Film Review: "Wakanda Forever" *** 1/2

Wakanda Forever *** ½

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS, read at your own caution.

The first Black Panther remains, in my opinion, the greatest Marvel film because of the freedom granted its director/writer Ryan Coogler, who, by the time he tackled bringing the first Black Marvel superhero to the screen, in the first mainstream Afrocentric Futurism story, had already made two masterpieces: Fruitvale Station and Creed. Wakanda looks nothing like anything else within the Marvel Universe from the incredible set design combining traditional African architecture, custom, and beliefs, and the Oscar winning costume design. The world of Wakanda feels completely African. Killmonger, who is not a traditional villain, grew up in the United States where he experienced systematic racism. Upon discovering the vast technological superiority of Wakanda, Killmonger takes it upon himself to harness Wakanda’s strength to avenge and free discriminated Africans everywhere. That the end of the film takes place in an underground railroad, an image of African-American history representing a network to gain freedom from slavery, demonstrates the effect that Killmonger has on T’challa who must turn the train on in order to win. T’challa moves from an isolationist to someone willing to stand up to the world for the rights of Africans in every nation. To follow up this movie was going to be a Herculean task.

Then, Chadwick Boseman tragically passed away from cancer. I remember sitting in the theater watching Infinity War and when Thanos’s snap disintegrated T’challa (Chadwick Boseman), a Black woman in the audience yelled “Awww Hell Naw!” This was the moment I realized the importance of the Black Panther to the Black community. For the first time in mainstream media history, there was an African superhero who was not being written and directed by a white artist and whose world valued and celebrated African culture. To have that taken away was painful, even if we all knew that Marvel wasn’t going to end the story with the snap; indeed, everyone would come back for Endgame. But… then, we actually lost the Black Panther. Chadwick Boseman, whose charisma, charm, work ethic, and empathy, created one of the most important characters in cinema history was gone. How do you continue to make a sequel after that?

For Ryan Coogler, this was not an intellectual or even story question. It was a personal one. In interviews, he said that he seriously considered walking away from cinema after Chadwick passed away. So close was their friendship that without him making films were never going to feel the same. In deciding to press forward, Ryan made two important decisions about the sequel to Black Panther. First, the film would be his own way of dealing with the loss of Chadwick. That decision infuses Wakanda Forever with a personal touch. All of Coogler’s films have been personal, playing with understanding and realities of Black America. Most of his heroes are without fathers, raised by single strong mothers, and all face racism in real ways. Wakanda Forever has those elements, but it has a deeper personal touch because it is a film about mourning, not only the fictional Wakanda mourning the loss of their King, not only a mother and sister mourning the loss of their son/brother, not only of a lover mourning the loss of her soulmate, but also of our world mourning the loss of Chadwick, and most importantly Ryan mourning the loss of his dear friend. The second decision Ryan made was to deepen the message of the first film dealing with the idea of how colonial White powers had descended on indigenous cultures and created enduring systems of oppression. In order to do this, he always knew he was going to bring in Namor.

Wakanda Forever begins with a sequence that sets up the character arc of its’ main character, Shuri, who is trying to replicate the purple heart-shaped herb that is used in the tradition to imbue the new Black Panther with the strength of their elders. This is of course foreshadowing for what is to come later, but the purpose of the scene is to set up how Shuri was not with T’challa when he passed; something for which she will never forgive herself. I imagine that this helplessness is how many of Chadwick’s friends felt about his loss. The fact that Chadwick kept his illness a secret is first of all miraculous, filming movies while he was dying, but more than that, it was his rightful choice. Those who are ill should have the power to make such decisions, even though it can effect those whom they love.

I understand the importance of this sequence, and yet, it feels rushed and unfocused. I almost wish they began directly with the funeral. The funeral of T’challa is a masterpiece of a montage, displaying the love and joy, loss and sorrow, for a man who meant so much to everyone. It is breathtaking.

After that sequence, the film then jumps to its present. In this time, Ramonda, T’challa’s mother, has taken the unenviable step of becoming, perhaps, the first Queen of Wakanda. Without the heart-shaped herb, they cannot pass on the mantal of the Black Panther who has ruled Wakanda for centuries. Her entrance into a UN Meeting is nothing short of regal. Here, Coogler is playing with the importance of the African American Mother in the family unit. For complicated societal reasons, including mass incarceration and lack of economic opportunity, many Black families in the 60s-90s, were single parent households. The Black mother rose to become the anchor of the Black family. Ramonda is that anchor, leading with a selfless sacrificing call that makes her a great ruler. This is the role that Angela Bassett was born to play. Her performance is the best in this film, nuanced, powerful and full of love and anger.

