It's Official: Black Panther Is The Best Marvel Movie Yet

“I have seen gods fly. I have seen men build weapons that I couldn’t even imagine. I have seen aliens drop from the sky. But I have never seen anything like this.” So mutters astonished C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) as he first sets eyes on the shrouded African country of Wakanda, a veritable El Dorado that mined a meteorite’s worth of vibranium to become the most technologically advanced nation on Earth, and the host country for the best Marvel movie so far, by far. He speaks for us all.

Nobody has ever seen anything like “Black Panther” — not just an entire civilization built from the metal stuff inside Captain America’s shield, and not even just a massive superhero movie populated almost entirely by black people, but also a Marvel film that actually feels like it takes place in the real world.

Over the course of three phases, 11 years, and 18 installments, Marvel has taken us everywhere from the Norse kingdom of Asgard, to a living planet called Ego, and a literally time-less void known as the Dark Dimension. And yet, those fantastical adventures are virtually indistinguishable from the episodes that are (mostly) set on Earth. Despite the fact that “Ant-Man” is rooted in San Francisco, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is an ode to the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, and “The Avengers” climaxes with a “Battle of New York” that looks curiously like Cleveland, all of these films still feel like glimpses into a parallel universe made out of plastic — a bizarro alternate timeline (complete with its own 9/11) where everyone has been reverse-engineered from their own action figures.

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youtube.com/watch?v=C8dfiDeJeDU
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe has proven itself to be exactly that, a self-contained snow globe that’s wrapped in spandex and lined with money. It has little sense of history beyond that which it’s created for itself; the moral imperatives that divide the Avengers tend to exist in a vacuum, while the colonialist undertones rumbling beneath “Thor: Ragnarok” are easy to miss for those who haven’t been conditioned to feel them.

“Black Panther” is different. It’s the first one of these films that flows with a genuine sense of culture and identity, memory and musicality. It’s the first one of these films that doesn’t merely reckon with power and subjugation in the abstract, but also gives those ideas actual weight by grafting them onto specific bodies and confronting the historical ways in which they’ve shaped our universe. Last, but certainly not least, it’s also the first black superhero movie since the dawn of the genre’s seemingly endless golden age (or at least since that one where Will Smith hurled a giant whale at a bunch of innocent sailors).

As such, it was always going to be a landmark moment for representation, but writer-director Ryan Coogler doesn’t leave it at that. “Black Panther” might be the most visually striking chapter of this series, but its success isn’t just a matter of optics; its use of color is never simply cosmetic. An unabashed and mega-budgeted work of Afro-futurism, this multiplex entertainment leverages an imagined reality to broadly reflect upon the actual reality of the black experience(s). In making a movie that so lucidly allows one group of people to see themselves on screen, Coogler has created the first Marvel movie in which anyone can see themselves on screen. That’s an accomplishment all viewers can appreciate — one that gives new depth to the overarching themes of the MCU, finally grounding this franchise with the kind of stakes that it needs to support its cosmic scale.

Sup Forumsyps on suicide watch

“Black Panther” begins with a brief history of Wakanda, an outwardly unremarkable place located somewhere along the border between Kenya and Nambia. But what looks like a “shithole country” is actually a thriving society that’s been overlooked by the colonialist hegemony responsible for crippling so many of its neighbors; the people of Wakanda have protected their natural resources and native cultures by making it seem as though they don’t have much of either. When prince T’Challa (a stoic, nuanced Chadwick Boseman) returns home to mourn his father (killed in “Captain America: Civil War”) and ascend the throne, he’s inclined to keep tradition, even though he recognizes that the world is changing.

It’s easy to understand why he would fight for Wakanda to stay the same: The place is absolutely incredible. Even in 2D, it pops right off the screen. Despite perilously under-lighting a few nighttime sequences, cinematographer Rachel Morrison shoots the country so full of life that it’s genuinely hard to believe she didn’t film a single frame of it in Africa (for a movie that’s full of sloppy CG, the environmental green screen work is astonishing). From its rolling plains and their cartoonish war rhinos(!) to its bustling marketplace and Day-Glo dream skies, Wakanda is almost as well-realized as the five tribes of people who inhabit it.

So it feels like its based in the real world but its about a fictional hyper advanced African country? How does that work?

This is a story in which almost every character feels as though they continue to exist off-screen. That’s true of the newly widowed Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), who frets over the future of Wakanda in a 3D-printed, Zulu-inspired, future-chic wardrobe. It’s true of Shuri (Letitia Wright), the brilliant young princess who invents all of the country’s vibranium-driven technology and makes you forget all about Tony Stark. And Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), T’Challa’s warrior ex, who tells her king the honest truth and leads Wakanda’s awesomely badass all-female special forces, the Dora Milaje. And Okoye (Danai Gurira), the most awesomely badass of them all, who uses her wig as a weapon before launching into the one brief flurry of fight choreography so clean it could almost sneak into “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” And W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya!), a terse defender with conflicting desires.

