"Black Panther" Review - Cool As Black Ice

When I look at the past works of the MCU, every Marvel film is very good. It’s gotten to a point where it’s almost impossible to choose a favorite. But there are awards that I give to a few select MCU movies. Avengers is the most fun, Winter Soldier has the best action, Guardians has the best comedy, Doctor Strange has the best effects, Spider Man is the most well balanced (most perfect), and Thor: Ragnarok is the most rewatchable.

Today, I am giving an award to Black Panther. Best direction.

Black Panther stands with Winter Soldier and Spider Man as one of the best MCU films to date. It is pretty damn fantastic. There are a few slip ups which I’ll get over with now since I have much more praise than criticism.

First off, the CGI was really lackluster. There were a good bunch of moments, especially with these parts with rhinos, that felt so dated and washed out that didn’t fit at all with the great acting and dialogue going around. Secondly, the Marvel jokes. There are plenty of movies like Spider Man, Guardians and Thor that I feel 10,000 jokes works a lot. This entire film was really not meant to have the Marvel treatment. Some jokes were really funny, but a lot I feel were just so forced into the script. Maybe Marvel has a joke quota they have to meet every time, I don’t know. But some great scenes became very tainted with some of these lame jokes. The only other aspect I wasn’t feeling was the writing. The story was really well told and well done, but some moments in the script were written just to push the plot along, and as a result, some moments of the movie just had too much of a weird flow for me to handle.

But this is the reason why I give Black Panther best direction. The movie is so damn entertaining and thrilling and continues to have your heart racing as a result of not knowing what comes next. The story is a mix between Creed (one of Ryan Coogler’s last movies) and Lion King. So if the story feels as if it was told already, you are not alone thinking that. But the car chases, the fight scenes, and the acting by monster powerhouses like Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyango, Daniel Kaluuya, and pretty much every freakin cast member, make every scene soar beyond a lot of other Marvel scenes to date. The score is also a perfect array of African culture, rap, and grandiosso Marvel score that blends in with each act with the upmost respect. Also, there is a casino scene, but unlike Star Wars, you’ll actually really love what happens. Let's just say the cinematography is a lot of holy shit.

Ryan Coogler is the only guy who could’ve done this movie justice, and I think for the most part, he did. His last two films also had Michael B. Jordan as a big lead with a majority African American cast, and both (Fruitvale Station and Creed) were spectacular. This is one of the very few times when Marvel has picked a director with a great movie history, and it truly worked in Black Panther’s favor.

In the end, Black Panther is a special film that everyone will be talking about. And while it was a little bit overhyped, at the end of the day, this is Marvel taking many giant steps forward, both for cinematic storytelling, and for 2018.

Now bring on Infinity War already damnit!

Two Nebs Up!