What would happen if an African power emerged? Indeed, the Western world would lose its mind. For the first time, they risk being the colonized and no longer the major power in the world. Val, Marvel’s version of DC’s Amanda Waller, says at one point when asked “can you imagine what America would have done with Vibranium” she responds, “every night” with a sense of envy. Indeed, we would have conquered the world. With Wakanda now a threat, America and its Western allies, looking at you France, seek to destabilize Wakanda. Then, new sources of Vibranium are detected on the ocean’s surface, which are too tempting to resist. This leads to Namor, the leader of the Talokan who are descended from Mayan ancestors who ingested an underwater Vibranium infused plant that transformed them physically into needed water to breath and allowed them to descend below the ocean to create an entire kingdom, to act. Now, with their existence in threat of being known to the world, Namor plans to conquer the world to prevent what happened in colonized Latin America from happening to the Talokan. He wants Wakanda’s help, but the Wakandans despite their loss are not willing to make the sacrifices that Namor demands. Like Killmonger, Namor’s position is understandable and defendable. He may even be proved right when the Thunderbolts invade Wakanda much later in the MCU (a prediction by myself but others have echoed it). Just like the creation of Wakanda, the creation of the Talokan are fantastic, especially the costuming which employs Mayan historical dress combining it with aquatic elements.

Although Wakanda Forever feels like a grownup version of a Marvel film, dealing with real world issues on a global scale, there are unfortunate consequences to being a Marvel film. This is where Wakanda Forever often becomes distracting at best or a mess at worst. You can tell that Marvel wanted Wakanda Forever to build on their introduction of mutants now that Marvel owns 20th Century Fox and required the rights to the X-men. The word mutant appears multiple times, especially explaining how Namor is different and how mutants could be the next true threat to the world. It is not effective exposition or storytelling as it has nothing to do with theme of this film. Similarly, the introduction of Ironheart does little for the story other than bloat its’ over extended run length. The developments with Val are setting up future films but again feel like a distraction rather than an addition to the film, even though they enhance the theme of Western interference in indigenous cultures.

But even with those distractions, Coogler makes a few of his own. Coogler usually lights his films extremely well, Creed being his best example of cinematography, but here, the film at times is simply too dark. It feels almost like the same mistake that both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon have made occasionally, causing me to squint at the screen, trying to understand what is going on. Perhaps my theater projector was off, but it didn’t seem like it was the problem. Similarly, while Coogler learned from Aquaman and did not make the mistake making the underwater scenes look like the clear, brightly lit waters of The Little Mermaid, when we actually go to Talokan, the underwater city, it is too dark. I wish I could see the wonder that Shuri is beholding. I wanted to be in awe of Talokan the way I am of Wakanda to and to learn about them from their art, architecture, and design.

But of all these complaints, my biggest qualm with Wakanda Forever is the sequence when Shuri ingests the newly recreated purple heart-shaped herb and her consciousness transcends to the astral plane. There she meets Killmonger. Now, I thought this was an awesome idea, but I think the scene is poorly written. Her meeting with Killmonger reduces him to merely wanting vengeance and he suggests that she wants the same. Shuri might want vengeance. But does she really? She wants to burn the world down, but that is out of grief and loss. Also, Killmonger was a much more complicated character than then simply wanting revenge himself. He wanted to liberate Black oppressed people around the world, not just for the sake of revenge but the sake of justice. This scene undermines the importance of his role in the first film. I wish he had been trying to convince Shuri of Namor’s point rather than talking about revenge.

But ultimately, Wakanda Forever works not because of its political themes (unlike Black Panther where that shines) but because it is a film about grief. As someone who experienced a lot of loss in my life, especially recently, I still mourn the loss of my younger brother whose life and death are with me at every moment. Here is a film that understands that. A film that understands the importance of holding the past in honor, but also moving on. That it does it so well is a testament to Ryan Coogler’s willingness to put his grief on screen and I think the world and Black community, who continue to mourn the loss of Chadwick Boseman. It may be a mess from having to juggle too many Marvel elements, plot lines, and complicated imagery, but in dealing with our own grief, we are better for having seen it.