A review of the new superhero movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
After seeing two really heavy films in a row, I yearned for some straightforward entertainment and “Black Panther 2” delivered. Following the great success of the original “Black Panther” movie, its lead actor Chadwick Boseman, who was king of Wakanda T’Challa, died of cancer aged just 43 and so the sequel had both to pay homage and to move on, both of which it does sensitively.Consequently black female actors are now even more to the fore, especially Letitia Wright as T’Challa’s sister Shuri and Angela Basset as T’Challa’s mother Ramonda. The key plot feature of this second visit to Wakanda is the discovery that the state is not alone is having access to the powerful substance vibranium and so we venture to the underwater city of Talokan led by Namor played by the Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta.
It is such a joy to see so many actors of colour filling all the top roles in a big budget movie – as was the case with “The Woman King” a few months ago – and the costumes and settings are wonderful. The loss of immensely talented Boseman inevitably brings a sense of pathos which one does not usually have in a superhero movie, but the main problem with “Wakanda Forever” is its excessive length of 2 hours 40 minutes.
African-American Ryan Coogler, who co-wrote and directed both “Black Panther” films, obviously loves his material, but the proposed third episode needs tighter editing. Having said that, at the end of the showing in IMAX that I attended, there was enthusiastic applause, so the fans are happy.