Black Panther

Once again, a very fresh comic spectacle. Almost all of it takes place in Africa, so the design is, as expected, wonderful and the viewer gets to see a lot of great ideas on how to combine folklore with science fiction. Moreover, everything is helped by Ludwig Göransson's perfect music - quite possibly the most imaginative soundtrack of all the Marvel films. T'Challa was sufficiently presented to us in Civil War, so the story can follow that film smoothly, and although it actually tells the story of the origin of another superhero, it does it at least fairly uniquely, it’s own way and with great actors. (16/02/2018)

Direction-wise a solidly crafted Marvel movie with literally amazing action scenes, but with an average main character. The existence of the comic book character doesn’t help him and neither does the fact that Marvel is attempting to balance the representation of genders of the human race. Maybe it wasn’t intended in that way, but it definitely looks like it; Wakanda is so boring and unfunny that it’s hard to find anything positive about it. But yeah, I realize that Black Panther has a place in the universe. He for sure won’t be my favorite hero, though. (19/10/2018)

All the blackness aside, it's actually a pretty typical Marvel creation with all the slow waxing of boredom and laziness over generic visuals and impassioned speeches. I guess it's understandable, since young black folks would also like to have a hero they can identify with in the Marvel universe, so they really only had to do the same thing they did before, except in inverted colors. Fine, but it's still a chore and I can't stop marveling at how little it takes to satisfy people. Namely, the protagonist has no character, he functions like a hero in FPS video games so that as many people as possible can project themselves into him. It pretends to be a humanistic story, but the whole thing is an elitist quest where members of the nobility solve their problems somewhere in a country we know nothing about because the film has no interest in telling us about it. This detachment from reality is probably already just a projection of the real detachment of the filmmakers, who only know the outside world from Facebook, so we can at least entertain the fact that whenever the camera decides to go somewhere down among the working people, there are always farmers' markets on that street, whether we're in the US, South Korea, or Wakanda. It's great how this builds up the illusion after the fact that while the main characters, who never eat and always look worried, have to worry about the big problems for all of us, while the everyday people down below are actually doing nothing but shopping and idling. And these are things that I might not have needed to think about if, at least in my eyes, the expectations of a comic book blockbuster had been met and there hadn't been only two and a half action scenes (of which only one is actually any fun anyway) for 134 minutes of running time. But the five white swans always fly reliably between the buildings in the panoramic scenes. So my advice: watch the first two installments of Blade and instead of the third, which sucks, watch Django Unchained, and then you'll understand what a properly fearless African-American should look like. And I'm advising you from the proven position of a European white guy with mixed Jewish blood and a not-so-bad salary, so you can't go wrong. If you have a problem with that, I can hire a black man to say it for me. Nudge nudge wink wink wink. (17/05/2018)

You know the rhetoric. A Marvel fanboy yells at a DC fanboy for his heroes being anchored in reality. It is impossible to root for someone who is as rich as Bruce Wayne or as divine as Diana of Themyscira. Then, all of a sudden, the Marvel fanboy now has an African Atlantis starring the royal prince. Hmm. (29/12/2018)

Six visits to the cinema and the first full score. I may be going against the tide, but for me, Black Panther is the most interesting and best Marvel movie since Winter Soldier. I haven't been a fan of Marvel movies much lately (Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy or the new childish Thor, which I downright suffered through), but Black Panther set my favorite serious, dark thriller tone and took away more or less everything that bothered me so far. There's no CGI Mess, just the gorgeous and impressive Wakanda, the villain is not an alien or mutant but a human, and right off the bat we have the best villain in the entire Marvel Universe, who also has a different plan than everyone else so far (Michael B. Jordan was incredible), and I can actually praise Andy Serkis, who was reminiscent of the Joker in his awesomeness. It's not fought in space or on an alien planet or dimension, but in Korea or Africa and it immediately feels not only more real, but more intense. The R&B and Hip Hop soundtrack is a big plus and the new track by The Weeknd, which was played in a local bar, was a real treat. I have only minor reservations about the action, and that's the faster editing, but it's intense and effective enough that I was able to enjoy it to the fullest. The finale is decently epic and tense, the characters are all great, the female cast also excels, the Rihanna-lookalike sister of the Panther was very funny, cute and technologically gifted, M'Baku provided funny interludes that were totally apt and appropriate and I really liked the African rituals, costumes and traditions. After a second viewing, the enthusiasm has waned. (16/02/2018)