‘Black Panther’: The Crown Weighs Heavy On The King [Review]

Notions of identity, isolationism, birthright and nativisim aren’t exactly the first elements that come to mind when you think of a crowdpleasing Marvel movie, but that’s exactly the kind of captivating moral, emotional and geopolitical texture that’s strewn throughout “Black Panther.” A familiar, but nevertheless entertaining stand-alone episode with few direct connections to the overarching Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Black Panther” sidesteps the origin story to focus on the aftermath of “Captain America: Civil War” and explores the heavy burden facing the new king of Wakanda.

Following the death of his father, T’Challa aka Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) returns to his technologically-advanced African nation of Wakanda to take up the crown, but there’s a lot of expository backstory to get through first (which is perhaps the trade-off of ditching the origin story). There are two prologues: one, told in animated storytelling form, details the dark history of the monarchy and vibranium, the much-sought-after strongest metal on Earth; and the second, set in early ‘90s Oakland, tees up the movie’s main antagonist and sets up the secrets, betrayals and lies that the Wakandan republic is built on.

While the Wakandan hunt is on for the recently resurfaced Ulysses Klaue (a greatly amusing Andy Serkis), the vibranium arms dealer we saw in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” his reappearance puts the Black Panther agenda at odds with the C.I.A. and its shrewd top agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman). This MacGuffin plot, however, quickly gives way to the story of Erik Killmonger (a fantastic Michael B. Jordan), a wrathful and militant mercenary who has his own designs on the Wakandan throne.

While those aforesaid expounding preludes are flat and patchy, once “Black Panther” gets out of its crouching position and goes on a sprint, it’s an engaging ride that rarely lets up. Directed with flair and flavor by Ryan Coogler (“Creed,” “Fruitvale Station”), “Black Panther” initially strikes one as the most distinct Marvel movie to date….until it’s not. With its dazzling setting, aesthetics and tribes, on the surface, it all feels like a Marvel movie we’ve never seen before. But as it unfolds, it becomes very clear that the action drama is fundamentally cut from the same Marvel cloth, albeit with new colors and markings that make it seem rather fresh. In short, the African milieu meets “Doctor Strange”-esque mysticism meets space-age technology that feels plucked from “Guardians Of The Galaxy” or Stark Industries, coupled with the political intrigue ripped from the ‘Captain America’ movies.

Written by Coogler and Joe Robert Cole (“American Crime Story”), the screenplay does a remarkable job of not only ticking off all the Marvel boxes of action, disarming humor and romance, but balances dozens of characters and their emotional arcs while weaving in great layers of moral and political clash and confrontation. “Black Panther” packs so much in and yet never feels overstuffed. There’s also an incredibly strong female presence with Lupita Nyong’o playing a Wakandan spy and former lover of T’Challa, Danai Gurira as Okoye, the country’s greatest warrior and head of their Special Forces, and Letitia Wright as Shuri, T’Challa’s smart-mouth little sister who’s also the nation’s foremost tech wizard.

It’s a testament to the writing that you could go long on each of these characters, who they are, their motivations and their emotional interiors; “Black Panther” knows how to give three-dimensional life to supporting characters with very limited space to do so. The main storyline, between T’Challa and Killmonger, a power struggle about legacy, entitlement and denied representation is emotionally rich, and possibly the best Marvel hero/villain dichotomy we’ve seen yet. “Black Panther” is the story of a leader and a nation coming to terms with who they really are, and the cracked-mirror reality isn’t very pretty.

As Killmonger, a venomous Jordan steals the movie. While this agent-of-chaos character is out for revenge, a rather typical motivation, there’s well-written emotional motives woven into the fabric of the character, and Jordan’s electrical animosity brings an intense volatility to the performance. While solid in the role, Boseman might be the least interesting part of the movie as the titular lead, which says a lot about how well the rest of the characters are written and cast.

Yet, it wouldn’t be a Marvel movie without some issues. The action is a bit of a mess, which is a shame considering how well Coogler directed the fight scenes in “Creed.” And one-take shots are nice and all, but not so much when they look like CGI’d video game fare. Additionally, the movie leans rather dubiously on its futuristic technology to the point of breaking suspension of disbelief; is there really nothing Wakandan tech cannot do?

However, the main point of contention is how “Black Panther” sets itself up as a game changer for Marvel. But unlike ‘Civil War’ — the movie that “Black Panther” most resembles in its core ideas — which deconstructs Captain America and leaves the hero’s identity and belief system in tatters, this film doesn’t go as far, with much of the narrative wrapping up rather nicely and conveniently in the end.

There’s almost not enough space to full examine it here — oh the think pieces to come! — but the political texture of Wakanda is fascinatingly complex, problematic, regressive and the movie’s best elements. If it weren’t fictional, it would be Steve Bannon’s favorite African nation without a doubt. Wakanda is a technological wonder, but it’s also a nation of self-regarding isolationists, built upon layers of lies and mistrust. The state hordes the precious vibranium they have told the rest of the world no longer exists, and their advancements in medicine and weaponry could revolutionize the planet. Instead, they literally masquerade as a country of impoverished farmers, hiding their hi-tech cities with cloaking device force fields from the rest of the world. (Trumpists would wonder, “Who would think to look in this shithole?”). Nativists through and through (though fear of imperialist exploitation is likely an issue, but one never really addressed), Wakanda rejects refugees and refuses to help any of their fellow deprived African brothers and sisters even though they’re more than capable of providing relief and aid. Wakanda is practically Alt-Right Africa in its apathy, lack of empathy, and righteous self-interest.

The murky moral dimension of the “Black Panther” world is wonderfully rich and complex and it gives great pause for its new king to reconcile. And yet, all this intricacy is resolved in rather simplistic fashion in the end. It’s just a superhero movie, one might say, but if you’re going to set up this fertile ground, you might want to really follow through. “Black Panther” is a bit more explicit in its Trump-subtweeting denouement, and it wrestles with many of the same concepts that have made the ‘Captain America’ movies so great in recent years: what are we fighting for, for whom, and in all this bluster, are we actually on the right side of the war? “Black Panther” plays with similar ideas of pulling back the curtain to reveal that the truths you’ve been told and the things you defend may not be as honorable as you once thought they were.

Audiences may not care about these political and ethical questions one way or another, and ultimately, “Black Panther” is a hugely compelling crowdpleaser. A new leader has emerged in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he’ll be a force to reckoned with. [B+]