Black Panther

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Ted Williams' head

It's freezing in here!
Sep 23, 2015
11,283
19,102
I'm going to see it tonight. I was turned off of it because I just find it weird that a dude would model his persona around a cat, because we typically associate cats with chicks, even big cats (we call a horny older woman "cougar", etc). Plus where his nails are relatively short (unlike Wolverine's masculine blades) it kinda looks like a chick's nails.

Call me old fashioned but I just think a male superhero should be fashioned around something cool like a bat or spider. Why couldn't he be Black Mamba, like Roger Mayweather? Much cooler imo. But I'll reserve my judgement until I see the film.
 

Super Dave

The party’s over
Dec 28, 2015
11,295
15,500
I'm going to see it tonight. I was turned off of it because I just find it weird that a dude would model his persona around a cat, because we typically associate cats with chicks, even big cats (we call a horny older woman "cougar", etc). Plus where his nails are relatively short (unlike Wolverine's masculine blades) it kinda looks like a chick's nails.

Call me old fashioned but I just think a male superhero should be fashioned around something cool like a bat or spider. Why couldn't he be Black Mamba, like Roger Mayweather? Much cooler imo. But I'll reserve my judgement until I see the film.
 

kneeblock

Drapetomaniac
Apr 18, 2015
12,435
23,026
I'm going to see it tonight. I was turned off of it because I just find it weird that a dude would model his persona around a cat, because we typically associate cats with chicks, even big cats (we call a horny older woman "cougar", etc). Plus where his nails are relatively short (unlike Wolverine's masculine blades) it kinda looks like a chick's nails.

Call me old fashioned but I just think a male superhero should be fashioned around something cool like a bat or spider. Why couldn't he be Black Mamba, like Roger Mayweather? Much cooler imo. But I'll reserve my judgement until I see the film.
He's been a comic character for over 40 years. Too much backstory to make a Black Velociraptor.
 

Darqnezz

Merkin' fools since pre-school
Apr 25, 2015
4,653
7,214
Where do you rank it among the other marvel movies?
Does it have the usual mcu humour?
My ranking of the recent flicks:
1. Guardians 1
2. Ironman 1
3. Captain America Civil war
4. The Avengers
5. Black Panther
6. Thor Ragnarok
7. Doctor Strange
8. Winter soldier
9. Guardians 2
10. Captain America The First Avenger
11. Antman
12. Spiderman Homecoming
 

maurice

Posting Machine
Oct 21, 2015
1,361
2,295
Where do you rank it among the other marvel movies?
Does it have the usual mcu humour?
Very high. It's an adult movie like Winter Soldier with serious themes and relatively little humor.

It's not about good guys fighting bad guys. The antagonist is excellent and arguably not even a "bad guy."

Apples and oranges to compare it to something like Guardians or Ragnarok.
 

Super Dave

The party’s over
Dec 28, 2015
11,295
15,500
Very high. It's an adult movie like Winter Soldier with serious themes and relatively little humor.

It's not about good guys fighting bad guys. The antagonist is excellent and arguably not even a "bad guy."

Apples and oranges to compare it to something like Guardians or Ragnarok.
That's good to hear. As much as I enjoy Marvel movies not all of them need so much humour. Guardians is fine but my main issue with Ragnarok was the amount of jokes.
 

sparkuri

Pulse On The Finger Of The Community
First 100
Jan 16, 2015
34,423
46,563
THE WHITE DELAGATION WILL NOW COME TO ORDER.

For any comic man(real man), we've been waiting a generation for ALL major comic characters, and particularly Black Panther, to make it to the big screen.
Most of us probably never dreamed they'd make a really good animation, let alone a movie, especially considering the absolute horseshit we've been fed over the years.
After the original Superman franchise, which was awesome(1-3), but declining terribly after 3.
(At that point, Richard Pryor was my favorite actor, between Sup 3 & The Toy).

The Batman & Spiderman franchises were horrific(imo), with the exception of Batman 1, and then thanks to the
- big budget,
- Nicholson, Keaton & Basinger
- Burton's ability to cross his weirdness into the natural darkness of Batmanworld.
- A signature soundtrack.

