Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is forever strong with a raw, emotional core with magnificent performances from the film’s cast.
Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira), and the Dora Milaje fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s (Chadwick Boseman) death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) to forge a new path for their beloved kingdom.
The return to Wakanda is loaded with fantastic, possibly Oscar-worthy, performances that are just as layered and complex as the characters they portray. Danai Gurira is so much more than a warrior in this film. Gurira has expanded the leader’s role in so many ways that her character has a more well-rounded tone to play with the other characters. Lupita Nyong’o was terrific when she shows up, again adding more complexity and expanding her character to so much more. Nyong’o knows how to play these roles organically and just embodies them to really bring victory to the acting game. Letitia Wright really crushed this role in the film. Wright portrays everything so well and never strays into territory that is overacted or ridiculous to handle and brings so much to the character and the chemistry she has with everyone else.
Thanks to the acting, accompanied by music, cinematography, and careful planning, Wakanda Forever accomplishes so much in diving right into the emotional element of the film. It shows a much deeper reflection on real life than the other films and really focuses on the aspects of people facing a hard time in their life. As the movie progresses, that emotion starts to expand even more, with connections, character arcs, and history that plays to a number of viewers. That relatability drives the movie home and takes you on a journey with them as they fight to face demons from within, both literally and figuratively.
As mentioned above, this film is a very heavy story that is layered with drama and growth. There is connectivity, studying, and understanding of the world, trying to take grief of a kingdom, and still attempting to fit into a world constantly on the hunt for power and control. Those themes stay, but they also blossom into something else as more and more strategic play occurs, which helps craft these characters for a much deeper story. All of these elements takes the movie into a more artistic Marvel film than other films have tried to do.
Wakanda Forever really is a great dive into the psyche of a Marvel character and gives you a stronger character story with it. Black Panther’s group is really taken to places that are rare to see in movies today. The anguish, torture, and all the emotions are beautifully presented which gives you characters that far expand the costumes they wear. The movie explores the facets of human society, providing a window to gaze into and do your own soul-searching. You can’t help but be drawn into these characters’ stories and the journey they took to grow and become something stronger.
Overall, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever definitely lived up to the hype and did much of what I expected it to do. Director Ryan Coogler really accomplished making an emotional masterpiece. It handles a lot of things very well and integrates life’s facets into a brilliant story that is character-centric and relationship-building to really evolve roles that were secondary in the first film. That chemistry, relatability, and the manner in which they shot the film all point to next-level storytelling. This movie is a bit more adult-paced than other Marvel films, so younger audiences might not like it or be a little scared to watch it.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now playing in theaters.
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