You'll Rule the Day
So I saw Black Panther, and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot. Nowhere near as much as most of the people I saw it with apparently did, I certainly wouldn't call it one of MCU's best, but it was good.
The biggest problem for me was the ending. The thing is, Wakanda is a monarchy based on tribal laws which include the right of certain people to challenge the king to a fight for his throne. Erik "Killmonger", the ultimate villain of the film, does this. He is Wakandan royalty so he is entirely within his rights to do so. He doesn't cheat, he wins the fight fair and square and assumes the throne.
He begins his rule with some sweeping changes which meet a small amount of initial resistance but very quickly everyone toes the line and begins enacting his policies. Because he's the king. That's how a monarchy works.
In the meantime T'Challa's family have snuck out and immediately begin looking for someone - anyone - to overthrow the new and entirely rightful king. They soon settle on the imposing M'Baku as the best hope, travelling to his mountain tribe to offer him the magic purple panther juice to enable him to beat Erik.
M'Baku is not interested in fighting someone else's battle but does reveal his people found T'Challa who has survived being thrown over the waterfall by Erik (what a huge surprise!) but is in a coma and close to death. They feed him the purple panther juice which restores him to health and he heads off to face Erik again.
Here are my problems. At this point, to me at least, the "villain" of the piece is in the right and the "heroes" are acting shady and underhand. If you swapped these actions around it'd be a no-brainer. If it turned out Erik had used some kind of opposing magic or technology or some kind of trick to beat a powered down T'Challa then fine, but he doesn't, he fights fairly. For a righteous feeling reversal of fortune someone would have to beat Erik on the same terms, but none of the good guys even contemplate this course of action.
The film tries to loophole it by focusing on the fact that technically in order for Erik to win the throne T'Challa had to yield or die when he has in fact done neither... but to all intents and purposes he WAS dead. When the mountain tribe found him the only thing keeping him alive was being immersed in snow, and the only thing that changed this was the purple panther juice. If he'd chugged that down during the the actual combat he'd have been disqualified immediately. It still felt wrong to me.
Since at this point Erik has the purple panther juice and a Black Panther suit of his own they ARE fighting on equal terms, it's not like a powered up T'Challa is beating on an unpowered Erik, so that sort of comes out in the wash. What the film doesn't really do is give a reason why T'Challa wins this time. He spent the fairly short time between their last fight and this second fight in a coma. He hasn't trained or had any life-changing revelations. Perhaps the encounter with his ancestors was supposed to have a greater significance, but it didn't seem like it to me.
Furthermore, Erik hasn't really done anything bad. Not to a degree that turned me as an audience against him on principle. Okay his new direction for Wakanda is potentially a terrible one.... but he's the king. The rightful king. That's his call. Everyone else is happy enough to follow him. And his reign of terror hasn't even happened yet! He's only been king a matter of hours before T'Challa turns up again and dethrones him. The film could do with taking a leaf out of Lion King's book, let him screw up the kingdom then T'Challa can ride in like and avenging angel.
What I think the film was trying to focus on is the difference between fighting on your own for yourself like Erik, or fighting for something greater with close friends like T'Challa. The problem with that is that while Okoye is shown to genuinely struggle between loyalty to the throne and her friendship with T'Challa, every other Wakandan seems pretty fickle and indifferent. Hell, W'Kabi who is made out to be a very close friend to T'Challa at the beginning seems willing to fight a bloody civil war against him because of one broken promise!
What I would have liked is a stronger narrative involvement in the fight. It's set up well by having T'Challa uncertain at the beginning, telling the spirit of his father that he is not ready. Regardless he then defeats M'Baku's challenge and assumes the throne. What does his subsequent defeat by Erik signify? What informs his then defeating Erik? Nothing much. The device of talking to the ancestors is a brilliantly effective tool which doesn't really seem used to its full effect. For example it would have made sense if Erik was far more unsettled by the entire experience given his background, laying groundwork for his later defeat. Hell, they could even have his dad say he regretted his actions, further undermining his zealous pursuit of a global revolution. Then for T'Challa's second experience it could better instil in him his readiness for the throne. There would actually be some sense in him defeating the opponent who had scant hours ago that had bested him with relative ease.
Perhaps it would have been better if he'd lost that first challenge. His uncertainty was a sign that he wasn't ready. Then Erik could have killed off M'Baku to seize the throne (again, so much the better if he employ some kind of underhand scheme to do so) leaving T'Challa a more unambiguous path to claiming the throne for himself - again, ideally over a longer time period so the negative impact of his reign could be felt further justifying (and motivating) T'Challa's actions.
OR the film could have focused on the idea of monarchy as the villain of the piece. The trial by combat is an outdated idea which hands power to the most ruthless. The beginning and middle would play out the same but the lesson learned informing the final act would come when the people of Wakanda resist Erik's warmongering intentions and T'Challa returns as their chosen leader, defeating the tyrannical Erik and installing a new, democratic leadership. After all the legality of trial by combat as a path to kingship is the problem in the first place.
