Wakanda Forever (Film Review)
Saw it, and really liked it. Actually, forgive the heresy, I liked it better than the first movie, or rather, it spoke to me more. The Black Panther had been an excellent film, but I thought the one problem with it was that the main character, T'Challa, had had his emotional development in another movie (Civil War, which he'd been great), and thus had remained static in his own film, as opposed to everyone around him. (I also thought it was odd no one either among the characters or in the narrative questioned the monarchic principle as such, but okay.) Whereas here, in Wakanda Forever, all the main characters - Shuri, Ramonda, Okoye - as well as the supporting characters - Nakia, Riri Williams - shone, and the MCU take on Namor remained firmly in the "morally ambigous antagonist" region where Killmonger had been ultimately put in the "tragic villain" category. Above all, though, the way this movie was very much about grief worked for me. (As opposed to devoting the first twenty minutes or so to grief and then letting everyone be fine for the rest of the movie.) I'm not always of the opinion that you should kill off the character if the actor dies, but in this case, in retrospect I have to say it really was the right decision, both because the grief for Chadwick Boseman and for T'Challa could become one, and because it meant that the main characters - except for Namor - were all women, interacting with each other. Which would not have been the case if they'd simply recast T'Challa. Incidentally, having now googled where previously I kept myself spoiler-free, I see that if Chadwick Boseman hadn't died, the movie still would have dealt with grief, but of a very different type.T'Challa who had been dusted by Thanos in Infinity Wars would have come back to find he'd missed his new son's first five years of life, and that Nakia had moved on and was in a new relationship, and he would have to cope with this. Given the trailer for Ant-Man 3, it looks like the "missed years as a father" story has been given to Scott Lang instead, and I have to say, given we saw Cassie and her relationship with Scott in the first two Ant-Men movies, whereas T'Challa's son is new, this will work better for Scott and Cassie anyway.There's also some set up for the next MCU phase, but it's not done in a way that makes this film feel imcomplete.
Back when I watched Black Panther, I thought more than once that I wished Angela Bassett had been given more to do, and it seems someone in the production team thought the same thing. Ramonda's scenes, whether she was facing down the French and American envoys at the UN or trying to reach her daughter or being furious with Okoye were all viscerally effective.
I also appreciated that Shuri - who is the main character in this film if anyone is - at the end has become the next Black Panther but NOT the next Queen, and that the movie didn't suddenly shift her characterisation from scientist to politician/leader (different skills). Moreover, that the leadership contest for ruling Wakanda is now wide open, and I dare to hope a few movies later we won't have another King/Queen but an elected head of government. Mind you, another thing that's set up, between Dark!Toby (err, the Richard Schiff played character) announcing the US President want to destabilize Wakanda and Namor saying at the end Wakanda will have no choice but ask him for help once the world is coming for them, is the possibillity of Wakandan civil war.
In this film, though, the outward conflict is between Wakanda and Namor. I had read a few comics featuring Namor, but not many; still, enough to recall he's from Atlantis in them, and I can immediately see why they changed that - Atlantis, and Namor being half human, half Atlantean, is way too simillar to Aquaman, plus making Namor a Mayan and his people mutated Mayans who fled into the sea when the Spanish conquistadores arrived finds far more with the general Black Panther themes. MCU!Namor originally seeking an alliance and only becoming an enemy when the Wakandans refuse to hand over Riri to be killed is the kind of conflict that works for me, because Shuri and Ramonda both do suggest a couple of possibilities to Namor to accommodate his worries that aren't killing an innocent woman, and he outright refuses any of them, so on the one hand, you understand his motivation, but on the other, he also shows himself so inflexible that he is in the wrong (and yet, what do you expect from someone who has ruled as a Godking for centuries).
Speaking of Riri - I had no idea she would be in this film. I've read a few comics with her as well, so I know she's a legacy character (the one to Iron Man), and introducing her here as a supporting character is in a way the flipside to introducing T'Challa in Civil War. In a way, she also works as a younger self to Shuri here, cheerfully geeking out, full of joy in her inventions. (And I didn't miss the visual callback to the first Iron Man movie when she's hammering her armor, which was jut timed right, not too long so it doesn't distract from the main plot but a good nod.)
