Black Panther (2018)
In about an hour I'm going to lose the desktop computer I use at home for the next week so, I guess we have to talk about Black Panther!
Non spoilery review: I enjoyed it a lot.
1. Let's get the disclaimers out of the way first. This movie is a fantasy created by and for U.S. audiences about a foreign country (however imagined) that's located on a real continent and relies on real cultural attributes. I am... extremely wary of whenever that happens, but I'm no kind of authority on how well/poorly this movie did in terms of the larger context of the MCU, U.S. cultural imperialism and African SF/F. I'm SUPER looking forward to reading the articles and analyses of this stuff written by people who are way more qualified to talk about this than I am.
2. MY GOD I ENJOYED THIS MOVIE. Someone said it was a good movie to watch if you generally didn't enjoy superhero movies, and I kind of agree? In a way it broke the Marvel mold plotwise and did its own thing and also felt extremely self-contained. In the best way, since Marvel's formula at this point is OLD AND TIRED and this was a fresh way to do it.
We join the hero when he's already a hero despite this being an origins film! His drama is political as well as personal (and not in the ideologically hollow way that that plays out in various Thor movies)! It's fantasy tropes that engage with real world oppression!
3. Honestly though this movie is head and shoulders above the rest, for me, because it had something to fucking SAY. Like it was stunning and action-y and everything was fun and the people were pretty and there was a fast paced plot but it was also... ABOUT something. Aside from the hero's personal drama or 100% made up politics. It was about ISSUES. And it didn't treat those issues with horrifying wrongness like the X-Men movies having Erik destroy Auschwitz. I'm not kind of authority on whether they succeeded in engaging with the issues they were trying for but at least they TRIED and it was so fucking refreshing to see.
I've MISSED that. SO MUCH. I think the last time Marvel did that was with the first Iron Man, and the last time I saw it in the cinema was with Wonder Woman. Movies that DARE TO TRY AND SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE WORLD. I know people are ranking Black Panther up there with Winter Soldier but for me there's NO COMPETITION. Winter Soldier was, at best, a well executed action-adventure film. Black Panther is SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT.
It's Tony Stark being accused of "war profiteering" and KNOWING HE'S GUILTY. It's Wonder Woman saying to the traumatized WWI sniper "but who will sing for us?" and it's Erik in Black Panther saying "bury me in the ocean with the slaves who knew death was better than bondage". It's having something real to say, besides Look At This Cool Character Doing A Thing.
I don't expect every action movie to have it, but MY GOD it's fucking glorious when one does. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the last two movies to try do that have been made by directors and starring actors from marginalized communities who had to wait a decade or more to see themselves in this universe.
4. In general, I think it's such unspeakable bullshit that Marvel and DC are churning out the billionth movie starring a white guy (still going strong! Just saw the trailer for Venom the other day!) but movies like Wonder Woman and Black Panther have to be five billion times better than the rest to "prove" they're viable and justified. SUCH UNSPEAKABLE BULLSHIT.
5. THE WOMEN IN THIS. THE WOMENNNNNNNNNNN. This story could have so easily been about T'Challa and the Challenges of Manhood, with all his kingly dilemmas, but instead it's T'Challa and his mother the adviser, his baby sister who develops and supplies all his tech, his ex-girlfriend who's his chief collaborator and has her own career as a spy, his bodyguard who is one of the greatest warriors of the realm. MY GOD. MY GODDDDDDDDDD.
I still want more movies starring women but LET ME TELL YOU if every male superhero had this many women around him we'd be a lot better off than we currently are in the MCU.
6. OK so like, I know a lot of people who were excited about Erik/Killmonger from the trailers and ended up not being super excited about him after the movie, for a variety of reasons.
But I just. Look, I can't love Magneto as much as I love him and not love this Erik as well. They're the same sort of villain, except Black Panther does a billion times better in contextualizing Erik's trauma and ideology.
Basically, extremely competent, extremely damaged and traumatized by systemic oppression and violence Eriks are my jam, I guess.
I JUST. I understand why they decided to kill Erik (even though it goes against EVERYTHING MARVEL EVER DOES with their villains and the fact that they got rid of SUCH A GOOD VILLAIN with Erik is SUCH UTTER BULLSHIT but anyway), his death was powerful and in some ways necessary and the fact that T'Challa (sort of) tried to save him and Erik forbade it has meaning within the text.
