Black Panther (2018)

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One movie ‘fixes’ the entire factory line? Hm.

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No, that's not what he's saying. Obviously you didn't even watch the video.

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I've thought long before writing this review, but here it is:
super cool film, i liked it a ton

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Dobson wrote:
February 22nd, 2018, 3:11 pm
His reasons are exactly why Black Panther is one of my favourite Marvel films, along with Logan. It delves on so much. Its a Marvel film that actually makes an the effort to truly say something of value. It actually has meaningful dialogue, I hate when Marvel uses snarky dialogue as a placeholder for characterization. In Black Panther, people were actually talking to each other and there was a lot of subtle meaning behind many of them.
Like, I was just thinking about the dialogue T’Chaka says “Its hard for a good man to be king” and how looking at it from different points that meaning changes. When we initially hear it, you assume it means literally how it is said that that leaders have to make difficult decision, difficult choices. You cannot please everyone every time. But when you realize T’Chaka's misdeeds, killing his brother and abandoning his nephew as a child, the context of that line changes, it becomes more like I’ve tried to be a good man and a king but my responsibilities as king got in the way. It’s like he saying that his responsibilities as a king replaced his own moral beliefs
It truly is crazy that there is a blockbuster that addresses the legacies of colonialism/theft, systemic racism, isolationism/protectionism, disconnection of the diaspora and so on, and actually eliciting a number of different black perspectives. It is something with more depth then we usually see from something on this level. I’ve seen many criticism oversimplifying the film for the sake of a particular point but they ignore real thought-provoking points raised by the film. I genuinely like that the villain beautifully expresses legitimate anger and the heroes have a legacy of wrong decision they need to correct. It makes the whole thing more sincere than a classical good vs evil narrative. It allows people to resonate with different people in different ways.

Plus, based on the Vanity Fair video with Ryan Coogler on the Casino Scene I posted on the previous page it does show that there were serious thought and research behind this film. It is a deeply well crafted layered film. So, yeah, I wouldn’t classify this film as your standard Marvel fare.

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But like...
as soon as he said “Its hard for a good man to be king” I knew he killed his brother...idk why people are making that a deeper/bigger twist than it is.

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Dobson wrote:
February 22nd, 2018, 3:11 pm
I actually disagree with what he said in regards to the "bathos" humour. It's not gone in Black Panther, it's quite noticeable.

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Bacon wrote:
February 22nd, 2018, 9:11 pm
But like...
as soon as he said “Its hard for a good man to be king” I knew he killed his brother...idk why people are making that a deeper/bigger twist than it is.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that way either. I never looked at it as an indication of a twist. I merely liked that at from different angles it changes the meaning of the line and metaphorically what true leadership means.

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Yeah I don't see how it should be perceived and criticised as a "twist."

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darthnazgul wrote:
February 22nd, 2018, 9:21 pm
I actually disagree with what he said in regards to the "bathos" humour. It's not gone in Black Panther, it's quite noticeable.
Well that's what he said as well. It's not gone but toned down quite a bit.

Edit: Baron Zemo was good villain. How are people forgetting him btw.

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So Killmonger has to be the most 'brave' antagonist in the MCU, right? Like, just imagine how easy it would be for the 'you-know-what' kind of people to watch the film and misunderstand (purposefully) it so bad, it would cause them to diarrhea all over their keyboards lol.
To be honest, at first I hated him. Part of me is because I'm just #teammaincast lol but also because I knew he was supposed to be more than that in the film, yet had a very hard time sympathizing with him after he killed his lover with no consideration whatsoever. I also don't necessarily agree with the idea that he was never out there to "enrich himself" (paraphrasing someone's words), because on top of the genuine conflict there was, he seemed genuinely very power hungry as an individual. Besides, W'kabi does mention, that (paraphrasing, again) "soon the world will be divided between conquerors and the conquered" and that he'd rather be among the first. Which, obviously, stems from fear and need to protect oneself, but at the same time I feel like it does imply Killmonger and those close to him may have had intentions that weren't just fighting for Wakanda and his people's equality or were at the very least oblivious of how much of a double edged sword his actions would've been and the potential damage that would've ensued to Wakanda (and pretty much everybody else). He also orders to burn the Heart Shaped Herb/Flower, and no matter how I look at it, it's a selfish move - he wants to establish himself as the sole ruler of Wakanda and doesn't want anyone else to come after him.
But at the same time, when you're watching the film, you realize it's becoming harder and harder to just discard Killmonger as your regular bad guy who wants to kill the main guy yadda yadda. He's such a pained, completely misguided, but tormented individual. The very root of his inner turmoil and anger comes from such a legit place and his main goal to liberate is so right, and literally so much about him is morally right, that it's hard to see him struggle so much, especially when the "good guys" are shown to be really passive about doing anything at all, despite also having genuine intentions, albeit not so violent. It's obvious he had to die, because he was gone too far and regardless of his core intentions, his actions were never going to be redeemed by that. It's tragic, but kind of poetic as well that it's never up to him to truly change Wakanda or the world, but he provides the push T'Challa desperately needed to break out of the cycle and hopefully set the new (better) beginning in motion.

But I feel like it wouldn't have hurt to spend some more time with his character.

But can we agree W'kabi was a bit of an asshole? Like, I get him, but he's still kind of a jerk. I was expecting Okoye to slap the crap out of him :lol:

I also got nervous for Okoye a bit, but then remembered she was in the Infinity War trailer so ugh.. :lol:
Unrelated but I'm kind of glad I didn't listened to any of the music and didn't bother watching any more footage than a trailer I've seen some time ago (because I already knew I was going to watch this in theaters). Like, I can actually obsess over the music now!

Overall I think it's a really good one. Not sure if my favorite MCU, but whatever flaws it has (rushed arcs, sloppy editing/pacing, etc.) are overshadowed by the good, actually unique things this has to offer. Also, I'm struggling to remember a MCU movie with a better soundtrack. And I'm not just talking about the Kendrick curated album. I was so pumped whenever I'd hear that drumming sound lol.

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