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This film was brilliant, but did it live up to the hype?
I went into black panther expecting little, this is comparable to films such as Ant Man and Dr. Strange, both of which I was pleasantly surprised by, I feel this is because they were unknow, almost like underdog heroes when it comes to the MCU.
For me black panther started off a little slow, granted it was necessary for the story development and did show off some of the power and gadgets they have to offer. The moment Michael B. Jordan made his appearance was where things started to get exciting. Seeing him playing the role of antagonist was amazing, the way that killmonger was played, in my eyes, was perfect, the way he looks, his story of vengeance, his attitude towards Wakanda and how he feels it develop the world. A great rival to the black panther and the Wakandan throne.
Now, having praised the primary villain, I need to comment on Ulysses Klaude. The most useless character in this film... not at all needed. I understand he provided a bit of comic relief, and I’m not going to deny he was slightly entertaining but personally I would have liked to have seen more development of killmonger than Ulysses, thankfully he doesn’t last too long.
Having said this, I do think that the casting featuring some of the better young talents featured in black mirror, Danial Kaluuya and Letitia Wright, was outstanding, when they were on the screen they stole the show. Shuri, played by Letitia, provided huge amounts of humour, but also showed how strong she and all the females of Wakanda were, very empowering.
Martian Freeman, I’m not going to say a lot about him, however I think what they've done here is take a character who for the most part was disliked in Civil War, and made him much more likeable, just developing him a bit more. Even if I still can't get past the terrible accent.
The special effects featured in this, in one word, outstanding. I think that they did a brilliant job of making this visually stimulating city, hidden under a mountain, showing Africa as we know it but having huge developments, sky scrapers and huge technological advancements. Despite there being these huge structures and it almost being like a first world country, they did a remarkable job of portraying the culture over there, from the costume design to the amazing sound track
Having praised the actors and SOME of the characters, I still feel that this film was missing a lot, considering the film was over 2 hours long, not a lot really happened. and the first half was pointless because it was about Ulysses, a side villain, who end up dying anyway. After that pointless side quest the main story starts and just feels far too rushed. Everything happened over the space of about half an hour.
I came out satisfied with this film, you don’t go into a MCU film expecting an Oscar nominated film, despite this film being nominated. It was fun, like all Marvel films and fitted into the Cannon quite well. I like Black Panther as a hero and look forward to seeing him in Infinity War. like a lot of films, it sometimes takes time to appreciate aspects you don't see at the time of watching, engrossed in the story. Like the amazing colours, music and effects it brings, not to forget how amazing the characters were. Sure, it lacked a bit of substance, but I can get over that by knowing how as far as visuals are concerned it was a masterpiece. If anything, id argue that this is underhyped, some people just can't reflect and see this for the artwork that is it.
At the end of the day id give Black Panther 8/10.