Black Panther:Wakanda Forever(2022 / Action -Drama/ Disney Hotstar)
Written and Directed by: Ryan Coogler
Cast: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke,Dominique Thorne,Tenoch Huerta Mejía
Plot
Queen Ramonda, Shuri, M’Baku, Okoye and the Dora Milaje fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia and Everett Ross and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.
Analysis
The first act focuses on grieving Wakanda in the aftermath of the loss of their crown prince. You can see the love and respect the entire cast had for Late Chadwick Boseman. It’s meta in a way where not only the characters but also the actors are grieving the loss of their dear brother. It’s so beautiful.
Primarily, Black Panther 2 works when you see it as a tribute to the Late Chadwick Boseman.
But when it comes to the screenplay,It feels half-baked and hastily written.
The writers in the second act set up an extremely generic and predictable conflict whose outcome is known already. Two nations warring for a scarce resource. Damn that is not innovative, right? (No, it’s not) The Backstory for Namor is so predictable like the dude has a messed up childhood and goes up against his oppressors. How many times did I watch it? I don’t even remember that. Even for Comic book movies standard, the plot is nothing new. (Insert) a teenager with special power needs saving, (insert) a badass superhero must save her. Boom! Plot created!
This is why raging cinephiles crap on these movies on Twitter and the film you are plays right into their hands.
The post-credits were really good, but I felt that point could have been introduced in the 2nd act and made more drama work. Instead of manufacturing a generic conflict of Talokan V Wakanda which feels so predictable and devoid of stakes. Wakandan Civil war along the lines of House of the dragon would have been ideal…
Our Indian action choreographers compose and stage better action sequences than whatever was in this movie. Being a superhero movie, I was bummed a lot watching this. By the time, there were completed, I was completely exhausted and wanted the whole ordeal to end. The cinematography falters in the underwater portions, which fail to effectively portray the underwater kingdom. It was barely visible at times which was so annoying.
Fortunately, the performances were fantastic.
Letitia Wright is in top form. While watching, you can feel as a viewer, the bond she shared with Late Chadwick which is very evident in the opening scene and the post-credits.
But for me, the star of the show is Angela Bassett ,so believable as a grieving mother, inspiring as Queen Ramona and damn this is not even her full acting chops on display.She just casually gives the best performance without visible effort which is a trademark feature of a great actor.
Regardless of whether she will win that Oscar, I am happy that she’s nominated.
The soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson is another character itself in this movie. It makes a lacklustre script bearable and work to some extent.
But yeah the overall impression is that it’s more of a documentary than a feature film.