2022. PG-13. 161 mins. Directed by Ryan Coogler
After the massive success of the first Black Panther, and
because Marvel typically gives all their hero’s multiple movies, it was
inevitable that a second movie was going to happen. Unfortunately, main star
Chadwick Boseman sadly passed away in 2020 after a battle with cancer. Now the
question is how does Marvel move forward with second movie after their main
actor passes away? Well thankfully Ryan Coogler is back in the director’s chair
and most of the crew from the first movie comes back meaning we should have
another hit on our hands. Coogler and company have done the impossible of
successfully making a good sequel when they no longer have their main actor.
In Wakanda Forever King T’Challa has passed away from an
undisclosed issue. The country of Wakanda is in mourning and they don’t really
know how to move forward with no longer having someone under the Black Panther
mantle. Fast forward to a year later and Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) is now
in charge of Wakanda and is trying to keep other countries from stealing their
vibrainium. A new foe makes their presence known lead by the powerful Namor
(Tenoch Huerta). There is a new source of vibrainium that has been found
outside of Wakanda and Namor wants the Wakandans to help him retrieve. They
refuse which leads to a major conflict between the two groups.
It goes without saying that Wakanda Forever is one of the
best movies of Phase 4. There are some great tributes and dedications to
Chadwick Boseman but they don’t overdue it. Ryan Coogler shows enough of the
grief and sorrow from the main characters but lets them still find a way to
move on and not just dwell on their loss. That too allows characters that we
met in previous films gets fleshed out more and we get much more character
development out of characters like Okoye, M’Baku and Everett Ross as well as
giving new characters such as Namor and Riri Williams plenty of time to shine.
The action set pieces work extremely well. Whereas in the
first movie they were good for the most part, but it had some effects issues
with some questionable CGI. This time around the effects are much improved and
the action sequences have more impact. With a runtime of two hours and
forty-one minutes it doesn’t move at the quickest pace but that allows for more
time with the characters and to develop them better. Things do slow down in the
second act, and it starts to feel a little long but the first and third acts
make up for it.
This movie works well mostly because the cast is giving it
their all. Letitia Wright gets to take over as the lead here and she is as good
as she’s ever been. The character of Shuri goes through a lot and Wright
handles it all quite well. Angela Bassett is the standout and gives one of the
best performances in comic book movie in quite some time. There are great
performances from returning cast members Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Danai
Gurira and Martin Freeman. Newcomers Tenoch Huerta and Dominque Thorne are both
great additions to the cast. Huerta’s Namor is a great balance of menacing but
comes off as a villain that you can sympathize with as well. Dominque Thorn as
Riri brings a lot more to the movie than was expected. Seeing her in the
trailers it felt like she was going to be an afterthought, but the character is
a very interictal part of the story and becomes a bigger player than
anticipated.
There were many concerns coming into this movie, but it is safe to say that Marvel made it work despite the unfortunate circumstances. Wakanda Forever is on par with the first movies, if not a little better overall. From the performances to the action sequences to the amazing score this is a great crowd pleaser and a welcome addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Rating: B+
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