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Plot Summary: The people of Wakanda fight to protect their home from intervening world powers as they mourn the death of King T'Challa.

Director: Ryan Coogler

Writers: Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole

Runtime: 2 hours 41 mins

Main Cast:

• Letitia Wright as Shuri
• Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia
• Danai Gurira as Okoye
• Winston Duke as M'Baku
• Angela Bassett as Ramonda
• Tenoch Huerta as Namor

Review by: Samuel

What I Liked:

Director Ryan Coogler and his cast had a monumental task with the sequel to Black Panther. They had to make an entertaining comic book movie while also honoring and dealing with the unexpected passing of star Chadwick Boseman. Thanks to some excellent performances they mostly succeeded, with the latter (paying tribute to their fallen friend) being the most impactful.

To that end, the thing I liked most about the film was the performances specifically of Angela Basset and Letitia Wright and Queen Ramonda and Shuri respectively. WOW is the word to sum up my feelings towards them after sitting through 2 hours and 40 minutes of the movie. Angela Basset gave monologues that I will be quoting for decades and the emotion she wore on her face throughout the ENTIRE film would let me know she’s a woman in mourning even if she didn’t utter a word. The same goes for Wright’s Shuri. The movie opens with the death of the Wakandan King, her brother, and immediately you see she is struggling to cope with it. This is a time when the actor’s real-life loss can be seen on screen and it works so well to show that the loss hit them as hard as it hit a lot of us.

I also enjoyed how each chose to cope with the hurt. While Queen Ramonda decided to embrace the loss and allow herself to mourn and feel the emotion of pain that accompanied it, Shuri decided to bury it. She is a scientist, after all, so her mind tells her that her brother was here and then passed as all things do, and dwelling on it won’t change anything. BUT, the reality is she loved her brother and that hurt is still bubbling inside of her as much as she tries to hide behind her work. Watching that inner struggle was probably the best part of the movie for me. Letitia Wright was given as impossible a task as Ryan Coogler was with this movie. The narrative focus shifted from T’Challa to her unexpectedly and she had to carry this movie (and presumably future movies) as the main character. I’m happy to report Shuri’s journey was one worth watching and hit all over the emotional spectrum. I honestly would have enjoyed a film just showing Shuri and Ramonda’s methods of mourning, but this is a comic book movie so there are certain “Marvel-isms” that had to be thrown in.

Before we get to those, I would like to also mention Tenoch Huerta’ portrayal as Namor, The Submariner. FYI, Namor is probably my 5^th favorite comic book character (after Superman, the Flash, Sinestro, and Cyclops) so I was EXTREMELY excited to see him. While I have some issues with his ultimate arc, I think he was given a wonderful turn in live-action. Even with changes to his character’s origin, I appreciated that he was not another one-dimensional villain. Like Killmonger, he actually had a valid reason for his anger (even if it was misguided towards Wakanda in my opinion). I’ll also add that his action scenes in particular are the ones I will remember most if only for their large-scale spectacle.

What I Didn’t Like:

Okay so there are several things I noticed in this film that all in all left me feeling it wasn’t as good as the first. Sequels seldom are, so that’s not really to be unexpected but I think my anticipation for this movie left me wanting a bit more.

So first, as I mentioned, Ryan Coogler had an unenviable task at hand. Not only did he have to re-write an entire script, but he also had to pay an emotional tribute to Chadwick Boseman, tell an engrossing comic book story, leave space for the classic Marvel action/comedy, and introduce at least two new characters who will be major players for the MCU moving forward. There was a lot in this movie, and I’m not sure how much of it was because of the studio, but honestly, I think it weakened the film. I loved the introduction of Riri Williams aka Iron Heart; but given that she’s getting her own series, I wasn’t too thrilled that she got so much screen time – 1) because she’s basically a background character for a much bigger story when she deserves her first real outing to be all about her and 2) because when she’s on-screen….Shuri and Ramonda probably aren’t, and I cared about them more. This is the same with Luptia Nyongo’s Nakia and Martin Freeman’s Agent Ross- both phenomenal actors, and it should be said the actors were fantastic all around- but…they weren’t Shuri and Ramonda. This was THEIR movie and these supporting characters, while okay, were not as compelling for this particular story.

Another thing that I didn’t care for too much was Namor’s arc. From his introduction, he wanted ONE thing and only that thing. Shuri tries to convince him of another way, and he vehemently disagrees. Yet, his ultimate resolution is seemingly to agree with what Shuri originally proposed. It was executed very well, but on reflection, there is no way I believe the Namor I grew to know would have made those choices.

Finally, Shuri’s arc- the most compelling- was wrapped up a smidge too quickly for me. Yes, even in this 2 hours 40 minute movie I wanted more.