Entry tags:
Review of The Black Panther
[Bloody tired of the gun debate. We've been fighting over arming teachers for the past two days now. The group that likes guns and thinks they are nifty, wants to arm teachers, the group that hates guns and thinks they are horrible, wants to do away with guns or regulate them and thinks arming teachers is stupid. Then there's the in-between group who wants to do both, and have the teachers go to combat training aka boot camp as a requirement prior to being armed with guns, because that will wed out all the crazies because it's not like any crazy person went to boot camp or through combat training right? (cough*guy who killed the hero in American Sniper*cough). I'm starting to really feel sorry for the teachers and think they need to be paid a heck of lot more than they currently are to put up with this bullshit. Also very glad I live in NYC, not rural Colorado, and don't have kids and don't teach. (Because NYC and NY nixed that idea about forty some years ago back in the 1970s, when they were arming teachers in classrooms and had security. They even made a couple of documentaries and movies about it. I know, I remember seeing them in college in the 1980s. It didn't work -- gun regulations worked better, so NY went that root finally.)
Guess which group I belong to?
My mother accused me of ranting about it on FB. My posts on FB about guns were shorter than here and really not that big. But my mother is of the view that social media should be restricted to sharing birthdays, vacation pics, pics of pets, and grandkids. In which case there's really no point for me to be on FB. Is there? OTOH, she admits that my cousin, and uncles are doing it too. Learned a lot about guns this week. I've saved some of the posts -- because being a writer, I sort of need the info. You collect weird factual items when you are a writer for later reference.]
Anyhow...I owe you an objective review of The Black Panther, don't I? Or maybe you think I've already provided one and you could sort of live without it, thank you very much? Well, you are getting it anyway. But I'll put most of it beneath a cut tag so you can ignore it. Sort of like I did with the gun bit above.
The Black Panther
Upon further reflection and after letting it settle a bit. I don't think it is a great action film or superhero film. There are superhero films that are better made, from a technical perspective. The film as![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cjlasky pointed out in a recent review has overly long and difficult to follow action sequences. While for the most part I liked the one on one battles, panther vs. panther didn't work as well as it should have. I think Black Panther suffered from the same flaws as many other recent action flicks have - an over-reliance on CGI special effects, and not enough reliance on simple hand to hand choreography. A good action sequence is like watching a dance -- but if you add too many elements, it can get busy and cluttered. That's what happened with Black Panther. That is not to say it didn't have good action sequences, it did. Most of which, oddly, featured the female characters -- actually the best action sequences centered around the lead female supporting characters, such as Okoye, who does some amazing sword work. Her fight scenes are beautiful to watch whether it is on top of a car while racing down a highway, or in a casino or out in the middle of a field. In part this is due to the actress having done extensive training with swords and spears for her role on the Walking Dead. I adore the actress - she was actually the only character I liked on the Walking Dead and I considered sticking with it just for her -- but alas, it was not enough.
The movie's strength lay in how it sets up each of its thematic arcs and political themes. Also in how it used its characters to further those arcs, while not losing the characters in the process. Too often in these types of films characters get lost or become pawns of the theme or plot. (I'm looking at you, Joss Whedon. He's notorious for doing that -- both in The Avengers and Age of Ultron, also Buffy S7 and the Buffy comics.) .
It also takes a fairly over-done concept and manages to spin it in a new way. The Daddy Issue/Hamlet tale. In which the son loses his father, and somewhere along the line finds himself questioning what his father stood for and what that legacy was all about. Who are the real villains here and is it really as black and white as he originally thought? In the process, race relations are heavily examined, but again in a new way, a way not usually done within the context of a superhero movie.
It's not that there isn't a great deal of commentary about race out there right now -- in literature, movies, etc -- but this is the first time that a blockbuster action film has addressed it head on. Not only addressed it, but did it in such a way -- that the audience can't quite ignore it, but also can't quite justify their prior mindset.
