Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - Film Review
By Conor Esslemont
After the unprecedented success of 2018’s Black Panther, any sequel would face an uphill battle in order to match the original film. With 3 Oscar wins, a Grammy win, and even a Best Picture nomination, writer/director Ryan Coogler and his creative team had their work cut out for them in matching the critical and cultural impact of the first film. But with the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman, the challenge of creating a worthy sequel became an even more daunting task. In addition to several script rewrites and a total reworking of the film, Wakanda Forever experienced both release and filming delays. And yet, despite all of these obstacles, Wakanda Forever succeeds when it has to and juggles its many responsibilities as best it can.
Set one year after the passing of Boseman’s King T’Challa, Wakanda is under mounting pressure from the rest of the world to distribute vibranium and share their technology, now that there’s no Black Panther to defend the isolated country. With T’Challa’s family in mourning, Wakanda faces escalating threats from outside their borders, with many foreign nations searching the seas for vibranium. This causes the emergence of Namor, ruler of the underwater nation of Talokan, whose aggressive agenda and contempt for the surface world causes a war between Wakanda and Talokan, as the mantle of the Black Panther remains unfulfilled.
It may go without saying, but the performances in Wakanda Forever are fantastic, and a big part as to why the film works. Letitia Wright steps up to franchise lead, imbuing the role with a vulnerability and empathy that grounds what would otherwise be another ridiculous superhero film. Angela Bassett is a commanding presence on screen as always, and Winston Duke makes his limited screen time memorable with much of the film’s minimized humor. Newcomer Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams is fun and likable, but feels shoehorned in (as we’ll soon be seeing her again in her own Disney+ show) and not given much to do, just as Tenoch Huerta portrays a compelling villain in Namor, breaking the familiar Marvel habit of weak antagonists.
Ludwig Göransson’s score is rich and striking, punctuating the film’s many emotional moments while bringing back many of the motifs and themes of his Oscar and Grammy winning soundtrack for the first film. The cinematography for Wakanda Forever, however, surpasses the original, in addition to having better VFX, which was a notable issue for the first film. The costume design, make-up, and action choreography are all great, although the concept design and execution of a particular battlesuit for the Dora Milaje is just plain silly (you’ll know it when you see it). In contrast, the design and portrayal of Talokan is well realized and inventive, blending Mesoamerican influences with the comic book source material.
Yet the film’s overstuffed plot pales in comparison to the culturally resonant story in the original Black Panther, especially when it indulges in several overused plot contrivances. Because of this, the first film remains the better of the two, as Wakanda Forever also suffers from extraneous plot threads and characters that feel more like studio mandates than natural inclusions to the story. Nevertheless, the film works best when centered on the grief and loss of its main characters, letting the plot slow down when necessary and settle into the quieter moments, which are few and far between in most superhero films. Unsurprisingly, the absence of Chadwick Boseman is strongly felt, and Coogler wisely acknowledges that absence in the film while crafting a story that honors Boseman’s legacy, mourns his loss, and passes on the mantle of the Black Panther. So while not as groundbreaking as the original film, Wakanda Forever is an adequate but bloated sequel that fulfills its many duties as a superhero film, tribute to Boseman, and MCU entry to varying degrees of success, but lives in the shadow of its predecessor.