Let’s be honest, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been in something of a hangover since 2019. Avengers: Endgame felt like a massive blowout party, where the mood was euphoric and the noise of deafening; it was the MCU’s equivalent of ‘there’s so much misery in the world, but not in this Disney-shaped room of the American Military Industrial Complex’. Since then, though, the franchise has felt like it was recovering from the after-effects, given the work it’s churned.
Black Widow was less than satisfactory, No Way Home gave it a shot but didn’t quite get there, The Multiverse of Madness was a farcical smokescreen, and the less said about Love and Thunder, the better. So, all eyes were definitely fixed on Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever, and whether it was time to take Marvel cinematically seriously again:
The Good
Wakanda Forever gives Chadwick Boseman his due. With the sad passing of the actor back in 2020, the MCU made the decision not to recast the role of T’Challa, but forge a new path. Yet, it does well to honour Boseman’s role as the Black Panther from four previous movies. It’s not just the music, the intro, and the funeral scene. It’s that a lot of the overriding actions from the characters are championed by emotional responses to his passing; whether rational or absurd; whether as King T’Challa or just Boseman. It’s that a lot of these characters are connected by the main face who’s no longer in the picture.
As a film in itself, Wakanda Forever represents another form of difference from much of Phase Four of the MCU; the effects, and choreography. Much of what has happened since Endgame has insufficiently CGI’d, badly CGI’d, overtly CGI’d, or just overtly ad badly CGI’d. Wakanda Forever seems to reach a decent middle ground in that regard. It’s not quite Iron Man 1 (Disney don’t treat their workers that good), but it’s visually acceptable to the point of being appealing.
This movie also represents a kind of coming-of-age for Letitia Wright as Shuri. Not just in terms of the barely-kept-secret, but also in terms of a sense of character maturing on screen. Going from the girl who makes quirky jokes and doesn’t fancy Wakandan tradition to a lead character who has been made to rapidly grow up due to loss.
Plus, at the risk of bringing to life the MCU-fan-calls-great-acting-as-they-a-character-yell-for-the-first-time meme, this movie does have some good sense of emotion around it. Yet…
The Bad
The emotionally-charged aspect of Wakanda Forever is obvious, but whether it’s good in itself is up for debate. This is obviously the MCU’s most emotional movie; but that’s also partly because the MCU has proven itself to be a franchise too terrified of being remotely cathartic. The emotion regarding this movie can sometimes seem like a shield for its deficiencies; like a case of ‘don’t take real note of what’s going on, just feel the movie. It’s made with love’. Some actions defy plot rationality, and some seem to be taken just so we can see a character get emotional and nothing else.
With Tenoch Huerta Mejia as the antagonist, Wakanda Forever falls into that analytical mess of a bad guy who’s very much justified in hating Western powers, yet his action of wanting to burn the world in vengeful rage is so dastardly that the lack of level-headedness it portrays means he has to be stopped. It reeks too much of Killmonger from the first movie, and speaks to either cheap writing, or peak western analysis – most likely both.
Then there’s the use of Martin Freeman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, alongside the Western powers. The duo seems to exist for no other reason other than telling us that the woman who’s recruiting characters for Thunderbolts is also a CIA officer, and asides his first appearance, Freeman has no impact on the plot of this movie.
The Ugly
The utter cheek of a Disney movie talking about the farcical nature of western powers towards Global South countries with resources they want is one thing. That it barely does anything else in the film, and simply exists so the studio can pat itself on the back for anti-colonial rhetoric is another.
Conclusion:
Wakanda Forever does shake off some of the MCU’s hangover. But this feels like more of recovering after taking the aspirin stage than being in any decent nick. It’s better than what’s come before, but that doesn’t quite answer the question of whether it’s actually good.
On About Nothing Rating: 4.5/10
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