Erik's life, his very existence as a child in-between is symbolic of the price of Wakanda's non-interference policy and at same the time of the role of slavery in building the U.S. To save him at the last moment would imply that those crimes are absolve-able, that the damage can be undone, but it can't. Erik has to die because there's no way to cancel-out the misery and injustice that consumed his life.
All of this is true, and at the same time, in fanfic, I want us to all forget that scene ended the way it did and agree that T'Challa TOTALLY dragged his ass to the hospital and Erik was saved and then I want one billion fics about him slowly recovering from his trauma and exploring his identity as the son of the country that left him behind.
I especially want him to do that re: T'Challa because apparently for the first time EVER I am on the "don't care that they're cousins, it's still hot" train like WHOA. (I mean, the more I think about it, the more Erik/T'Challa reminds me of Erik/Charles from X-Men except again, done in a LESS IDIOTIC WAY than the X-Men movies did it, so. I have a type, what can I say.)
Also: Michael B. Jordan, who I've loved for many years, is just SO UNSPEAKABLY GOOD and I JUST. Every instance of Erik being unshakable, like he's stared down hell and survived, so what could possibly scare him, is just. Him humiliating T'Challa in their battle at the waterfall, going "is this your king?" I JUST. I need resolution between them OK. REAL RESOLUTION not a battle to the death.
Basically, PLEASE GIVE ME ALL YOUR ERIK PROMPTS and/or ERIK/T'CHALLA PROMPTS (or Erik/anyone else prompts!) because I desperately want to write some smut about this whole situation.
7. Anyway, I enjoyed that movie a lot and I can't believe next installment we have to go back to the Avengers where I have to give a shit about Steve and Bucky and Thor and Starlord again. (Bruce and Tony can stay, although I'd still rather just have a Black Panther 2 coming out in the summer.)
(The after credits scene of this movie was actually probably the time I've enjoyed Bucky the most out of all his MCU tenure? IDK how I'm so totally apathetic to that dude, when he's everything I like in a character on paper? I blame the actor for just... canceling out my interest completely.)
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Non spoilery review: I enjoyed it a lot.
1. Let's get the disclaimers out of the way first. This movie is a fantasy created by and for U.S. audiences about a foreign country (however imagined) that's located on a real continent and relies on real cultural attributes. I am... extremely wary of whenever that happens, but I'm no kind of authority on how well/poorly this movie did in terms of the larger context of the MCU, U.S. cultural imperialism and African SF/F. I'm SUPER looking forward to reading the articles and analyses of this stuff written by people who are way more qualified to talk about this than I am.
2. MY GOD I ENJOYED THIS MOVIE. Someone said it was a good movie to watch if you generally didn't enjoy superhero movies, and I kind of agree? In a way it broke the Marvel mold plotwise and did its own thing and also felt extremely self-contained. In the best way, since Marvel's formula at this point is OLD AND TIRED and this was a fresh way to do it.
We join the hero when he's already a hero despite this being an origins film! His drama is political as well as personal (and not in the ideologically hollow way that that plays out in various Thor movies)! It's fantasy tropes that engage with real world oppression!
3. Honestly though this movie is head and shoulders above the rest, for me, because it had something to fucking SAY. Like it was stunning and action-y and everything was fun and the people were pretty and there was a fast paced plot but it was also... ABOUT something. Aside from the hero's personal drama or 100% made up politics. It was about ISSUES. And it didn't treat those issues with horrifying wrongness like the X-Men movies having Erik destroy Auschwitz. I'm not kind of authority on whether they succeeded in engaging with the issues they were trying for but at least they TRIED and it was so fucking refreshing to see.
I've MISSED that. SO MUCH. I think the last time Marvel did that was with the first Iron Man, and the last time I saw it in the cinema was with Wonder Woman. Movies that DARE TO TRY AND SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE WORLD. I know people are ranking Black Panther up there with Winter Soldier but for me there's NO COMPETITION. Winter Soldier was, at best, a well executed action-adventure film. Black Panther is SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT.
