Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) Review

Hoping to capitalise on the waves of success generated since the release of the first Black Panther film back in 2018, Marvel with returning director Ryan Coogler and majority of the cast including, Leitha Wright, Winston Duke, Michael B Jordan, Danai Guraii unvieled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever this month to cinemas worldwide.

The Brief Breakdown (spoiler free)

The story's events take place 6 years after the thanos snap from Infinity War and begins with an emotional explanation of King T'challa's unfortunate death mirroring the same untimely death of the actor Chadwick Boseman.

Wakanda and it's people dealing with the backlash that comes with revealing themselves to the world after holding on to the powerful substance of Vibranium for many years. World nations all wanting to get a piece of Vibranium, we are introduced to possibily the one of the new big bad's of the MCU, Namor "the feathered serpent" and ruler of Talokan.

Not long after Namor intrudes on Wakandan soil over quarms with the surface world, the two powerful nations engagement eventually erupts into an all out war for supremacy enacting a heavy toil on Wakanda, and eventually revealing the new Black Panther and King of Wakanda (as well as a few other developments which will be discussed below, so spoiler warning).

Diving a little deeper

Key points from the film that stood out to me, including easter eggs, teasers of new things and general themes to discuss.

Shuri v Namor

Throughout the film you can see a lot of similarities between Wakanda and Talokan. Both are extremely powerful nations who for majority of their existence have thrived by keeping themselves hidden from the outside world, advancing in both technology and resources, however the key difference is their rulers. Namor is portrayed as an almost god-like King who has a very traditional way of thinking similar to T'Challa's father (T'Chaka) and the previous Black Panthers. He tells Shuri "only the most broken people make great leaders" this point echos King T'Chaka's to his son "it's hard for a good man to be King". This is different to Queen Ramonda and Princess Shuri, mainly Shuri who is much more open with her views of the outside world and makes it very clear from even the first film that she does not believe in tradition. However, at the end of the day both rulers simply want what is best for their nations.

It begs the question, is tradition always the right thing to follow, especially when it may not even apply in a modern world?

The New Tony Stark?

This movie introduces another new character to the MCU, Riri Williams. A 19 year-old african american girl with a brilliant mind who develops a one of a kind Vibranium mining machine for a school project and ends up helping Wakanda in their war with her own Wakandan version of the Iron Man suit. Now immediately many people's reaction to her character was out of hate simply for her potentially replacing the spearhead of the MCU, Tony Stark, but is it truly fair to bash a character so quickly who only had a few minutes of screentime?

To give a little background, in the comics while Riri Williams does take inspiration from Iron man to create her own Ironheart armour, she is very much her own superhero with the creator of her character even stating she has the potential to be smarter than Tony Stark. On the other hand this is the MCU, not the comics and when you look at the story as a whole you realise Riri doesn't actually add much to it except the occasional cringe one liner and adlibs. I for one am interested to know how Marvel takes her character to the next level and makes her stand out especially considering we already have heroes with the "young but super smart" trope in Spider-man and Shuri.

With Great Power Comes...oh wait wrong film

Ryan Coogler seems to take a page out of the Spider-man: No Way Home in using the killing off a key parental character as a catalyst for the main protagonist to become the hero they're meant to be. Near the film's final act Queen Ramonda dies whilst saving Riri from drowning after Namor's initial attack on Wakanda. The death is definitely unexpected and left me shocked whilst viewing but it's brushed to one side so quickly that the audience isn't really given time to fully feel the effects of her death. After all this isn't Aunt May (no disrespect to her), this is the Queen of a whole nation.

Again similar to Spider-man, this death causes Shuri to temporarily go down the path of revenge and intent to kill but at the very last moment she releases it's not the righteous path to take. With the convincing performance Letitia Wright gave during this whole ordeal I personally felt cheated out of a killing blow to Namor. However perhaps Shuri not acting out of revenge shows that she has grown more into a leader like her brother rather than being consumed by hate like her cousin (N'Jadaka "Killmonger") from the first film.

Killmonger's Return

Michael B Jordan's Killmonger is given a surprising cameo in the film, when Shuri takes the artifical heart-shaped herb and temporarily crosses over to the astral plane but instead of seeing her brother, mother or father she is greeted with the unsettling presence of her Wakandan-American cousin Killmonger. He acts as the devil on her shoulder, pushing her to not be weak like her brother was and do what needs to be done to Namor. His appearance was a pleasant surprise and even though it was a few minutes it definitely highlighted how convincing of a villain Killmonger was, showing the quality of Michael B Jordan's portrayal of the character.

M'baku the King Of Wakanda

M'baku takes on a more pronounced role in this story, acting as a sort of advisor and uncle to Princess Shuri during the times of hardship after her mother's passing. Winston Duke gave an excellent performance with his dialogue and mannerisms on screen from declaring namor "fish man" to calling Okoye a "bald headed demon" but most importantly during the final scenes of the film, at the ceremony to crown the new King/Queen of Wakanda, M'baku is the one who turns up to inform the people of Wakanda that shuri will not be attending. Does this hint that he will be the one to be crowned King of Wakanda? It is very likely to be the case.

T'Challa Jr

This film introduces us to the fact that Nakia and T'Challa did infact have a son before T'Challa's death. He is 6 years old which unfortunately means (given the 5 year time jump between the Infinity war dusting and Endgame where King T'Challa returns) that he only had less than a year with his father before his death. Shuri gets to meet his nephew at the end of the film and judging by his name it's possibly that this child may become the future King of Wakanda and part of the Young Avengers like in the comics.

The Coloniser's Wife and the Thunderbolts

This may be more of an easter egg but we learn that Everett "Coloniser" Ross, who helped T'Challa and Wakanda in the previous film, was actually married to and now works for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. This is the woman who is building the Thunderbolts team and recruits U.S Agent (John walker) at the end of Falcon and the Winter Soldier Tv Show as well as Yelena at the end of Black Widow.

The Good, the Bad and the Rating

Going by the stats this movie did outstandingly well, grossing $350+ million globally, reviewing a 95% audience rating on rotten tomatoes, receiving stellar reviews from all over social media. In my opinion, the film overall is simply good. It is well-written (for the most part), with visually stunning scenes, exceptional music and a decently capativating story that does well considering having to deal with the untimely death of the main character. However, after watching you may not feel the same overwhelming satification that you would've got post viewing the first Black Panther film or other MCU films. The story at times does seem to drag on in certain scenes and for a film of 2hours and 41minutes that is supposed to be the end of Phase 4 of Marvel, it does seem a little underwhelming.

Is it a downgrade from the first film? In certain ways yes, you can definitely feel the presence of Chadwick Boseman as King T'Challa missing which goes to show how amazing of an actor he was but I personally think if you're a fan of the first film then it won't hurt to give this film a watch because the effort all of the cast and crew put in, is clear to see. With all that has happened in Phase 4 from the introduction of Kang the Conquerer to the reveal of the Multiverse, there is a lot to be excited about for Wakanda 3 and the upcoming Phase 5 of the MCU.

Rating: 7/10

Which movie did you prefer?

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  Black Panther
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  Black Panther: Wakanda Forever