You really don't need to know the history of the Black Panther in the comic books to appreciate any of this. I certainly didn't. My recollection of the character is a vague one -- in the X-men comics, where he was once upon a time, the husband of Storm. That is until -- the X-men vs. the Avengers storyline that lead to the Submariner demolishing Wakanda and killing millions. I'm hoping the movies ignore that storythread. (I'm guessing they will since it was not a popular one in the comic community. Gee, wonder why?) Anyhow, what I knew of Ta-Nehesi Coats take on the character was through a friend's brief synopsis prior to the movie. And yes, the movie for the most part follows Ta-Nehesi Coats take -- at least according to her synopsis.
But it does help to have an appreciation for the superhero genre and action film genre. If you don't -- I'd skip it. My parents friends went to it and didn't like it. But they don't like superhero and action films. If you don't -- you won't like this one either. Because at the end of the day, it's still a superhero and action film. With endless chase scenes, multiple action sequences, lots of explosions, gun-fights (although less than most movies oddly enough), and lots of people trying to kill each other in various ways. I happen to enjoy action movies. Always have. And have a weakness for the superhero genre -- it's a favorite. So from my perspective -- this was a great flick -- a step or two above your standard superhero or action film.
It's very different than most superhero films. And in some respects has more in common with Thor, as explained in detail inyourlibrarian's review, except I think, unlike Thor, it has something to say and is a bit more innovative. While Thor basically follows the standard prodigal son returns to be King trope, after being exiled, Black Panther goes a different route and in some respects flips it. Also, in comparing the two, it's interesting to note that almost all the characters in Thor except for possibly two are White, while all the characters in Black Panther, except for two are Black. Plus, Black Panther's utopian world sort of makes Thor's seem a tad backwards and uncivilized, which...hmmm, interesting.
And it has to date the most complex villain in a superhero film that I've seen. Possibly an action film as well, although I'm hesitant to go that far, mainly because I haven't seen every action film on the planet, and I found the villain in Face-Off and HEAT to be fairly complex. But definitely superhero films, where the villains are usually just poor whiny guys who got ignored by Daddy (Loki) or were misunderstood by society, disenfranchised by society and driven nuts by it (the Joker in about everything), or got overly arrogant and couldn't handle the world not living up to their expectations (Half-and-Half in The Dark Knight). Here, for the first time, with Erik Killmonger, portrayed by Michael B. Jordan ( a top tier actor in a bravado performance), we have a far more complex villain who spouts many of the things a lot of African Americans and a lot of Americans spout on a daily basis. He comes at his African cousins -- stating, you abandoned me and your brothers and sisters to slavery, across the world, we've been oppressed, while you live in splendor. We were taken from your shores and bond in slavery -- while you turned the other way? You have all this power, all this technology, but you hide behind the trappings of a third world nation, isolated, and share nothing. He basically throws a mirror up in their faces and it's not pretty. Then he challenges their King and their world-view. And flips it.
He's ultimately wrong in how he wishes to solve the problem, but not in speaking up about it. He wants to solve it -- the way people always have in the past, with violence. Because that's all he knows, all he has been taught. He knows nothing else. Violence has been his life. And he was created by the American society that he was raised in -- which is a society that worships guns and weapons. Or how many kills he can carve on his chest during not one but two wars. But T'Challah, our hero, was not raised in this manner. Nor was he raised in a culture of toxic masculanity, where guns are worshipped and women are lesser.
That's the other major difference between this film and all the others. There's a huge anti-violence message at it's heart, and a feminist one. It flips the gender stereotypes for superhero films. I've seen a lot of these films, and I can't remember one in which women were this strongly portrayed and featured. In Thor, the women are barely there. Natalie Portman's character is the perpetual damsel or in that film, the Martin Freeman character that is in this one. Here, the women are front and center and they question Killmonger at every turn. Nakai, who more or less tells T'Challah the same things Killmonger does earlier in the film, states them in a different way. She does not propose that T'Challah conquer these other lands and rule them himself, but to share their wealth, knowledge and views with them. To educate them and help them lift themselves out of poverty and oppression. Okoye, who is a warrior, in part shares this view, that conquering the world, oppressing it, is not the way to go. Strength is not something to be used unless required. And Shuri, the Black Panther's sister, believes in education and science, using technology to further peace and tranquility. When Killmonger steps in, they rise against him as a team.
