Five Thoughts on “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
I held off on seeing this for a bit because, well, it’s a movie about grief, and about the death of a real person as well as a fictional character, and I wasn’t sure how I was gonna handle it. I’m glad I saw it though.
Spoilers (big ones) after the poster.
1. There was a brief period of time where I wondered, “Wait, is Nakia gonna be in this movie for more than a cameo?!” but no she got to join in the big fight at the end! And wear some absolutely stunning outfits! I am trying to work out the timeline with regard to her son though. I guess Nakia must have been pregnant during Infinity War, thus retroactively giving us a reason she wasn’t in it?
2. Poor Queen Ramonda might be the clear winner of the “who in the MCU has suffered the most” contest. Loses husband. Loses son briefly while nephew takes over her kingdom and destroys all she knew. Loses son AND daughter in the Snap. Gets both children back, only to lose son for good this time. Sends one of her closest companions away in rage and never gets a chance to reconcile with her. Dies not knowing if she was successful in saving Riri or even if her daughter is safe from Namor’s wrath. Jeeeeeeeez.
3. It was great to see Michaela Coel but I have a suspicion a lot of her character was left on the cutting room floor. Hey, unless she’s gonna be the main character of that Wakanda-based TV show that was announced ages ago and this was just a test run so to speak? That would be awesome. Oh, and it was also great to see Michael B. Jordan absolutely killing it in his three minutes of screentime! I was NOT expecting that so I’m so glad I wasn’t spoiled for his cameo.
4. I wondered a few times throughout this movie, “Why is everyone so focused on getting vibranium? There’s alien tech lying around all over the place and it probably has a lot of the same properties!” Maybe that’s the point though, that everyone wants something Africa has even though they don’t need it.
5. This movie took pains to avoid saying what T’Challa actually died of. I don’t know if they’re leaving it up it in the air to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman and the fact he kept his illness private, or if they plan to build it up to something, like “everyone who was Snapped ended up with their DNA changed, some died but some (the X-Men) became mutants” that sort of thing. Not sure how I feel about that…