Once, just once, I’d like to see a film set in Wakanda that doesn’t end up in a bitchin’ war. For a “peaceful” people, you just guys sure do attack an awful lot. At some point, even the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland is sayin’, “Man, those guys need to take it down a notch.”
I kid, cuz Wakanda films always end in war. And Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is no exception.
Did you ever consider how screwed the black community is? Chadwick Boseman seems proof positive on a people who just can’t seem to get a break. Black Panther might not have been your favorite avenger … and, yet, the charming, handsome, and erudite Boseman had a chance of becoming the most coveted one in time. And then he died, well before … any of us would have guessed. WTF?! Are black people just cursed or what?
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is well aware of Chadwick Boseman. King T’Challa’s funeral begins the film; Boseman highlights the Marvel opening credits, and the last scenes in the film are entirely about the late Black Panther. In the wake of T’Challa’s death, the political question arises: “How vulnerable is Wakanda, the strongest nation on the planet due largely in part to its stranglehold on the vibranium market?”
When a rogue nation comes to steal Wakanda’s vibranium, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) shows up at the UN, takes every other nation there to task and deposits the intruders right in the middle of the session. It would be kinda like Nancy Pelosi depositing the buffalo headed insurrection guy during the next session of congress following January 6 … which should have happened, except replace “buffalo headed insurrection guy” with “a gagged Donald Trump.”
Ah, but the United States doesn’t take well to being #2, and manages to procure a rare vibranium detector, which it uses to locate a store at the bottom of international waters … when suddenly the extraction team is attacked by blue indestructible underwater fish people.
There is a point in every superhero film –and I do mean every.single.one– in which the film dares you to laugh at it. Sometimes it comes in the form of Superman’s outfit; sometimes it delays the moment until you actually see what a war with Atlantis looks like. And sometimes, the princess of the
most powerful nation on Earth is undercover in a deep-sea diving suit dealing with fish people, the leader of whom has a bone through his nose, literal wings on his heels, and is dressed like he’s about to sacrifice a goat to Quetzalcoatl.
And if you think I wrote all that just so I could see Quetzalcoatl in print … you’d be correct.
Anyhoo, I don’t think Wakanda Forever lives down it’s “this is ridiculous” moment … which isn’t to say it’s a bad film, but I’d definitely put it below superhero films in which my suspension of disbelief held.
I’m getting ahead of myself. Wakanda Forever’s main character is Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright), the Wakandan mad scientist who goes to Cambridge to find the inventor of the vibranium detector just to be attacked by more fish people. Did this film invoke Aquaman? It did. That is NOT a good thing.
There’s a lot of good in Wakanda Forever. For all the violence in the film, there’s a wonderful message about when to war and when to forgive. As with the first Black Panther, there is an unmistakable feeling of female empowerment in this film … except even more so here with Chadwick Boseman gone forever. 
There’s also the continued magnificence and beauty of Wakanda, the greatest fake nation known to mankind.
And then there’s the feeling that if Wakanda truly wants to defeat the fish people, it needs a better costumer. I wish I were kidding, but this is exactly how the last 45 minutes of Wakanda Forever felt.
I miss Chadwick Boseman. I miss him a lot. So does the film, in many ways. Wakanda Forever was not shy on ambition; it sought to pull our heartstrings on one hand and make our heads spin on the other. Does it work? Well, it works more than it doesn’t. The scenes of mourning are very moving. The scenes of action are occasionally exciting. And yet, I can’t help but reflect that both Wakanda and the fish guys wager taking over the planet on quality over quantity. Historically speaking, fifty soldiers are eventually going to lose to 500,000 soldiers. That’s historical fact. And there’s only so much of the Wakandan mystique that compensates for this obvious discrepancy. I do not wish to belittle this ambitious blockbuster, but I don’t think it needs or deserves much of my praise, either.
A return to the mega-nation Wakanda
Yet it seems the Panther did abanda
Without its crusader
There will be an invader
Is it real or all just propaganda?
Rated PG-13, 161 Minutes
Director: Ryan Coogler
Writer: Ryan Coogler, John Robert Cole
Genre: Wartime in Wakanda
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: “We can totally make a Black Panther film without Chadwick Boseman”
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “No, you can’t”