It's Tony Stark being accused of "war profiteering" and KNOWING HE'S GUILTY. It's Wonder Woman saying to the traumatized WWI sniper "but who will sing for us?" and it's Erik in Black Panther saying "bury me in the ocean with the slaves who knew death was better than bondage". It's having something real to say, besides Look At This Cool Character Doing A Thing.
I don't expect every action movie to have it, but MY GOD it's fucking glorious when one does. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the last two movies to try do that have been made by directors and starring actors from marginalized communities who had to wait a decade or more to see themselves in this universe.
4. In general, I think it's such unspeakable bullshit that Marvel and DC are churning out the billionth movie starring a white guy (still going strong! Just saw the trailer for Venom the other day!) but movies like Wonder Woman and Black Panther have to be five billion times better than the rest to "prove" they're viable and justified. SUCH UNSPEAKABLE BULLSHIT.
5. THE WOMEN IN THIS. THE WOMENNNNNNNNNNN. This story could have so easily been about T'Challa and the Challenges of Manhood, with all his kingly dilemmas, but instead it's T'Challa and his mother the adviser, his baby sister who develops and supplies all his tech, his ex-girlfriend who's his chief collaborator and has her own career as a spy, his bodyguard who is one of the greatest warriors of the realm. MY GOD. MY GODDDDDDDDDD.
I still want more movies starring women but LET ME TELL YOU if every male superhero had this many women around him we'd be a lot better off than we currently are in the MCU.
6. OK so like, I know a lot of people who were excited about Erik/Killmonger from the trailers and ended up not being super excited about him after the movie, for a variety of reasons.
But I just. Look, I can't love Magneto as much as I love him and not love this Erik as well. They're the same sort of villain, except Black Panther does a billion times better in contextualizing Erik's trauma and ideology.
Basically, extremely competent, extremely damaged and traumatized by systemic oppression and violence Eriks are my jam, I guess.
I JUST. I understand why they decided to kill Erik (even though it goes against EVERYTHING MARVEL EVER DOES with their villains and the fact that they got rid of SUCH A GOOD VILLAIN with Erik is SUCH UTTER BULLSHIT but anyway), his death was powerful and in some ways necessary and the fact that T'Challa (sort of) tried to save him and Erik forbade it has meaning within the text.
Erik's life, his very existence as a child in-between is symbolic of the price of Wakanda's non-interference policy and at same the time of the role of slavery in building the U.S. To save him at the last moment would imply that those crimes are absolve-able, that the damage can be undone, but it can't. Erik has to die because there's no way to cancel-out the misery and injustice that consumed his life.
All of this is true, and at the same time, in fanfic, I want us to all forget that scene ended the way it did and agree that T'Challa TOTALLY dragged his ass to the hospital and Erik was saved and then I want one billion fics about him slowly recovering from his trauma and exploring his identity as the son of the country that left him behind.
I especially want him to do that re: T'Challa because apparently for the first time EVER I am on the "don't care that they're cousins, it's still hot" train like WHOA. (I mean, the more I think about it, the more Erik/T'Challa reminds me of Erik/Charles from X-Men except again, done in a LESS IDIOTIC WAY than the X-Men movies did it, so. I have a type, what can I say.)
Also: Michael B. Jordan, who I've loved for many years, is just SO UNSPEAKABLY GOOD and I JUST. Every instance of Erik being unshakable, like he's stared down hell and survived, so what could possibly scare him, is just. Him humiliating T'Challa in their battle at the waterfall, going "is this your king?" I JUST. I need resolution between them OK. REAL RESOLUTION not a battle to the death.
Basically, PLEASE GIVE ME ALL YOUR ERIK PROMPTS and/or ERIK/T'CHALLA PROMPTS (or Erik/anyone else prompts!) because I desperately want to write some smut about this whole situation.
7. Anyway, I enjoyed that movie a lot and I can't believe next installment we have to go back to the Avengers where I have to give a shit about Steve and Bucky and Thor and Starlord again. (Bruce and Tony can stay, although I'd still rather just have a Black Panther 2 coming out in the summer.)
(The after credits scene of this movie was actually probably the time I've enjoyed Bucky the most out of all his MCU tenure? IDK how I'm so totally apathetic to that dude, when he's everything I like in a character on paper? I blame the actor for just... canceling out my interest completely.)
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