Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Ryan Coogler’s sequel to the box-office phenomenon of Black Panther appeals more to the eye and the conscience than to the emotions.
The Wright stuff
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is nothing if not impressive. And commendable. But often it is the attention to detail that electrifies more than the whole. There is just so much going on, and so many characters competing for our attention, that witnessing it all is like trying to carry out a high wire act on a giant cat’s cradle. Intelligent minds are at work here, paying homage to the memory of Chadwick Boseman while ushering in a new female-centric dynamic. There’s also the future of the environment to address, political equilibrium and the potential extinction of worlds that we are not even aware of. Any given member of the audience can read into it what they will.
We start with the funeral of T'Challa, the Black Panther himself, which is followed by the Marvel logo unspooled in reverential silence. And so Ramonda (Angela Bassett) ascends the throne vacated by her son, becoming the queen of Wakanda. Fiercely protective of her nation’s invaluable natural asset, vibranium, she makes it clear at a United Nations assembly that she is not about to share her country’s precious resource with the rest of the world – because she doesn’t trust their use of it. The strongest metal in the world and a third of the weight of steel, vibranium is not only bulletproof but can absorb sound and kinetic energy. However, foreign mercenaries have already breached a Wakandan outreach facility to steal the stuff, were defeated and are unmasked and shamed in front of the world’s representatives in Geneva. Queen Ramonda is not going to be messed with.
Then, as Ramonda and her tech-savvy daughter Shuri (Letitia Wright) are having a tiff over a campfire, they are approached by a hovering merman, Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), who claims that his blue people have their own source of vibranium. But somebody has created a machine that can detect vibranium and Namor threatens to attack Wakanda unless they reveal the culprit, so that he can kill him (or her, as it turns out).
And so the CIA and the FBI are brought in on the action, and there are trips to Boston, Haiti, Cape Verde and Yucatán, not to mention awesome underwater kingdoms, all clamouring for our attention. All this is the stuff of great drama, Wakanda Forever being a mindful epic for our times, a visual banquet and a vital warning of geopolitical tension. The costumes, production design and cultural detail are entrancing, and the array of female roles a welcome riposte to the back catalogue of mainstream Hollywood product (the Guyana-born Letitia Wright improves with each performance). But the film is also slow, congested and at times plain confusing, which robs it of its attempt to thrill or to make us weep. There is little narrative momentum, and the supernatural prowess of the fight scenes gets wearisome after a while. In the end, it is a strange mix of the quasi-profound and the outright silly, a well-meaning extravaganza whose ambition ultimately overshoots its goal.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena, Lake Bell, Alex Livinalli, Robert John Burke, Danny Sapani, Dorothy Steel, Isaach de Bankolé, Connie Chiume, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Martin Freeman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Angela Bassett, Richard Schiff, Michael B. Jordan.
Dir Ryan Coogler, Pro Kevin Feige and Nate Moore, Screenplay Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, Ph Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Pro Des Hannah Beachler, Ed Michael P. Shawver, Kelley Dixon and Jennifer Lame, Music Ludwig Göransson, Costumes Ruth E. Carter, Sound David C. Hughes, Dialect coaches Beth McGuire and Diego Daniel Pardo.
Marvel Studios-Walt Disney.
161 mins. USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 11 November 2022. Cert. 12A.