These are people who have never been oppressed, in large part because good luck with that.

Most of all — in a bonafide Marvel rarity — it’s true of the film’s villain, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens (but definitely not his girlfriend, who doesn’t even get to deliver a single line of dialogue before she’s disappeared forever). Played by Michael B. Jordan in a swaggering performance that burns with the same fire he and Coogler lit in “Creed,” Erik is an American-raised Wakandan exile who kills for a living and lives for the chance to avenge the historic and ongoing wrongs that have been brought to bear against black people across the world. He resents the fact that Wakanda has removed itself from the narrative of slavery and imperialism, and he wants to use the nation’s power to flip that script in the most violent ways. (“I’ma burn it all!”) This is a guy who’s literally covered himself in death, patterning his body with a new keloid scar for every life he’s taken.

top of a pile of very profitable dogshit, who cares

>MUH KAPEGINO

And yet: T’Challah recognizes his anger. Boseman’s face softens with sympathy when this stranger from the Oakland projects shows up to claim the throne. Black Panther understands where Killmonger is coming from, if only to a certain extent, and it’s fascinating to watch a film of this size casually reckon with (or even merely allude to the existence of) the complex dynamic between Africans and their extended diaspora. The villain speaks in the language of slaves and oppressors, the hero wants to rewrite those roles from scratch, and the friction between their differing ideas of power is manifest through character-driven conflict that feels rooted to the ground they’re fighting over. It doesn’t matter that you know who wins in the end, or that the movie seldom deviates from its staid “Macbeth” structure, because being Black Panther and becoming Black Panther are two very different things.

But even though there are no giant lasers shooting from the sky, no armies of anonymous humanoid lizards running through the streets — even though none of these people seem to know who Thanos is, let alone waste their time talking about how a lazy purple space clown is on his way to Earth or whatever — the Marvel brand is still strong with this one. That’s both a blessing and a cruse.

On one hand, the film’s cultural currency is largely derived from the fact that it’s taking a seat at one of the world’s most exclusive tables; “Black Panther” is such a game-changer for black representation in part because it’s speaking in the hyper-codified language of the world’s biggest movie franchise. If it sometimes feels like the movie is too good to bother with the usual bullshit (e.g. a Stan Lee cameo), those signature Marvel touches help indicate to underserved black audiences that all of this — this universal language — belongs to them, too.

>not the best movie of all time
Shut up racist, I hope your employee finds this post and fires you

On the other hand, it means that “Black Panther” has to deal with the house style. To a certain extent, Coogler is able to overcome the blandness that comes with the territory, leaning on the specificity of Wakandan culture to overcome some of these movies’ usual weaknesses. The ecstatic costumes and lush cinematography are both impressive, but the film’s music is the real miracle here. A far cry from the profoundly generic slop that’s been used to score the previous Marvel stuff, Ludwig Göransson delivers a singular piece of work. Weaving South African and Senegalese drumming into the base of his compositions, Göransson creates a prickly, percussive sound that rumbles with anxiety and power. And then, just to rub it in, the film tops that off with a handful of original tracks from Kendrick Lamar and his pals. “Infinity War” might have hundreds of superheroes, but it won’t have that.

And then there are the action scenes. A longtime issue for the MCU, where the preference for plastic cartoon violence tends to result in numbing flurries of bad CG, and “Black Panther” only makes it worse. Given the gravitas of Coogler’s storytelling, and the visceral physicality that he brought to the boxing scenes in “Creed,” this comes as a very unpleasant surprise. It’s not just that the choreography in “Black Panther” lacks coherence, but also that every fight scene is undone by awful CG. From a weightless car chase in South Korea (rescued by a few nice character moments) to a climactic brawl that looks like it was rendered on a Nintendo 64, the lifeless and glaringly fake action work is more galling than usual because everything else in this movie feels so believable.

ut there is more that unites us than divides us, more about “Black Panther” that works than doesn’t. Even at its most artificial, this is still a thrilling, well-realized story of self-determination, told with real purpose and rare confidence. You believe in T’Challa, you believe in Wakanda, and you believe — maybe for the first time — that the MCU actually matters. It’s hard for a good movie to survive that kind of studio process, just as it’s hard for a good man to be king. Hard, but apparently not impossible.

Grade: B+
“Black Panther” opens in theaters on February 16th.

tl;dr
Its good because there are black people in it

Honestly I don't even mind the movie but I'm annoyed that they're turning it into a political statement somehow ignoring 40 years of great Blaxploitation movies.

