Watchcat Review: Black Panther

 by Gregory J. Bradley

"It's nice to see America celebrating a superhero that dresses up like a cat. Wait til they get a load of me."
                                                            Watchcat.
  

Black history month took on a whole new meaning with the arrival of Black Panther in movie theaters this week. Every show was sold out for this historical major event. I had a chance to watch this movie (twice) over the long holiday weekend.

I, being African-American, was so excited to see the first, major black superhero film with an all black cast and a black director, who also co-wrote the script, and with a budget of $200 million, crushing it at the box office!!

The movie was the fifth highest grossing movie of all time. It made $242 million doing the four day holiday. And over 400 million worldwide. In four days!!
 
I hope this movie shows Hollywood that African-American movies can make money at the box office. As a matter fact, we should have more ethnic stories out there. Give diversity a chance Hollywood. And as far as the movie is concerned, I loved it!!

I loved seeing African Americans represented in a positive light on screen. The idea of the story taking place mainly in Africa, the celebration of African traditions of the past as well as introducing a character who loves science and is constantly pushing technology to the future.

I loved how the director Ryan Coogler crafted the script in such a way that there's a political and social message disguise in a very cool and entertaining superhero film.

Black Panther was introduced in July 1966 in Fantastic Four #52 comic by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. I grew up reading comics, especially Batman and Spider-Man. As much as I loved those characters, Black Panther was different. He wasn't a sidekick like "The Falcon" to Captain America or a racial stereotype that was born out of the 70s blaxploitation film like "Luke Cage/ Power Man." 

He was T'Challa, African warrior who was the Black Panther, but he was also King of a fictional country in Africa called Wakanda. A technical marvel of a world with flying cars. A world so cool and advanced that I wanted to be a part of it. And the hero was Black.

For a little black kid growing up on the southside of Chicago to see that kind representation in the comics was amazing. A Black superhero who was cooler than Batman and richer than Bruce Wayne and he was King of a country. And he looked like me?! It was Fantastic!! And that's how I felt watching this movie. Fantastic!!!


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I thought the cast did an incredible job. (Chadwick Boseman) as the Black Panther plays T'Challa as a man who wants desperately to be a good king, but still struggles with how to be one. He has a certain dignity and swagger to T'Challa, its a very understated, good performance. 

And the Women of Wakanda are so BADASS!! They are intelligent, strong, fierce, independent and beautiful African women. 

Starting with the spy, ex-girlfriend Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o),

Okoye (Danai Gurira) general of the all female bodyguards to the king, The Dora Milaje and a breakout winning performance from (Letitia Wright) who plays T'Challa's brilliant tech wiz sister Shuri.

They're so good in this movie, they steal every scene that they're in. But for me, the real strength of this film comes from it's villain Erick Killmonger (Michael B Jordan). He is such a well fleshed out character who has such an affect on our hero and the plot, I was pleasantly surprised.

And because you understand his motivation so well, you might sometimes often agree with him. I think he's the best villain in the Marvel Universe. And that is the brilliance of Ryan Coogler's script. In Killmonger, Coogler is actually showing us the black experience in America. 

He shows us what could happen if kids are left without parents or mentors to fend for themselves in a broken system in inner-cities across America. His backstory is so tragic and sad, that you can't help but sympathize with him.

He is the real victim of this story. And the scene with him and  his father in the film is heartbreaking! I have never seen such a strong emotional social message in a comic book movie before. 

The cinematography and costume design were more impressive than what I remembered from the comic and they surpassed my imagination. It is not a perfect film. I do have some problems with it, mainly with the CGI, but I think this is a very important and inspiring film.

When I came out of the theater, I saw a group of black kids between the ages of five and 12 dressed up as their favorite characters from the film,taking pictures in front of a Black Panther poster. To think that they can now look at the screen and see someone who represents them. Someone that looks like they do and maybe even dressed like them. Maybe they have the same feeling that that little Black kid in Chicago had when he picked up his first Black Panther comic and said
"Hey, he looks like me."

Wakanda Forever!!

If you liked this blog post... Check out this other review.

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