“Wakanda Forever” takes a mature turn
Director Ryan Coogler was dealt the worst cards possible when making this movie: the death of his lead actor and a pandemic. Even through all of those trials, we still ended up with a movie that has tons of merit and possibly the most mature story the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has ever told.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” released Nov. 11, marks the end of the MCU’s Phase Four and tells the story of Shuri and the rest of Wakanda mourning the death of King T’Challa in fear of what could happen to their home country without a Black Panther in power.
This may be the most mature MCU movie yet, which was so refreshing for me after the goofy “Thor: Love and Thunder” that I wasn’t a fan of. This direction was absolutely necessary following the passing of Chadwick Boseman. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the things I was concerned about ended up being well executed: the lack of T’Challa, Shuri’s arc and the introduction of Namor and Ironheart.
The cinematography had me visually invested from beginning to end with the African landscape of Wakanda and swimming through an underwater civilization. The lack of editing during action scenes amplifies the scope of the film and stakes. The VFX have improved greatly from the quality we’ve gotten in Phase 4 thus far.
This movie is filled with wonderful performances that raise the bar for what we will expect from the MCU. Everyone has complimented Angela Bassett who is undeniably great, and Letitia Wright gives the best performance the MCU has seen since the end of Phase 3. Lastly, Tenoch Huerta delivers one of the best villains I’ve seen in years who’s intimidating from his first lines that set the tone for what to expect from him.
I know it’s unpopular but I love long movies; four of my top ten favorite movies are considered epics. When this movie’s runtime was announced, clocking in at 2 hours and 41 minutes, the longest Marvel film since “Avengers: Endgame,”, I was skeptical but excited for what they would do with that length. For the most part, they utilized it very well, at least better than I was expecting. It’s a runtime that feels earned and necessary for the story being told. I wish they would’ve utilized it a little better to make Shuri’s arc a bit smoother.
I quite enjoyed this movie as it ranks high amongst the better movies of this year. I would be more than willing to revisit this at an AMC and I give it a 4/5.