Its hard not to agree with a blog writer that has a typical soy face

I like how these soy boy faggots dump on everything that came before a movie that hits all their SJW checkboxes they did the same kind of review with Last Jedi

>YFW based Stan Lee created Black Panther

It's soulless, corporate garbage just like TLJ

>“I have seen gods fly. I have seen men build weapons that I couldn’t even imagine. I have seen aliens drop from the sky. But I have never seen anything like this.”

Should this really be someone's reaction to a civilized African country?

...

lmao ethered someone tweet this to him

Please, Ehrlich could beat any of you alt-right virgins in a fight any day of the week.

I bench 450, git gud

>doesn’t merely reckon with power and subjugation in the abstract, but also gives those ideas actual weight by grafting them onto specific bodies and confronting the historical ways in which they’ve shaped our universe.

Christ, this reads like a second-year sociology major trying too hard to impress his prof.

>the best Marvel movie
*blocks your path*

>only 450
god what kind of a faggot admits to this?

>"A successful country run by niggers....now I've seen it all!" quips Ross
Damn

I hate how leftists use the word "bodies" like that... it completely dehumanizes whoever they're talking about..."violence done against black bodies"...no, it should be violence done against black PEOPLE, you're reducing a subject to an object, which is exactly what you're accusing those perpetuating violence of doing.

WAAAAAAAOW
a black man... in a rubber suit
the future is bright my friends

The beginning was good but the rest was mediocre was fuck. Same as Thor 1.

TOUR
DE
FORCE

Reminder that this soyboi has also historically hated the MCU films

> Scrolling this wall of text
> Finally read 1 sentence :
"But what looks like a “shithole country” is actually a thriving society that’s been overlooked by the colonialist..."

>wakanda
>stupid fake african accents
>feels like the real world
lmao

>soyboy
Enough with this debunked meme

youtube.com/watch?v=C8dfiDeJeDU

>it's a "new marvel movie is the best marvel movie so far" episode

>thinking you can debunk a meme
absolutely soy

If this movie was made in the 50's it would be called
COLORED PANTHER.

interesting

>he didn't watch the video
Soy has been proven to *not* lower testosterone levels.
Anyway, the "insult" is just projection by alt-right beta virgin cucks who desperately cling to some toxic ideal of masculinity that they themselves will never reach

>First Marvel movie to feel like it takes place in the real world
>WE WUZ KANGZ: The movie

>ACTION IS COMING!
>SUPA SOLDIER
>SUPA FIGHTER
>HES THE UGANDAN KUNGFU MASTER
>WE CALL HIM BRUCE U
>GWA GWA GWA GWA GWA

Bane?

It's just a dumb phrase like cuck. It has no meaning anymore other than ""looks like a numale"".

>still thinks memes can be extrapolated and questioned
call him a soyboy and you will be astonished at how he recoils, how injured he is, how he suddenly shrinks back: “I've been found out.”

Lol dumb niggers dont even realize this.

Why do people think they sound clever when they employ phrases from xenophobic /anti-semitic propanganda?

that makes his opinion more credible you pleb bitch. Marvel movies are utter garbage.

Can't wait to see it tottally tank outside of America.

>“I have seen gods fly. I have seen men build weapons that I couldn’t even imagine. I have seen aliens drop from the sky. But I have never seen anything like this.” So mutters astonished C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) as he first sets eyes on a functioning African country

I can't be the only person who thought this

It's still a Marvel movie so it's not gonna be a failure.

Don't know about the rest of the world, but we don't give a fuck about niggers here in Eastern Europe other than selling old Soviet weapons to them in Africa in return for the Western aid and charity money that was given to them.

Jesus Christ, this shit is shuck and jive for the modern era for white people that truly hate themselves but love the good feelings they get seeing horrible real world problems perverted on the silver screen into magical negros chucking cyber spears. This movie's premise alone is 100% degrading, actually racist shit toward everyone including black people and these 'non-racist' '''''''progressives'''''''' are going to clap for it.

>b-b-b-b-b-b-but it wuz just a maymay guise!
>ww-w-w-we didn't actually think that soy makes you a leftist cuck!
HahaHAHAHAHAHA GOT EEEMMMM

this has to be bait, how can one man be so offended by an anonymous autist's post. Maybe try a more censored website next time.

I am from eastern europe too and I can guarantee people will see it just because of the familiar marvel logo. Of course it won't be sold like in the US but I doubt it will fail completely.

big meany labels placed upon statements that ring true only serve to showcase your fear
it curdles the soy in your veins

t. rootless cosmopolitan

>I'm not obsessed over it though

A TRIUMPH

>instead of blacks pooling up dat dosh to convert their neighborhoods into Wakanda
>they spend all that dosh on seeing a fictional portrayal of Wakanda where a Great Wall akin to Trump's dream keeps most black people out of Wakanda's "chosen" while the main antagonist is a rap/gangster caricature of the same niggers who will glorify this movie
We live in a glorious time.

>The Best Marvel Movie Yet
So it's a 7/10?

