Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) is the sequel to the original Black Panther (2018) movie by Marvel Studios.
If not for the ill motives shining through on so many levels in this movie, I would rate it higher than the original, but as it stands, I’ll rate it equal to the original, alongside several other classics that are excessively one dimensional and a bit dull in patches.
Who is the star of this movie, by the way? I’ve gone for Tenoch Huerta (the bad guy) and Letitia Wright (the female Black Panther), but several others were on a similar level here. I would have personally loved to see a version of this movie starring a benevolent Michael B Jordan and maybe Lupita Nyong’o in an even more prominent role; or a more heroic version of Tenoch Huerta. Nothing against Letitia Wright though, she makes a good supportive sister to an action hero, she just isn’t lead role material in this genre, at least not the way her character comes across here. Come on Marvel, get it right for Black Panther 3, if there will be one. DC blew you out the water with Black Adam in 2022 – they had all your epic new sound effects PLUS a strong lead character (even if he had a dark side, he was mostly heroic).
The original had a tidier concept; with an aggressive young male antagonist and a softy for a main action hero; plus terrible bratty pop music throughout; warped gender roles; and belligerent behaviorism.
The sequel, Wakanda Forever, takes the plot to another level, which is probably necessary because the cat’s out the bag in terms of the basic concept from the original. So we could say the plots deserve equal rating.
But the sequel has no strong male character we can get behind. It’s actually hard defining who is the star in this movie, since it’s so messy and void in this department. The nasty antagonist (Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta) is a strong male figure; and there’s a brief scene featuring the antagonist from the original movie (the Black Panther version of Erik Killmonger, played by Michael B Jordan – his short scene is one of the best things about this movie). But in terms of the good guys, all the action heroes in this movie are female except the very minor role by the leader of the tribe that hides in the mountains (M’Baku played by Winston Duke). The Black Panther in this movie only appears near the end, and this role is taken by T’Challa’s sister from the original movie – Shuri, played by Letitia Wright – an androgenous female who has a nice smile and is a decent actress but is hardly a powerful action hero. Aside from her, there’s the spy Nakia, played by Lupita Nyong’o, who plays a major role again that includes rescuing the princess this time; there’s a new girl Dominique Thorne who plays Riri Williams, a world-leading teenage scientist that dons ironman-type suits (representing the comicbook character called Ironheart); there’s the leader of the female warrior guards Okoye played by Danai Gurira who gets a new supersuit, has a more dynamic role this time and excels at it; and there’s Ramonda, Queen of Wakanda, played by Angela Bassett – her character is the mother of T’Challa and his sister who is the new Black Panther this time round. So basically the main action hero and all the similar roles this time round are occupied by women, as if Chadwick Boseman didn’t seem demure & emasculated enough last time round. Boseman actually died in 2020, allegedly of colonic cancer which he’d been battling since 2016 – that’s why he wasn’t in this movie.
The script contains various health related messages from the outset, touching on infections, heart issues, and unexplained sudden deaths. There’s also a strong element of hypnotic entrancement (a zombie innuendo). Considering the year this movie came out, all this can be construed as a nod towards certain institutional foul play that our website would be suppressed for mentioning.
On the plus side, the music is outstanding this time round – much more authentic in terms of traditional African music, and much better in terms of harmonious & enjoyable modern music also – last time it was just a patronising satirical version of African music plus a selection of modern pop songs that barely qualify as noise, having zero benevolent art or real talent within them. Isolated sound effects are also on point this time round. It’s like the sound & music team changed from immature to immortal this time round. It makes a massive difference to the quality of atmosphere generated, and the overall experience, and clicks very well in certain scenes, especially when the new Black Panther jumps out of the sky and announces herself to the mountain tribe, not far from the end. Just a shame this movie is still massively disabled by lack of a strong benevolent male role – we don’t even get a weak male like we had the last time. This movie could have been several times better if Michael B Jordan somehow came back to take care of business towards the end – with a compassionate heart of course.