I’m impressed that Wakanda Forever turned out as good as it did given that the production team had to start all over due to the tragic death of Chadwick Bossman, the leading man of the 2018 Black Panther blockbuster. T’Challa’s sister Shuri (played with intensity and heart here by Letitia Wright once again) has put on the Panther helmet in the comics, but he still left some big shoes to fill. When you throw in the serial nature of MCU films, that gives the movie multiple tasks to juggle with.
Multiple parties are after Wakanda’s vibranium, with Angela Bassett’s Queen Ramona filling in the role of interim leader of the aspiring country. This may be a comic book romp but Bassett isn’t treating it like a run of the mill affair, showing plenty of fire both dealing with family loss and keeping the nation safe. Tenoch Hutera Mejia plays Namor/the Sub-Mariner making his MCU debut, and much like his usual portrayal in the books, he’s pissed off over this vibranium war that’s broken out and is affecting his watery empire of Talokan.
His gaze turns towards Riri Williams, a college scientist prodigy who’s developed technology that can detect the elusive Wakandian mineral. Shuri sets out along with warrior general Okoye (Danai Gurira) to protect the young teen, but luckily for them she’s also the armored superhero Ironheart, something that comes in handy while dealing with both the authorities and underwater gladiators who want to lop their heads off. Losing Tony Stark in Endgame was pretty rough, but Riri proves to be pretty appealing in her debut as MCU’s new battlesuit protector, so I’m ready to see more of her in future films.
Since the production got flipped upside down, there winds up being story elements unexplored or underdeveloped, such as the angle with a returning Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and his federal agent significant other (Julia Louis Dreyfus).
Like M’Baku (Winston Duke), it feels as if he could have been given more to do with the runtime, and the subplot with Okoye could have gotten more attention. What elevates the movie above some of the hiccups is actually its clear focus on overcoming loss, both in and outside the making of the film, making it feel pretty unique among most Marvel fare.
Now Coogler could have easily spent most of his runtime on Wakanda just going along and trying to cope with the loss of their monarch, and those elements definitely are part of the script. But he also gets that in the Marvel universe, evil is always afoot and as a writer, you gotta keep things moving at a quicker pace. It makes more logical sense that the nation’s enemies are going to go after their resources in their leader’s absence and conflicts will arise because of that.
So there’s a heavy “Empire Strikes Back” aura to the movie, while at the same time serving as Shuri’s origin story as she assumes the Panther mantle. At times the tone and pacing can be a bit muddled since it has to balance being a tribute to Boseman/T-Challa and also setting up for future MCU installments.
Between the three major MCU movies that came out this year, despite some unsettled loose ends, I still think this is probably the strongest of them, and I felt Dr. Strange 2 and Thor Love and Thunder were both pretty solid and entertaining. You can tell that Boseman’s acting style was a heavy influence on the production, which was upended with his death as a whole bunch of stuff had to get changed and rewritten. Still, even with these factors working against it, Wakanda Forever is a strong and emotive follow up that keeps things moving well with big implications for future Marvel adventures.
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