#WakandaForever: In my Opinion, #BlackPanther Is Nothing but Much Media Hype!

Ehichioya Famous
February 18, 2018
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#WakandaForever: In my Opinion, #BlackPanther Is Nothing but Much Media Hype!
Movie Details

Starring:  Chadwick Boseman, Sterling K. Brown, Andy Serkis, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Bassett, Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Martin Freeman, Forest Whitaker, Winston Duke, Michael B. Jordan, Stan Lee.

Brief:  2 hours 15 minutes of your dad killed my dad I want revenge.

Summary: Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, King T’Challa returns home to the antisocial, technology advanced African nation of Wakanda to fill in as his nation’s new king. Be that as it may, T’Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne from groups inside his own country.

At the point when two enemies plot to destroy Wakanda, the hero known as Black Panther must collaborate with C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross and individuals from the Dora Milaje, Wakanadan special forces, to keep Wakanda from being dragged into a world war.

Director: Ryan Coogler

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Drama

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 134 mins

Release Date: February 16, 2018

The Good, The Bad, The Racist

The main character of the film -Black Panther, is Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa), – a too-perfect protagonist character, depressingly gloomy and serious, he could be a contender for depression. Well, some might argue that his dad just died and he was to take over the kingdom he feels he is not ready to rule.

On the other hand,  you have his more youthful sister Letitia Wright (Shuri) – she will be the replacement for Tony Stark! To best portray her, she is a carefree Q from the James Bond films – I loved her, she was fun, vivacious, splendid, as a character a genuine find.

Andy Serkis (Klaw) was amazing, yet very underused – Michael B. Jordan’s (Erik Killmonger) “big bad”? I understand his anger, I don’t get his definitive objective – makes no sense.

Klaw should have been the main villain in this movie and leave the character of Jordan for the sequel. after the death of Klaw, the film falls, it becomes long, boring and predictable which is too common with superhero movies.

Now let’s talk about the Computer Generated Imagery(CGI) of Black Panther. This is a massive problem. Sure Wakanda looks picturesque, however so did Asgard. It’s the motion of the main characters that is the issue. It appears that while they can get stationary objects (buildings) essentially spot on, the same cannot be said for dynamic ones.

If you have watched the movie or any of the trailers, you’ll know what I mean when you see Black Panther do his somersault The dynamic CGI characters look crystal clear, whilst the real-life objects have a faint blur to them. You can just see where the live action starts and the CGI ends. Because it seems 90% of this film is CGI, in the end, it becomes very annoying. Also, the rhinos fight at the end was just a big, rowdy CGI fight climax. But the cinematography was lit.

As for the claim that Black Panther is unlike any other Marvel film – I don’t think so – unless you refer to how insular (especially the part where Sambisa Forest was shown) the whole film, as it is based almost entirely in Wakanda. Which could be acceptable, until you realize most of the action took place outside of Wakanda. And the fight scenes are quite boring. The cameras were too close. The action is light and far from revolutionary.

Something interesting about the movie, few minutes into the movie, there was a scene which supposedly took place in Sambisa Forest, a place in North-Eastern Nigeria which was once the stronghold of Boko Haram, a deadly terrorist group. At the cinema (Genesis Cinema, Maryland, Lagos 14th Feb 2018 ) there was this loud “Heh” by almost everyone with excitement when the caption “Sambisa Forest, Nigeria” appeared on the screen.

The thing is Sambisa Forest in the movie looks nothing like the actual one. The one in the movie has dense vegetation while the actual one has sparse vegetation. Nigeria is always gotten wrong in movies. Inclusion is great, however, accuracy is vital!

The only credited Nigerian in Black Panther, Sope Aluko played Shaman, a spiritual leader and Zuri’s (Forest Whitaker) second-in-command and the Black Panther page on Wikipedia does not have her name on the list of characters in the film.

Captain America: Winter Soldier was considerably better than this. Guardians of the galaxy was better and more fun!  The Avengers had greater scope. Thor: Ragnarok was funnier.

As the movie is all 99% blacks, there were racist reactions

 

 

Some fans were enthused after seeing the movie

South Africans took it with so  much excitement

Nigerians joined in the craze too

This twitter users made great points

 

And finally

So if you want a film with a dour dreary lead character, lots of uncanny valley moments, and lots and lots of political grandstanding with no payoff, then this is the film for you!

Conclusion

In all, Black Panther has some extremely peculiar wish-satisfaction politics in it. I’m shocked that black people aren’t more irritated by the fairly pessimistic and pandering themes here, and the way it erases the real challenges Africa is struggling with for dream idealism. It’s doubly repulsive this is being done as a cash grab by Disney.

However, that is Hollywood for you. And maybe I fell for the hype, but I kind of expected this movie to purge the world of racism once and for all, that sadly didn’t happen.

For me, it is just appetizer before the main course – Avenger: Infinity War.

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Ehichioya Famous

Ehichioya Famous

Famous is a Software Engineer and AI enthusiast based in Lagos, Nigeria.

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