The film present a strong message against the toxic masculinity that plagues our world and our society, and does it by providing an alternative. Most superhero films stop at the toxic male battle for superiority, they never provide another alternative. And we are stuck with them. Thor wins over Loki in a mighty battle, then sits on the throne. Still isolated on a ship, traveling to a land, where they will continue to live hidden from view...ruling as those who did before him. Captain America pulls his friend Bucky into hiding, but he learns nothing from his battle scars. And Iron Man continues to rule over his weapons. Wonder Woman screams at the universe for allowing violence, and this toxic maleness to exist, yet finds little means to stop it. Killing the God of War doesn't seem to help. It's an anti-war message that gets lost somehow...in being a movie that is about the horrors of war but with a great cinematic battle, but no alternative.
The Black Panther in stark contrast ends not with the battle. But with two men sitting on a cliff face overlooking beauty, and one promising the other to find another way. He even offers to heal him, but Killmonger states he doesn't wish to be healed, not only to become caged again like his ancestors were as they were brought to the Americas in bondage. The movie doesn't end there. T'Challah takes his sister and Nakai to Killmonger's old tenement in Oakland California, and advises them that he has bought it and the buildings surrounding it. They are the new landlords, and they will share their knowledge with the people here, along with their prosperity. He has done this elsewhere as well. He puts Nakai in charge of this new outreach program, and Shuri in charge of sharing her scientific knowledge. And then he enters the UN with his team of women, at his side, and offers in essence the same deal -- a peaceful exchange of knowledge and technology.
It is an alternative to Killmonger's solution -- which was to invade and conquer, as others have done before. To send weapons out and destroy or give those weapons to the oppressed to aid them in doing it themselves. And it is the first superhero film to come up with this option. The only one.
Looking back at Nolan's The Dark Knight -- no such option is provided. Only a violent vigilante guarding the gates of Gotham. In the Man of Steel -- Superman wins by destroying a city. And in Wonder Woman -- Diana wins by fighting violence with violence. Engaging the God of War in WAR. At the end, she continues to fight her battles in this manner. After all, it seems to be all she knows. Her amazon sisters are in reality no different than the men fighting the War she enters...the only one who considers another path, seems to be Steve Trevor in that film.
And if we jump away to Captain America: Winter Solider and Civil War -- all we see are the ill effects of violence, of militarizing superheros as some sort of elite security force, or using powers to suppress and control those we disagree with. And the consequences of these actions. But no alternatives are provided, except the accords, which are set up to restrict powers, and in a way put on chains of bondage, to oppress those who have powers -- in order to keep others safe. And to do so, if need be, with extreme prejudice. Placing Bucky in a cage, much as Erick Killmonger feared being placed.
Black Panther sees an alternative, a new way of looking at things. Instead of killing the threat as his father did, T'Challah sees another way, a kinder one. Instead of embracing the toxic masculine identity of his forebears, he embraces a combination of the male/female views of M'Baku, the Mountain King who is a vegetarian and only fights when necessary, and the women who fight along his side. It's a new way, a more hopeful one, and one that makes me wish that I could live in Wakanda too.
That at the end of the day is why this film surpasses the others before it. And why I think it is better than any other superhero film made. Kudos to Roger Coogler. He is definitely a filmmaker to watch.
I need black panther icons. If you have them -- share, please!
Also, I think it's fitting to combine the gun bit with the Black Panther -- because the latter has a very strong message against using weapons and guns to solve problems.
Guess which group I belong to?