Enter & thank you Marvel. And tragically Heath Ledger, as his death drove me to see the much hyped Dark Knight after Iron Man's release. Unfortunately, since The Dark Knight, only Marvel's Captain America franchise(notably The Winter Soldier), and now The Black Panther. have taken comic movies in a serious direction, in contrast to cracking jokes in the midst of Armageddon(or Ragnarok).
Before that, only box office flops which some purists enjoy(2003's Hulk in my case) have attempted a proper approach, far be it from me to criticize the movie styles that make billions and marketing tactics employed.

BLACK PANTHER

The beginning of the movie was good, narrating history then taking us to Wakanda to finally explore this new world we've been waiting forever for. Until now only Marvel's animated Ultimate Alliance had even given us a glimpse of JUST Wakanda/Black Panther.
I'd say the first third of the movie was great and right on track for a legitimized blockbuster.
Enter the absolutely RIDICULOUS bad guy, Michael B. Jordan, who until entering Wakanda was doing OK in his role.
Upon entering Wakanda (like he'd been there a million times), Erik Killmonger drags the ghetto persona with him as a completely arrogant fool who wears the title of soldier, as if there's been the slightest hint of discipline introduced into his habit at any point in his life.

I would say with absolute certainty, that what kept this movie from an identity of a mix between Winter Soldier & Ragnarok, to absolutely meh, was the notion that some punk could waltz into Wakanda by birthrite and challenge for the throne of the most sophisticated, secretive and powerful nation in earth's history, and strut around barking orders like Will Smith bitch-slapping an alien.
What made that notion arguably worse, was the opposition within, giving the impression that common fucking sense was overruled by blood.
So we've got underground railways with mag-lev and sound-op transporting vibranium, defying current scientifically established theories, cities built that took hundreds of years, technology that's Stark-level + vibranium permeating throughout society, a forcefield/visionfield built that hides this all from all other entities of planet earth, then O-dog walks in from the mean streets of Oakland and takes it all with a fistfight.
Novel notion, but utterly ridiculous.

The Good
That it finally happened.
And EVERYTHING, minus the plot and Erik Killmonger aka Michael B. Jordan's character.
That said, Killmoner's look, hair, brandings, suit and all else was very cool
The city was awesome, the technology was awesome, the tribal feel, color, vibrancy, the women warriors protecting the throne.
When this movie takes you to Wakanda, you are getting the feel of generations of happiness and love, mixing the future and past, and putting equal importance to ancestral honor to current protection of the kingdom.
Chadwick Boseman's reverance of the throne and land, a good pick for Black Panther, good on-screen presence.
Daniel Kaluuya was born for his role, and did it perfect. I wish he had a tad bigger role.
Both Sterling K. Brown and John Kani were excellent in their casted roles as elders N'Jobu & T'Chaka, respectively.
Angela Basset was stunning, Forest Whitaker was Forest Whitaker, but also not Forest Whitaker.
ALL the chicks were good, and I particularly like Letitia Wright, maybe because she looks like Yves Edwards sister ;)

The Bad
As stated, ugh, Killmonger was ridiculous.
The feeling was(for anyone with an IQ), that a current American societal barrier was trying to be stessed at several points, and particularly through Jordan's character. It turned a 9/10 movie into a 6.5-7/10 movie.
Despite Boseman's likeability, he really should've dug deep into the dialect. This was evident in Civil War.
Angela Basset is guilty of this too. She was visibly stressed with accomplishing the accent, and at points overacted, which sucked because visually she captures the essence of a distinguished Queen.
The INEVITABLE racial digs, of which were 3, which accounted for exactly half of the humor in the film.
CIA agent Everett K. Ross as the token white guy recipient was perfect for that agenda, standing 5'6" tall weighing 140 lbs. wet & wearing boots, the grayed 50 year old deer in headlights was just that throughout.
Comments like "We gotta fix another white boy" and "Go get the colonialist", are just as racist as "nigger" or "spearchucker", and shows once again how Hollywood and media perpetuate their bosses' agendas without consideration.
The first after-credit scene where T'Challa states: “In times of crisis, the wise build bridges, while the foolish build walls.”
was exclusively a dig at nationalist policy against illegal immigration, but really, Trump.
It'd be nice if we could keep politics out of movies, wishful.
Another one was the society/technology dynamic, there was no clear sense of "who built or maintains this place?"
It looked like you took a colorful population out of Ghana and dropped them in a supercity.
This wasn't unique only to this film, but was more noticeable as there wasn't a single worker in sight, as opposed to say, S.H.I.E.L.D.
The only work being done was grinding flowers into Panther juice.