KEK KEK KEK KEK BETA VIRGIN SOYBOY SOYGOY SOYIM
HAHAHAHAH MEEEEMMEEEEESSSSZZZZZZ

>pic
Wtf that's super cool! Are there any movies where they show futuristic shit mixed up with ancient romans? Sounds like a recipe for kino

>I still don't care

>All these angry soyboys in this thread

...

>not engaging in meaningless casual sex is somehow a bad thing

Liberals are disgusting.

>tfw there is only one man who can put a stop to this shit

>heh i'll call them a virgin
yes shame on those who prefer to wait for an appropriate partner to engage in a monogamous union with

Anyone can lose their virginity on the first day of becoming legal, and all it takes is $50 for a proper clean whore.
Some people however are not as desperate as you apparently.
I don't get this virginity meme in this day and age where it can be lost so cheaply.

how the fuck can a movie about a rich and technologically advanced african nation feel like it takes place in the real world?

>yfw when white people will ruin Black Panther for black people

>maybe the Asgard stuff would feel like a unique culture if they didn’t force black people and Asians in half the roles

HAHAHAH LOLOLO I AM AMERIDUMB I THINK LIBRULS ARE LEFTISTS HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH I AM DUMB AMERISHART

HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THIS IS WHAT I SAY TO COPE WITH THE FACT THAT NO WOMEN WILL SLEEP WITH ME BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHA SMELLY SMELLY POO POO PEE PEE KEK UCCK KEKC BETA BETA BOY BOY SOY OSY OSYOSY OSYOYS OSYOS SYOSYOS YSO YSOY OS

Idk I mean Marvel is just an escape power fantasy, it's not meant to be realistic at all I guess

m8, you need to lay off the drugs. Those are bad for your health.

>You don't want to sleep with whores? I bet you do and you just pretend you don't!

Why is it so hard for liberals to understand that not everyone is a degenerate sex pervert?

...

Wakanda Forever!!!

are you suggesting that someone could be comfortable with himself and not seek to drown his sorrows in cheap highs? are you some sort of nazi altright?

cringe

Why are Sup Forumstards so obsessed with social media and black people?

not quite, /lefty/satan

>Best Marvel Movie
So it is barely interesting? I mean the previous marvel movies were good but they are as shallow as a puddle.

I'm in a happy relationship with a woman who loves me, but soychugging cockjugglers such as yourself seem to think that calling someone a "virgin" is an insult because you project your decadence upon the world

That was my point. He gave it a B+ even though he usually hates this stuff. Learn 2 read fagtron

I can't believe people actually get this cucked.

>(((Ehrlich)))
Y'know I really hate to repeat myself here.

>Wakanda
Will is be as diverse as they made Asgard?

The shillining has begun. I suggest you take your gf to see it for a valentines day date. You do have a gf don't you user?

It's 100% black, so even more diverse

If anything, this is going to highlight the massive cultural contrast between African Americans and actual fucking black Africans.

If you were starving, being threatened with death constantly by warlords, and had no actual civilization to speak of as you toiled or killed for the majority of your short, short life -- would you thank Hollywood for making a movie about a fictional African society full of the romanticized "noble savage" Africans who are peace loving but wield futuristic laser spears?

Insulting or downright delusional doesn't even begin to cover it. It's absolute madness -- might as well make a movie about Ugandan pirates opening up an orphanage or the different tribes holding a space engineering contest.

Satan's number. Lefties are so demonic even this shit poster carries their mark.

Bullshit we were barely ever in Asgard they stationed Thor ass on Earth most of the time. We barely intereracted with the norse world. Then they made Norse gods black because Norse mythology was too white so it needed diversity. Lord knows you can't have a movie full of fucking blondes everywhere. That's like literally the third reich.

If you look at Nigeria and Botswana, then yeah, it does seem kinda realistic.

I honestly love how triggered this movie has made everyone on this shitboard

...

Not really, Nigeria is considered better off by African standards, but in terms of the rest of the world? Bottom of the barrel, for example they have one of the highest dropout rates in the world. High levels of corruption, homicide, crime, armed roberty all in the high 70s.

christ the ZOG media machine is really going full pelt to try and do anything to get white people interested in this movie and forcibly drag its numbers above mediocre for a marvel movie

I still don't see them managing to capture the rest of the world's imagination.

All that is going to happen at best is that they manage to pump up the domestic numbers as high as a genuinely great and popular superhero flick like say The Dark Knight , which got 400 mill domestic, , but even then the rest of the world isn't going to care about a movie featuring a bunch of niggers and not a single other marvel character.

Funny thing is Nigeria's head of corruption court has been charged with bribery himself lmao

timesofisrael.com/head-of-nigerias-anti-corruption-court-charged-with-bribery/

>Jesus Christ, this shit is shuck and jive for the modern era for white people that truly hate themselves
:^)