My mother accused me of ranting about it on FB. My posts on FB about guns were shorter than here and really not that big. But my mother is of the view that social media should be restricted to sharing birthdays, vacation pics, pics of pets, and grandkids. In which case there's really no point for me to be on FB. Is there? OTOH, she admits that my cousin, and uncles are doing it too. Learned a lot about guns this week. I've saved some of the posts -- because being a writer, I sort of need the info. You collect weird factual items when you are a writer for later reference.]
Anyhow...I owe you an objective review of The Black Panther, don't I? Or maybe you think I've already provided one and you could sort of live without it, thank you very much? Well, you are getting it anyway. But I'll put most of it beneath a cut tag so you can ignore it. Sort of like I did with the gun bit above.
The Black Panther
Upon further reflection and after letting it settle a bit. I don't think it is a great action film or superhero film. There are superhero films that are better made, from a technical perspective. The film as
cjlasky pointed out in a recent review has overly long and difficult to follow action sequences. While for the most part I liked the one on one battles, panther vs. panther didn't work as well as it should have. I think Black Panther suffered from the same flaws as many other recent action flicks have - an over-reliance on CGI special effects, and not enough reliance on simple hand to hand choreography. A good action sequence is like watching a dance -- but if you add too many elements, it can get busy and cluttered. That's what happened with Black Panther. That is not to say it didn't have good action sequences, it did. Most of which, oddly, featured the female characters -- actually the best action sequences centered around the lead female supporting characters, such as Okoye, who does some amazing sword work. Her fight scenes are beautiful to watch whether it is on top of a car while racing down a highway, or in a casino or out in the middle of a field. In part this is due to the actress having done extensive training with swords and spears for her role on the Walking Dead. I adore the actress - she was actually the only character I liked on the Walking Dead and I considered sticking with it just for her -- but alas, it was not enough.The movie's strength lay in how it sets up each of its thematic arcs and political themes. Also in how it used its characters to further those arcs, while not losing the characters in the process. Too often in these types of films characters get lost or become pawns of the theme or plot. (I'm looking at you, Joss Whedon. He's notorious for doing that -- both in The Avengers and Age of Ultron, also Buffy S7 and the Buffy comics.) .
It also takes a fairly over-done concept and manages to spin it in a new way. The Daddy Issue/Hamlet tale. In which the son loses his father, and somewhere along the line finds himself questioning what his father stood for and what that legacy was all about. Who are the real villains here and is it really as black and white as he originally thought? In the process, race relations are heavily examined, but again in a new way, a way not usually done within the context of a superhero movie.
It's not that there isn't a great deal of commentary about race out there right now -- in literature, movies, etc -- but this is the first time that a blockbuster action film has addressed it head on. Not only addressed it, but did it in such a way -- that the audience can't quite ignore it, but also can't quite justify their prior mindset.
You really don't need to know the history of the Black Panther in the comic books to appreciate any of this. I certainly didn't. My recollection of the character is a vague one -- in the X-men comics, where he was once upon a time, the husband of Storm. That is until -- the X-men vs. the Avengers storyline that lead to the Submariner demolishing Wakanda and killing millions. I'm hoping the movies ignore that storythread. (I'm guessing they will since it was not a popular one in the comic community. Gee, wonder why?) Anyhow, what I knew of Ta-Nehesi Coats take on the character was through a friend's brief synopsis prior to the movie. And yes, the movie for the most part follows Ta-Nehesi Coats take -- at least according to her synopsis.
But it does help to have an appreciation for the superhero genre and action film genre. If you don't -- I'd skip it. My parents friends went to it and didn't like it. But they don't like superhero and action films. If you don't -- you won't like this one either. Because at the end of the day, it's still a superhero and action film. With endless chase scenes, multiple action sequences, lots of explosions, gun-fights (although less than most movies oddly enough), and lots of people trying to kill each other in various ways. I happen to enjoy action movies. Always have. And have a weakness for the superhero genre -- it's a favorite. So from my perspective -- this was a great flick -- a step or two above your standard superhero or action film.
