[MCU P4] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

[Isgrimnur]

Comic Book.com

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has added Dominique Thorne to its cast, the actress who will be playing Ironheart in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thorne had previously been announced as the MCU's Riri Williams for the hero's self-titled Ironheart series coming to Disney+. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has confirmed to ComicBook.com that Thorne will make her MCU debut as Ironheart ahead of the release of her self-titled series.
...
In the Marvel Comics universe, Riri Williams is a teen-aged engineering genius who designs her own version of an Iron Man suit. Following her father's death, she lives with her mother and her aunt in Chicago. At 15 years old, she gets herself accepted into MIT. It is there that she builds her own version of an Iron Man-style armor. After using the armor to stop two escaped prison inmates, Tony Stark reaches out to her and gives her his blessing to become a new, armored hero, yet there is no indication that Robert Downey Jr. or Tony Stark will be a part of the character's story in the MCU right now.

[Blackhawk]

[AWS260]

The intro performance for the Wakanda panel at SDCC was fire.

[Grifman]

So does anyone know what becomes of the “Black Panther”? Who becomes leader of the country and takes the role? Is it going to be Shuri? I understand she is the lead for the movie, right?

[Sudy]

I don't think anyone knows yet, but that seems to be the obvious choice. The latest trailer definitely gives hints as to how else Wakanda reacts.

[El Guapo]

The trailer indicates that T'Challa and Shuri's mother becomes Queen after T'Challa dies, though you figure that Shuri probably takes the throne by the end of the movie.

I also wonder how they have T'Challa die. They have to be kicking themselves for not having him die a heroic death in Endgame.

[dbt1949]

I always thought Wakanda was in the middle of Africa but it seems they are going to be fighting foes from the sea.

[hepcat]

It's more eastern Africa according to some fictional maps that have been shown in the comics over the years, but it's still a landlocked nation. So I'm assuming they'll be coming to the defense of some of their coastal neighbors.

[disarm]

Look up Namor and the underwater parts of the trailer will make a little more sense...

[Sudy]

Or you could look up Aquaman.

[YellowKing]

Or you could look up Aquaman.

I'd pay good money to see a Marvel multiverse film in which they crashed into the DC universe, except it was a DC universe populated by the lamest versions of every DC character. Aquaman from Super Friends, Adam West's Batman, etc.

[$iljanus]

Or you could look up Aquaman.

I'd pay good money to see a Marvel multiverse film in which they crashed into the DC universe, except it was a DC universe populated by the lamest versions of every DC character. Aquaman from Super Friends, Adam West's Batman, etc.

I think a scene where Rocket Racoon first meets the Wonder Twins would be hysterical. I'm sure he'll have some choice commentary.

[AWS260]

This is more spoiler-y than the first trailer, if you're looking to avoid that kind of thing. No plot, but more character looks/reveals.

[Freyland]

Saw this yesterday. Way too long, yet they managed to rush some important plot and character development. Lots of bullshit moments that were eye-roll-worthy. I want my 2.5 hours back.

(Disclaimer: due to either depression or old age, I tend to not enjoy what many others here do, and while I exercise suspension of disbelief, I have my limits. )

[AWS260]

I really liked this. Not as revelatory as the first Black Panther, but I suppose that's inevitable.

Non-spoilery thoughts: Angela Bassett was terrific; the standout performance of the movie. The editing in some of the action scenes was a bit choppy and harder to follow than it could have been. I really like how it unveils new corners of the MCU.

Spoilery thoughts (more of these, because it's hard to comment on this movie without getting into spoilers):

Spoiler:

- So much of this movie is about grief and loss and trauma. It's a lot, and it almost always works. I'm glad they went in this direction.
- Letitia Wright is good, but she has to carry an enormous amount of weight in this movie, and it doesn't always hit as hard as it might.
- Riri Williams' intro was great, but her character didn't have an arc to speak of. Still really like the actor, though.
- Tenoch Huerta was excellent. I thought that Namor's perspective and motivation came through very clearly.
- I was very happy to see that M'baku will take the throne of Wakanda. I really like how his character has grown.
- That mid-credits scene. Oof. I got a little teary.

[hepcat]

, and while I exercise suspension of disbelief, I have my limits. )

You went to a Marvel film and were expecting those limits to be observed?

[disarm]

I saw this with my kids this afternoon (8yo son, 14yo daughter) and we all enjoyed it quite a bit. My only real criticism is that you feel every long minute of its 2'40” runtime. I don't think it had much that was unnecessary, but the overall pace was pretty slow, similar to what they did with the Eternals...a slow burn with bursts of action. The story worked though, and I'm curious to see how certain characters surface again in future movies...

[Sudy]

So I thought this was... pretty, and pretty decent. But similar to my reaction to most Marvel movies going back to the beginning, it lacks soul. I don't mean the characters or performances lack soul (quite the contrary in this one), but that the stories just continue to be bloated introductions for other characters and I have trouble getting into the action and relating to the stakes. Even with the lower frequency of MCU releases over the pandemic and the relative freshness Coogler continues to bring to the table, we're thirty films into this universe and the majority of them contain world-ending threats. (I get it, it's comics... but I'm weary of it.) I guess I'd rather watch films in the Black Panther series than 80% of the rest of the MCU, but it still kind of blurs together for me.

