Wakanda Forever

In 2018, Marvel released the first Black Panther movie in theaters. It starred Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa and Black Panther. Unfortunately, the world lost Boseman to colon cancer in 2020. Boseman delivered the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) first live action Black Panther. 

Boseman became close friends with Director Ryan Coogler. Coogler took great care in directing both Black Panther (2018) and Black Panther Wakanda Forever (2022). Coogler does an amazing job honoring Boseman’s memory throughout the story line and production in Black Panther Wakanda Forever. 

Boseman’s passing is adressed in the beginning of Black Panther Wakanda Forever with silent clips during the opening credits. Then the film immediately picks up with a 90-second scene of Shuri trying to prevent the death of her brother by recreating the Heart-Shaped Herb. As she is frantically trying new equations, her mother, Queen Ramonda of Wakanda, comes to report, “your brother is now with the ancestors.” 

Coogler delivers a vibrant funeral for King T’Challa with the people of Wakanda dancing in white ceremonial robes. Shuri gets her own angle directly in front of her showing the audience how she will not bare a single emotion in front of her people. The cinematography is angelic bringing out the exposure in each angle as a reference to the angles of heaven. Then, computer-generated imagery (CGI) beautifully helps to carry T’Challa’s tomb to a Wakandan ship above the ceremony. On the other hand, the CGI used on Iron Heart could have been revised. It did not look completely developed to fit the setting, making it look out of place. CGI is also used to help capture new people in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Talocan. The CG is used to show their underwater kingdom and lifestyle.

The Talocan are an underwater tribe who were also gifted with a vibranium meteorite many moons ago. In the MCU, the Talocan are similar to homosapiens, however they have the ability to live in and move water. They’re led by Kakulan or Namor, a mutant worshiped as a god. Namor was first introduced to Marvel as a comic book character in 1939 as an Atlantean hybrid, but now is a mutant and god to his people leading the Talocan in deep water seas protecting their vibranium. 

Coolgen depicts a clear contrast between the Talocan nation underwater Wakandan nation. The Talocans follow Namor and his choices whereas the Wakandan community abides by their Queen. Angela Basset, Queen Ramonda of Wakanda, gives us an Oscar worthy performance. She defines her authority in a forceful tone demanding the respect she deserves because of what she has sacrificed for her people.

Black Panther Wakanda Forever’s plot shifts focus from Boseman’s character T’Challa to Shuri, T’Challa’s sister, played by Letitia Wright, and her spiritual battle within herself. Shuri, during most of her scenes, is conflicted between the science of Wakanda and the spiritual world of Wakanda. Forced to be a leader after her mom’s murder, Shuri works to prevent war with the Talocan by giving herself the abilities of the Black Panther. During transition, she visits Killmonger, played by Micheal B. Jordan, who supports her secret desire to “burn the world around her” using her anger from her brother and mother’s passing. Coogler gives the audience a remarkable visual of Shuri’s rage. While in the acestoral plain, he places Shuri in the middle of the throne room. Paths of fire light the room up from her to the ceiling directly referencing Killmonger lighting the Heart-shaped herb garden ablaze in the first Black Panther movie.

The first female Black Panther of Wakanda makes for a compelling storyline. I highly recommend the movie.