Wakanda Forever and the state of superhero movies

Post Reply New Topic

This post is less about this particular film than it is about trends in superhero movies and criticism of them overall.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” has a lot of things going for it. As other critics have pointed out, it's very respectful towards the previous Black Panther, T'Challa and the actor who played him, the late Chadwick Boseman.

It effectively built up the threat of the underwater kingdom, Talokan, and held my interest throughout most of the movie.

It's also well-acted. After “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law,” it was nice to see “strong female characters” in a Marvel property that actually have a strong presence onscreen. (I'm convinced any one of the female characters in this film could easily kick She-Hulk's butt, whether they have superpowers or not.)

Here's my issue: It feels like “Wakdanda Forever” wants to be seen as a serious film about global politics, while also being about a guy who flies around with little wings on his ankles leading an army of blue people that ride around on whales, who faces off against another person who drinks magic purple flower juice so they can dress up like a cat and scratch their enemies.

One critic I watched asked why they couldn't give Namor a less silly way to fly.

Conversely, I ask why couldn't we have a superhero movie that tonally supports having a guy who flies around with silly little ankle wings?

Now, before I get off on my rant, I admit that good escapism (superhero movies or what-have-you) is usually grounded in reality somehow and can tackle serious and important real-life issues. Sometimes, I think it can be more effective at doing that, because the more lighthearted fantasy material softens you up for an unexpected emotional gut-punch.

It just seems to me that right now, popcorn movies like “Wakanda Forever” don't want to admit that's what they are.

The film tries to be more mature by having a morally ambiguous, sympathetic anti-villain in Namor (that's ankle-wing guy) whose backstory connects to real-life historical atrocities.

This muddles things enough that we can't really root for the new Black Panther to beat him, yet the movie is still bound by the constraints of mainstream, family-friendly entertainment; they can't have the characters do certain things and even when they do something “bad,” they can't show it in a graphic way.

The film also celebrates the symbolism of Wakanda being put on the line to save Riri Williams, a young black American woman whom one character even describes as exactly the sort of person that past rulers of Wakanda wouldn't care about. However, it doesn't address whether or not it's worth it to put the lives of countless Wakandans at risk to save this one American. What does the average, non-royal Wakandan who works as a barista at Starbucks think about this? (No matter how isolated Wakanda is, I guarantee you they have at least five Starbucks there.) If the film was really going to explore these issues, shouldn't it care about that sort of thing?

Speaking of Riri, at one point, I commented that I missed when superhero movies had the character fly around and say "Woo-hoo!" and then they literally had Riri fly around and say "Woo-hoo!" so I guess they got me there!

The new Black Panther is exactly who you think it is, but I'll try to avoid spoilers anyway. The superhero doesn't show up until near the end of this superhero movie. By the time they do, we're already faced with the question of whether they will be “consumed by vengeance,” so we really don't get to say, “Go, Black Panther! Save the day!” at any point.

The inevitable final showdown between Black Panther and Namor felt anti-climactic.

Why should I care which of these two near-invincible, morally gray, vengeance-driven superbeings comes out on top? (Well, one of them wants to commit genocide against the entire surface world, but the film treats it like he's still sympathetic and I'm sure the internet will decide he did nothing wrong and should have been the unquestionable hero all along.)

I was expecting a second surprise climax where Black Panther and Namor would team up to fight a new threat, but it didn't come.

Another internet critic I watched, inevitably, complained about the dreaded “Marvel Humor.” Yes, humor can be out of place, overdone or just bad (“She-Hulk.”) It just seems like I'm moving the opposite direction of an internet fan community that only wants these movies to get more and more serious and realistic.

I start to wonder, why even make a superhero movie at all? Why not just make a serious drama about global politics? My guess is that nobody would go to see it, which leads to my next question – why do people seem to want escapist movies, but minus the escapism?

As with other films I've seen lately, I can't call “Wakanda Forever” bad. I might even call it good. But personally, I wouldn't go out to the theater to see anything like this. I'm not even sure if I want to keep watching these for free on Disney+. I guess to some degree I've always preferred the trappings of the MCU, like the toys and t-shirts, to the actual movies.