Summary
This ended up being more unremarkable than remarkeable, and yet another movie where you end up thinking "what could have been".
It was long, which I tend to like, so there's a lot of cool parts to remember.
"Hi", to his crush after being dropped from the aircraft was the funniest part of the movie.
Despite being directed by a black dude, you get the feeling he only directed 3/4 of it, and the shit plot was injected by some studio cuck.
All the effects, richness of culture, rituals, visions etc. along with the characters saved the movie.
But again, Jordan's character along with the plot it maintained was dumb.
They also ruined Klaw's character, turning him from an interesting arms dealer into a semi-raging carefree psychopath.

It's hard to rate, and in that way it reminds me of Dr.Strange.
Benedict Cumberbatch was so stupid and much of the dialogue so painful it was hard to detach all the cool parts of the movie.
I'd rate them the same, whatever that is.
 
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maurice

Posting Machine
Oct 21, 2015
1,361
2,295
Wakandans think of Wakanda the same way that Banchan thinks of Korea. The film would be much less plausible if they didn't, since (unlike Banchan) their opinion is completely justified. If you mentioned white people to the average Wakandan, they'd think of Klaw, the guy who just killed their king, and African colonizers in general. Sorry that the fictional black people hurt your feelings.

BTW, the Wakandan attitude toward non-Wakandans is portrayed as a bad thing that drives the plot.
 

KWingJitsu

ยาเม็ดสีแดงหรือสีฟ้ายา?
Nov 15, 2015
10,311
12,758
Heysus Mon Dieu!
I keep forgetting this subforum exists.

Here's My Spoiler-Free Review from the off topic thread:

1. Temper your expectations. The hype behind the movie will lead to over-expectations. It's good, and it's different, but not the "game-changer" some reviewers called it. That's just some colonizer guilt talking :cool: (movie reference).
2. Movie starts off well and moves quickly into action-drama territory. About halfway through, it picks up the pace and switches to full action-packed Marvel movie.
3. Most of it is self-contained in Wakanda, but there are a few other locations visited (London, Korea)
4. Wakanda really looks great! Kind of reminded me of the Grandmaster's planet in Thor 3; grimy, techy & cool looking.
5. The supporting cast putting in work, especially the women of Wakanda.
Side Note: Lupita Nyungo is a cot damn tasty SNACK!!!

The 'best' thing about the movie is the plot/ backstory, and how it's revealed on multiple levels. And how it affects the story. Very remenicient of Civil War where flashbacks (and a vision or two) gradually reveal the full hidden story.

The "so-so" thing may be the ending being a bit weak. Not weak "bad", but weak compared to the second half of the movie. Could have had more "oomph!" The first mid-credits scene (with a bit more explanation) would actually serve as a better 'ending' here.

The 'worst' thing may be something to do with the suit. The movie does the annoying Spiderman Homecoming thing where "the suit" makes up a lot of his powers - more than it should. Because it actually distracts somewhat from his super powers which are clearly explained throughout the movie. Oh and occasionally, the suit CGI - ironically reminded me of Blade 2 at times (the 'bouncy' effect which also afflicted most Spiderman movies).

Stay for the second after-credits scene, because it means someone has done something in Wakanda that affects a certain Marvel character that I believe will be directly revealed in Avengers Infinity War.​

8.3/10
 

Dead Again

Active Member
Oct 10, 2017
93
116
I thought it was great. In my opinion, it's the best written Marvel movie so far.

I liked that the "villain" had a lot of depth, and you could be sympathetic to him. I felt like you could understand his anger.

The movie was a little political as some have said, but I don't see how you make a movie about a nation in the world that is figuring out it's place in it without having some politics in it. I think that would be impossible. The quote about "building bridges and not barriers", I chuckled when I heard it because I knew people on both sides of the political spectrum would take something from it, but again, I think it fit perfectly with what the movie was about. I feel the writers went out of their way to use "barriers" instead of "walls" to keep it from being a direct dig at Trump.

I've never been a huge Black Panther fan, and I'm surprised how much I liked the movie. It's probably because it feels like it really was written for adults.