Spoiler:

- I thought the character of Namor was surprisingly great, but I have a thing for Meso-American stuff.
- I get that he's a mutant and I presume the foot-wings are part of the comics character, but I found it kind of silly for the MCU.
- Outside of that... I think I actually kind of enjoyed Aquaman's take on an underwater society more. Heresy, I know.
- I was disappointed by the introduction of Riri Williams. It was just too much, and as someone else stated she didn't have much of an arc. As much as I'm happy to bypass another origin story, I felt she needed more of one, solo series coming up or not.
- I love Martin Freeman as an actor, but I'm just so tired of the CIA/military/SHIELD stuff. It's just too cynical. I can't help but see these organizations as the bad guys even when individual characters may not be. I want far less of them in my MCU.
- Nice to see Richard Schiff, I just wish his character was more interesting and had a larger role.
- So T'Challa had a son a couple years before the original movie? I mean I guess that's fine, but his introduction feels gratuitous.
- It's great to have a film almost completely anchored by female characters.
- M'Baku's great, and it was a welcome surprise to see Killmonger again.
- I get the impact Ramonda's death had on the story, but I feel like an additional (fictional) death kind of detracted from Boseman's and T'Challa's deaths.
- I love long movies, but this was just too damn long. Maybe my complaint is more with the pacing and that it feels like the story never comes up for air (pun not intended).
- I'd like to see more What If and isolated stuff, even though it's completely contrary to the MCU's philosophy. Give me a whole movie about Namor in the 1500s. Try some stuff like Phillips's Joker.

[El Guapo]

Regarding Riri Williams - I thought her character was fine, but it's getting annoying how every Marvel movie & show now seemingly needs to include 20 - 30 minutes of content that's just there to introduce a character that's going to get a standalone show or movie later. For a movie like this that's on the long side, it'd be great if they could just cut or greatly streamline that stuff, but it feels like there's some Marvel directive that everything needs to set up something else.

[Sudy]

I would prefer a hint or post-credits scene for that purpose some of the time, which seems like they used to do occasionally. If the character is central to the plot that's one thing, but Riri really felt shoehorned in.

[Rumpy]

I don't really care for most Marvel movies these days, but went and saw this with a friend this past weekend and we both loved it. It's actually a great sequel to an already great movie, and what I liked was that it felt more or less self-contained. The world of Wakanda feels colourful and alive, and gives off a similar vibe to the first Wonder Woman movie, which IMO I think share the same market segment and I think it was a good decision in making everything be self-contained. All in all, we really liked this.

[Pyperkub]

apparently on Disney+ now for those who didn't go to the theater...

[naednek]

apparently on Disney+ now for those who didn't go to the theater...

i called in sick today (for reals) and watched this today. It was good.

[Pyperkub]

apparently on Disney+ now for those who didn't go to the theater...

i called in sick today (for reals) and watched this today. It was good.

Cool, I'm still at the office, so we probably won't be able to squeeze it in tonight, but maybe...

[AWS260]

The making-of video on Disney+ is quite good. No revelations, but it's a nice window into the production.

I was really impressed at how much of the underwater scenes were actually filmed underwater. At one point, they show Tenoch Huerta being brought down to the bottom of the filming tank without a mask, and he must be at least 25 feet below the surface. He says that he can hold his breath for five minutes now.

Like the film, it's very respectful in how they address Chadwick Boseman's death. They actually have some footage of Dominique Thorne with him, because she originally auditioned for Shuri before being cast in the second movie.

[Carpet_pissr]

All three of us that watched this recently on Disney+ did not like. It was unanimous. And all of us liked The Black Panther, so....??? I think some of it is just absolute Marvel burnout, but also it's just so....MOTS. Quite a bit of overacting in several of the major roles, IMO.

[JCC]

Watched this with a couple buddies today. It was... fine? Nowhere near as good as the first Black Panther. The cameo was by far the best part. Definitely in the bottom tier of MCU movies.

The MCU machine is so well oiled, I wouldn't say any of them are bad at this point (I even enjoyed Eternals), but with the exception of Spiderman - No Way Home which was great, it feels like the MCU is just treading water since End Game. I hope Ant Man can give the MCU a jump start. Generally, I like the MCU shows more than the movies lately.

[hepcat]

I think my favorite thing about the movie is that Shuri programmed her computer to speak in English with an accent.

[Pyperkub]

Weird. I really liked this. Shuri's journey was really well done. It's rare that a superhero sequel can be good without a strong villain, and the villain here was a bit meh, but because it was also an origin story for Shuri, it worked for me.

Also liked the homages to Chadwick Bozeman too.

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

[Rumpy]

Yeah, I quite liked it too, and I think what works for me is that it doesn't try to be connected to everything else. It's a smaller movie that way, but I don't consider it a fault.

[msteelers]

We watched this tonight and… I didn’t care for it. This might be tied with Eternals for my least favorite MCU product.

We’re going to see Ant Man tomorrow. I’m excited for it, but bad reviews have me a little nervous.

[msteelers]

It really bothered me that Riri’s suit looked like it was off the set of the Bumblebee movie.