Wonderful concept. But Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) suffered from its poor execution and forced motivation.
Considering how successful and culturally important the first Black Panther movie was, Marvel certainly did have plans for the next 5 or 10 years with Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther. So, when tragedy struck, not only did they have to change the course of the MCU going forward, but they also rewrote the script for the sequel. And this fairly quick rewrite was clear from the execution.
Unlike every other MCU project, it didn’t have five years of pre-production. That’s why comparing it to other MCU projects would be unfair.
That being said, the route they had planned was wonderful. The storyline was great, but the way they edited, it felt like they chopped off pieces of an unfinished novel and put together a film for a theatrical release.
The actors were great; there’s no question about it. Shuri, Namor, and M’Baku were all great in it. But it’s the writing that didn’t work. And the motivations did not make sense at times.
[Spoilers ahead] Why would Shuri want to burn the world when talking to her mother in the first quarter of the movie?
Also, why would she see Killmonger and not T’Challa in the ancestral plane? If the answer is supposed to be her mother’s death, then the advertised motivation for the movie fails. If we consider only her mother’s death and her anger towards Namor to be the motivation for her vengeful ascendance, then what role did T’Challa’s death play in her taking up the mantle?
There are other discrepancies throughout the movie, which were made more obvious by the subpar editing of the film. The background score also didn’t do any favor. The trailer had a better score and feel than the movie.
I don’t blame MCU because I know they had to rush. Besides, the storyline was good. On paper and in theory, it sounded like one of Marvel’s best. But it wasn’t. The execution was choppy at best.
The heartwarming reviews of Black Panther 2 stem from people’s emotional attachment to the late actor, and I completely sympathize. But If I take that out of the equation, the film does not deserve more than 5 or 6.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022): 5/10 ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Wonderful concept. But Black Panther: Wakanda Forever suffered from its poor execution and forced motivation. #BlackPanther #WakandaForever https://t.co/1exWnMsWfp
— Rifat Ahmed (@Rifat5670) November 11, 2022