cast have an almighty job stepping up to the high bar of the first film, and they are able to do their best with a script that has its issues. Importantly Coogler found a way to continue the franchise without the might of Boseman as T’Challa, and that is a very admirable thing indeed.

THE VERDICT

As much as Black Panther 1 was a game changer, Black Panther 2 gets the emotional core right, but struggles to nail down a coherent, well paced story. Much like the wider Phase 4 (which this film concludes), obviously more will make sense in future years, but sadly this is 2 hours 40 minutes of storybuilding for Black Panther 3 with an almighty tribute to the man who built this franchise. Rest in power Chadwick.

RATING: 3.5/5