It's very different than most superhero films. And in some respects has more in common with Thor, as explained in detail in
yourlibrarian's review, except I think, unlike Thor, it has something to say and is a bit more innovative. While Thor basically follows the standard prodigal son returns to be King trope, after being exiled, Black Panther goes a different route and in some respects flips it. Also, in comparing the two, it's interesting to note that almost all the characters in Thor except for possibly two are White, while all the characters in Black Panther, except for two are Black. Plus, Black Panther's utopian world sort of makes Thor's seem a tad backwards and uncivilized, which...hmmm, interesting. And it has to date the most complex villain in a superhero film that I've seen. Possibly an action film as well, although I'm hesitant to go that far, mainly because I haven't seen every action film on the planet, and I found the villain in Face-Off and HEAT to be fairly complex. But definitely superhero films, where the villains are usually just poor whiny guys who got ignored by Daddy (Loki) or were misunderstood by society, disenfranchised by society and driven nuts by it (the Joker in about everything), or got overly arrogant and couldn't handle the world not living up to their expectations (Half-and-Half in The Dark Knight). Here, for the first time, with Erik Killmonger, portrayed by Michael B. Jordan ( a top tier actor in a bravado performance), we have a far more complex villain who spouts many of the things a lot of African Americans and a lot of Americans spout on a daily basis. He comes at his African cousins -- stating, you abandoned me and your brothers and sisters to slavery, across the world, we've been oppressed, while you live in splendor. We were taken from your shores and bond in slavery -- while you turned the other way? You have all this power, all this technology, but you hide behind the trappings of a third world nation, isolated, and share nothing. He basically throws a mirror up in their faces and it's not pretty. Then he challenges their King and their world-view. And flips it.
He's ultimately wrong in how he wishes to solve the problem, but not in speaking up about it. He wants to solve it -- the way people always have in the past, with violence. Because that's all he knows, all he has been taught. He knows nothing else. Violence has been his life. And he was created by the American society that he was raised in -- which is a society that worships guns and weapons. Or how many kills he can carve on his chest during not one but two wars. But T'Challah, our hero, was not raised in this manner. Nor was he raised in a culture of toxic masculanity, where guns are worshipped and women are lesser.
That's the other major difference between this film and all the others. There's a huge anti-violence message at it's heart, and a feminist one. It flips the gender stereotypes for superhero films. I've seen a lot of these films, and I can't remember one in which women were this strongly portrayed and featured. In Thor, the women are barely there. Natalie Portman's character is the perpetual damsel or in that film, the Martin Freeman character that is in this one. Here, the women are front and center and they question Killmonger at every turn. Nakai, who more or less tells T'Challah the same things Killmonger does earlier in the film, states them in a different way. She does not propose that T'Challah conquer these other lands and rule them himself, but to share their wealth, knowledge and views with them. To educate them and help them lift themselves out of poverty and oppression. Okoye, who is a warrior, in part shares this view, that conquering the world, oppressing it, is not the way to go. Strength is not something to be used unless required. And Shuri, the Black Panther's sister, believes in education and science, using technology to further peace and tranquility. When Killmonger steps in, they rise against him as a team.
The film present a strong message against the toxic masculinity that plagues our world and our society, and does it by providing an alternative. Most superhero films stop at the toxic male battle for superiority, they never provide another alternative. And we are stuck with them. Thor wins over Loki in a mighty battle, then sits on the throne. Still isolated on a ship, traveling to a land, where they will continue to live hidden from view...ruling as those who did before him. Captain America pulls his friend Bucky into hiding, but he learns nothing from his battle scars. And Iron Man continues to rule over his weapons. Wonder Woman screams at the universe for allowing violence, and this toxic maleness to exist, yet finds little means to stop it. Killing the God of War doesn't seem to help. It's an anti-war message that gets lost somehow...in being a movie that is about the horrors of war but with a great cinematic battle, but no alternative.
