Spoiler Alert (you have been warned, no excuses)
Marvel’s Black Panther, the first black superhero movie since 2004, just hit theaters. It earned over $700 million in total, already surpassing Captain America: Civil War and Iron Man 3. Once the movie tops Wonder Woman, it will be the fifth biggest comic book superhero movie of all time in North America. Now that they’ve seen the film, Jared, Leo, and Dylan are ready to share their thoughts about it.
T’Challa
First off, we’ll start with the man himself, T’Challa, otherwise known as the Black Panther. Chadwick Boseman, the man who plays T’Challa, captures the screen adaptation of the comic book superhero perfectly. Everything from his accent to his presence is just how I would picture the Black Panther as a real person.
T’Challa starts out as a young prince practicing for his father’s place as king, and becomes so much more by the end. He learns about his father’s cruel past, and also learns about his cousin, and he decides hiding Wakanda from the outside world isn’t the right way to use their massive supply of vibranium. So, as king, he takes his father’s place in the United Nations to tell everyone about their secret.
One of my favorite scenes with T’Challa is when he was beaten by Erik Killmonger (reviewed in the next section) and he has entered the ancestral plane, where he asks his father why he didn’t take Erik to Wakanda after killing his father. He lashes out at his father telling him he was wrong. T’Challa comes to the realization that hiding Wakanda isn’t the right thing to do. It was a big development scene for the character, and that’s why I liked it so much.
I think the way T’Challa is portrayed is a big part of the movie, and Chadwick Boseman did it to a T. I really enjoyed the movie, and I am excited to see the Black Panther return in Avengers: Infinity War.
Killmonger
“A great movie is only great with a great villain,” said by everyone ever. By that criteria, Black Panther would be a great movie. Erik “Killmonger” Stevens, A.K.A N’Jadaka, was the best Marvel movie villain of all time, yes, that means better than Loki. His backstory was great, him being in the military tearing down governments, just like he divides Wakanda’s government. He also has great motivation; he wants to empower Africans all over the world that are being mistreated, and are experiencing injustice. He wants to share Wakanda’s wealth and vibranium all around the world. The flashback scenes of him as a boy brought tears to my eyes. The spirit world scene was breathtaking, their conversation was mesmerizing. I loved how the line about the Wakandan sunset payed off, having Killmonger watch the Wakandan sunset during his last breaths. He will definitely stay in our hearts forever, wishing he was running with T’Challa, fighting the outriders side-by-side with Shuri.
Shuri
The princess character is always great, in Wonder Woman the princess is Wonder Woman, in Star Wars, Princess Leia was one of the main protagonists, and in The Princess Bride, Princess Buttercup is one of the best parts of the movie. In Black Panther, Princess Shuri is no different. She is the comic relief, having some of the best lines in the movie, including, “WHAT ARE THOSE!!!!!” She had a storyline throughout the movie, she started as the joking little sister, teasing T’Challa for freezing like a antelope in headlights. We then learn that she is a huge part of Black Panther being who he is. She gives him all of his gadgets, his suits, his shoes, and she “heals” everyone that he wants her to. She even pilots his getaway car for him. At the end fight scene, she even fights with the Dora Milaje, even fighting one-on-one with Killmonger. Letitia Wright does a great job portraying her. She executes the wise-cracking, fierce fighter that Shuri is perfectly.
M’Baku
M’Baku is the leader of the Jabari tribe, and is portrayed by Winston Duke. The first time we see him and his tribe is when they barge into T’Challa’s initiation and demand a fight, because they think M’Baku should be the next king. T’Challa, of course, manages to beat him and becomes king.
Later in the movie, when T’Challa has been thrown off the initiation cliff by Killmonger, his family goes to M’Baku for help because they need their city back. This is M’Baku’s best moment in my opinion, because he has a change of heart, and tells T’Challa’s family that one of his fisherman found T’Challa in the river below the cliff and took him back to the tribe. Without M’Baku’s help, the family would have never been able to get T’Challa back and dethrone Killmonger.
Thank you for reading our article on Black Panther. We hope you enjoyed it and hope you will read some of the other articles on the newspaper as well. And finally if you haven’t seen Black Panther I strongly suggest you do.