As I said, did like the film on the whole, was just a little let down by what seemed a somewhat slapdash finale.
The biggest problem for me was the ending. The thing is, Wakanda is a monarchy based on tribal laws which include the right of certain people to challenge the king to a fight for his throne. Erik "Killmonger", the ultimate villain of the film, does this. He is Wakandan royalty so he is entirely within his rights to do so. He doesn't cheat, he wins the fight fair and square and assumes the throne.
He begins his rule with some sweeping changes which meet a small amount of initial resistance but very quickly everyone toes the line and begins enacting his policies. Because he's the king. That's how a monarchy works.
In the meantime T'Challa's family have snuck out and immediately begin looking for someone - anyone - to overthrow the new and entirely rightful king. They soon settle on the imposing M'Baku as the best hope, travelling to his mountain tribe to offer him the magic purple panther juice to enable him to beat Erik.
M'Baku is not interested in fighting someone else's battle but does reveal his people found T'Challa who has survived being thrown over the waterfall by Erik (what a huge surprise!) but is in a coma and close to death. They feed him the purple panther juice which restores him to health and he heads off to face Erik again.
Here are my problems. At this point, to me at least, the "villain" of the piece is in the right and the "heroes" are acting shady and underhand. If you swapped these actions around it'd be a no-brainer. If it turned out Erik had used some kind of opposing magic or technology or some kind of trick to beat a powered down T'Challa then fine, but he doesn't, he fights fairly. For a righteous feeling reversal of fortune someone would have to beat Erik on the same terms, but none of the good guys even contemplate this course of action.
The film tries to loophole it by focusing on the fact that technically in order for Erik to win the throne T'Challa had to yield or die when he has in fact done neither... but to all intents and purposes he WAS dead. When the mountain tribe found him the only thing keeping him alive was being immersed in snow, and the only thing that changed this was the purple panther juice. If he'd chugged that down during the the actual combat he'd have been disqualified immediately. It still felt wrong to me.
Since at this point Erik has the purple panther juice and a Black Panther suit of his own they ARE fighting on equal terms, it's not like a powered up T'Challa is beating on an unpowered Erik, so that sort of comes out in the wash. What the film doesn't really do is give a reason why T'Challa wins this time. He spent the fairly short time between their last fight and this second fight in a coma. He hasn't trained or had any life-changing revelations. Perhaps the encounter with his ancestors was supposed to have a greater significance, but it didn't seem like it to me.
Furthermore, Erik hasn't really done anything bad. Not to a degree that turned me as an audience against him on principle. Okay his new direction for Wakanda is potentially a terrible one.... but he's the king. The rightful king. That's his call. Everyone else is happy enough to follow him. And his reign of terror hasn't even happened yet! He's only been king a matter of hours before T'Challa turns up again and dethrones him. The film could do with taking a leaf out of Lion King's book, let him screw up the kingdom then T'Challa can ride in like and avenging angel.
What I think the film was trying to focus on is the difference between fighting on your own for yourself like Erik, or fighting for something greater with close friends like T'Challa. The problem with that is that while Okoye is shown to genuinely struggle between loyalty to the throne and her friendship with T'Challa, every other Wakandan seems pretty fickle and indifferent. Hell, W'Kabi who is made out to be a very close friend to T'Challa at the beginning seems willing to fight a bloody civil war against him because of one broken promise!
What I would have liked is a stronger narrative involvement in the fight. It's set up well by having T'Challa uncertain at the beginning, telling the spirit of his father that he is not ready. Regardless he then defeats M'Baku's challenge and assumes the throne. What does his subsequent defeat by Erik signify? What informs his then defeating Erik? Nothing much. The device of talking to the ancestors is a brilliantly effective tool which doesn't really seem used to its full effect. For example it would have made sense if Erik was far more unsettled by the entire experience given his background, laying groundwork for his later defeat. Hell, they could even have his dad say he regretted his actions, further undermining his zealous pursuit of a global revolution. Then for T'Challa's second experience it could better instil in him his readiness for the throne. There would actually be some sense in him defeating the opponent who had scant hours ago that had bested him with relative ease.
Perhaps it would have been better if he'd lost that first challenge. His uncertainty was a sign that he wasn't ready. Then Erik could have killed off M'Baku to seize the throne (again, so much the better if he employ some kind of underhand scheme to do so) leaving T'Challa a more unambiguous path to claiming the throne for himself - again, ideally over a longer time period so the negative impact of his reign could be felt further justifying (and motivating) T'Challa's actions.
OR the film could have focused on the idea of monarchy as the villain of the piece. The trial by combat is an outdated idea which hands power to the most ruthless. The beginning and middle would play out the same but the lesson learned informing the final act would come when the people of Wakanda resist Erik's warmongering intentions and T'Challa returns as their chosen leader, defeating the tyrannical Erik and installing a new, democratic leadership. After all the legality of trial by combat as a path to kingship is the problem in the first place.
As I said, did like the film on the whole, was just a little let down by what seemed a somewhat slapdash finale.