The Black Panther in stark contrast ends not with the battle. But with two men sitting on a cliff face overlooking beauty, and one promising the other to find another way. He even offers to heal him, but Killmonger states he doesn't wish to be healed, not only to become caged again like his ancestors were as they were brought to the Americas in bondage. The movie doesn't end there. T'Challah takes his sister and Nakai to Killmonger's old tenement in Oakland California, and advises them that he has bought it and the buildings surrounding it. They are the new landlords, and they will share their knowledge with the people here, along with their prosperity. He has done this elsewhere as well. He puts Nakai in charge of this new outreach program, and Shuri in charge of sharing her scientific knowledge. And then he enters the UN with his team of women, at his side, and offers in essence the same deal -- a peaceful exchange of knowledge and technology.
It is an alternative to Killmonger's solution -- which was to invade and conquer, as others have done before. To send weapons out and destroy or give those weapons to the oppressed to aid them in doing it themselves. And it is the first superhero film to come up with this option. The only one.
Looking back at Nolan's The Dark Knight -- no such option is provided. Only a violent vigilante guarding the gates of Gotham. In the Man of Steel -- Superman wins by destroying a city. And in Wonder Woman -- Diana wins by fighting violence with violence. Engaging the God of War in WAR. At the end, she continues to fight her battles in this manner. After all, it seems to be all she knows. Her amazon sisters are in reality no different than the men fighting the War she enters...the only one who considers another path, seems to be Steve Trevor in that film.
And if we jump away to Captain America: Winter Solider and Civil War -- all we see are the ill effects of violence, of militarizing superheros as some sort of elite security force, or using powers to suppress and control those we disagree with. And the consequences of these actions. But no alternatives are provided, except the accords, which are set up to restrict powers, and in a way put on chains of bondage, to oppress those who have powers -- in order to keep others safe. And to do so, if need be, with extreme prejudice. Placing Bucky in a cage, much as Erick Killmonger feared being placed.
Black Panther sees an alternative, a new way of looking at things. Instead of killing the threat as his father did, T'Challah sees another way, a kinder one. Instead of embracing the toxic masculine identity of his forebears, he embraces a combination of the male/female views of M'Baku, the Mountain King who is a vegetarian and only fights when necessary, and the women who fight along his side. It's a new way, a more hopeful one, and one that makes me wish that I could live in Wakanda too.
That at the end of the day is why this film surpasses the others before it. And why I think it is better than any other superhero film made. Kudos to Roger Coogler. He is definitely a filmmaker to watch.
I need black panther icons. If you have them -- share, please!
Also, I think it's fitting to combine the gun bit with the Black Panther -- because the latter has a very strong message against using weapons and guns to solve problems.
no subject
"YOU WERE WRONG!"
Just an amazing job by Boseman, incredibly powerful moment. We see the birth of a world leader. Is it any wonder why the action scenes afterward felt superfluous to me?
And yet....
When the Panther came over the top of that rugby scrum to confront Killmonger, there were big cheers from the crowd in my theater. It's a superhero movie, I said to myself. People want to see the bad guy get beat. (Wish it could have been done... Better? Different?)
I'd be curious to see what's in that four-hour cut that Coogler's talked about. More scenes of debate and soul-searching in the royal court? More vivid character moments for all the players?
I'd love to see a version of this movie with the action scenes cut to a minimum and sociopolitical and character content pushed to the forefront. It might be a better movie than the one we got.
Buuuuuut.....
It wouldn't be on track for a billion dollar box office.
ETA: Oh, and good call on the movie as a takedown of toxic masculinity and its real world consequences. It's not just that there's a whole bunch of way cool female characters; it's one of Coogler's major points.
no subject
Then, again, in direct contrast -- T'Challa leaves the ancestral plane that is made up of all men, and returns to the four women. Four men on the plane preaching violence and death, and no other answers. He screams "You Were Wrong" and returns to the four women, wakes up, and follows their guidance, instead of the guidance of a bunch of dead old men.
no subject
I found it interesting that the Dora Milaje were willing to follow Killmonger (however reluctantly) until T'Challa popped back up. Then Okoye probably said to herself, "He's just another asshole who thinks the rules are for everybody but him." And it was ON.
no subject