Black Panther: Wakanda Forever 4K 2022

Four years and the death of Chadwick Boseman (the lead actor) later, Black Panther has released its sequel. The first film didn't garner much audience love, could Ryan Coogler convince audiences and us that the new keeper of Wakanda is needed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

With the death of T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), Wakanda has no protector left, the "black panther" is buried. It is Ryan Coogler's farewell scene to the king that opens the picture and by the first few minutes it seems to choose a serious attitude. The number of jokes in the Black Panther sequel is indeed less than in the usual Marvel film, but you won't see a completely authorial reading here. In the story, the vibranium is still on the minds of the great powers (USA and France), they want it at any cost. The anti-colonialism of the picture, which at first seems to be the main idea, is overshadowed by the appearance of a new main antihero, Namor (Tenoch Huerta), who turns out to be the king (and a bit of a deity) of the lost Mayan people.

He wishes to gain Wakanda as an ally in order to avenge the colonial invaders, but his brutality and radicalism alienate the queen mother (Angela Russett) and Shuri, T'Challa's sister (Leticia Wright). It is the latter who takes over the role of the protagonist and (spoiler!) becomes the new black panther. The main problem with Coogler's sequel is precisely its script problems. There are several storylines and characters in the movie which frankly fail in the dynamics and do not influence the plot in any way, just stretching the timing which as usual turned out to be very long (2 hours and 40 minutes).

Problems with the plot do not allow for a positive perception of the branded fan service. There are entire scenes in the film, repeating the classic universe, but they look secondary and do not provide any catharsis. Really praise can be given to the work of the actors and costumers, this time they outdid themselves.

"Wakanda Forever" closes the fourth phase of the Marvel films and nicely epitomizes the problems of the universe's latest pictures. The lack of a clear-cut course leads Coogler's film to the state of an old puzzle box, where there are bright and good pieces, but some of the blocks of the picture are just left lying around in a dusty corner of the attic.