The idea that Black films can't become global phenomenons that smash all kinds of box office records while also earning critical praise was disproved by the first Black Panther film. The task of recreating the first film's success was already a daunting one before Boseman's death.
The sequel to Black Panther is bigger, more ambitious, and more stirringly poignant than the first one. It doesn't feel like the product of a studio trying to make a successful follow-up to a well-known film. The movie plays like a celebration of an idea, a farewell to an actual hero, and a promise of even greater things to come.
One year after the death of King T'Challa in Black Panther, the story of how the African nation and its people find the strength to continue is told. The broad strokes of T'Challa's death are detailed in its opening scenes that are more focused on how his sister, Shuri, and their mother, Ramonda, are.
Much in the same way that Boseman was more than just an actor to many of his fans and peers, T'Challa was more than a superhero or a typical king to those who knew him. There is a love for T'Challa that can be seen throughout the movie. The movie is careful to not be so bound up in those powerful emotions that it ever feels narratively inflexible or stuck in the past, which is an important choice that plays an important role in the ongoing tale of Black Panther.
It uses grief as a jumping-off point to explore a number of the complicated consequences of T'Challa's death and his actions in the first black panther. After an alien invasion, super terrorist attacks, and all of the other wild things that have been happening in the MCU, Wakanda finds itself in a unique position of being seen as both the solution to and the cause of the world's problems.
Ramonda, as the sitting leader of the country, has to be prepared to deal with any incursions onto their land foreigners try to make in pursuit of their precious metallic natural resources.
Wakanda is in a state of mourning.
The subject ofgeopolitics is rarely what people show up to superhero movies for, but it is the subject of some of the most exciting scenes in the movie, and it is a part of what makes it vibrate with tension. One of the big ways that the movie creates space for characters like Okoye and M'Baku to take on bigger roles is through their presence.
The plot involving lines of succession and tradition in the context of mourning is one of the more impressive things about the film. Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) and Namor (Tenoch Huerta) are two of Black Panther's most potent, challenging ideas, and they are brought to life in the new movie.
In the same way that Killmonger's villainy in Black Panther was shot through with a heartbreaking and genuine sense of justice, Namor's character is defined by his love for his people and willingness to do anything to protect them. The world's balance of power is upended in ways that make the kingdom of Talocan a threat by the connection between the two countries. As Namora and Attuma lead the charge to make contact with the surface world, the question of who that threat is really posed toward is posed multiple times by the film.
Many comparisons will be made to Killmonger because of the critique of Western colonialism and the destruction of Indigenous people baked into the essence of the movie. Michael B. Jordan played a villain who wanted to become a king while Huerta played a king who saw his genes as signs of godhood.
There is a critique of the destruction of Indigenous people by the western world.
He brings a raw magnetism to his performance as a Namor who is always just as ready to charm as he is to murder, even though he deems other monarchs worthy of his recognition. The crackling intensity of the current running between the two figures is what makes the scenes between them stand out.
As Talocan and Wakanda come to butt heads in unexpected ways, each of the set pieces in the movie has a similar explosion of energy. Even though the movie's action sequences are a marked upgrade over the first film's, they end up playing second string to the first film's focus on the Wakandan royal family's emotions, and the room it gives its cast to express what they feel like their own.
In comic books and the stories based on them, tragic deaths are a fixture. It is rare for a film to focus on grief as an ongoing state of being that can take on new and unexpected forms as people attempt to deal with their feelings. It isn't just two-and-a-half hours of people being sad and expressing their frustration with how someone they loved ended up dead. That, along with a deep sense of clear-eyed hope for the future, is the core of the movie, and the filmmakers know how to hold space for both of those feelings at the same time.
Between its entry to the streaming space and its dalliances with the multiverse, Black Panther is a thrilling reminder of how sharp and smart the studio's tent pole features can be. It is more moving than any comic book movie has the right to be because it continues its story with grace and care.
Florence Kasumba, Michaela Coel, and Lake Bell are actors. On November 11th, the movie will be in theaters.
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