Shuri in the end abstaining from continuing the revenge cycle was predictable, but in a good way; no matter how deeply she grieves, Shuri isn't a cynical character, nor would I want her to be. Now it was easy to guess there would be an ancestor-meeting scene, and I was curious how the film would solve the inevitable problem that whom Shuri would want to see would be her brother, but she can't for rl reasons, unless they go for uncanny valley technical resurrection. When Ramonda died, I thought, okay, she'll see her motherh instead. But no. Clever scriptwriters. Shuri seeing cousin Eric, aka Killmonger, was inspired, both it makes emotional sense (and provides the right kind of shock to her) and brings back a fan favorite for a non-gratious cameo.
Lastly: the final scene (and the obligatory plus one Marvel scene thereafter): I don't think any of the other MCU movies has that kind of quiet, intense, non-triumphant but still emotionally moving on final note, as Shuri finally lets herself cry and burns her grieving robes. Grief and loss, surviving, those are poweful themes if you committ to them, and this movie did.
Back when I watched Black Panther, I thought more than once that I wished Angela Bassett had been given more to do, and it seems someone in the production team thought the same thing. Ramonda's scenes, whether she was facing down the French and American envoys at the UN or trying to reach her daughter or being furious with Okoye were all viscerally effective.
I also appreciated that Shuri - who is the main character in this film if anyone is - at the end has become the next Black Panther but NOT the next Queen, and that the movie didn't suddenly shift her characterisation from scientist to politician/leader (different skills). Moreover, that the leadership contest for ruling Wakanda is now wide open, and I dare to hope a few movies later we won't have another King/Queen but an elected head of government. Mind you, another thing that's set up, between Dark!Toby (err, the Richard Schiff played character) announcing the US President want to destabilize Wakanda and Namor saying at the end Wakanda will have no choice but ask him for help once the world is coming for them, is the possibillity of Wakandan civil war.
In this film, though, the outward conflict is between Wakanda and Namor. I had read a few comics featuring Namor, but not many; still, enough to recall he's from Atlantis in them, and I can immediately see why they changed that - Atlantis, and Namor being half human, half Atlantean, is way too simillar to Aquaman, plus making Namor a Mayan and his people mutated Mayans who fled into the sea when the Spanish conquistadores arrived finds far more with the general Black Panther themes. MCU!Namor originally seeking an alliance and only becoming an enemy when the Wakandans refuse to hand over Riri to be killed is the kind of conflict that works for me, because Shuri and Ramonda both do suggest a couple of possibilities to Namor to accommodate his worries that aren't killing an innocent woman, and he outright refuses any of them, so on the one hand, you understand his motivation, but on the other, he also shows himself so inflexible that he is in the wrong (and yet, what do you expect from someone who has ruled as a Godking for centuries).
Speaking of Riri - I had no idea she would be in this film. I've read a few comics with her as well, so I know she's a legacy character (the one to Iron Man), and introducing her here as a supporting character is in a way the flipside to introducing T'Challa in Civil War. In a way, she also works as a younger self to Shuri here, cheerfully geeking out, full of joy in her inventions. (And I didn't miss the visual callback to the first Iron Man movie when she's hammering her armor, which was jut timed right, not too long so it doesn't distract from the main plot but a good nod.)
Shuri in the end abstaining from continuing the revenge cycle was predictable, but in a good way; no matter how deeply she grieves, Shuri isn't a cynical character, nor would I want her to be. Now it was easy to guess there would be an ancestor-meeting scene, and I was curious how the film would solve the inevitable problem that whom Shuri would want to see would be her brother, but she can't for rl reasons, unless they go for uncanny valley technical resurrection. When Ramonda died, I thought, okay, she'll see her motherh instead. But no. Clever scriptwriters. Shuri seeing cousin Eric, aka Killmonger, was inspired, both it makes emotional sense (and provides the right kind of shock to her) and brings back a fan favorite for a non-gratious cameo.
Lastly: the final scene (and the obligatory plus one Marvel scene thereafter): I don't think any of the other MCU movies has that kind of quiet, intense, non-triumphant but still emotionally moving on final note, as Shuri finally lets herself cry and burns her grieving robes. Grief and loss, surviving, those are poweful themes if you committ to them, and this movie did.