Black Panther 2: The Legacy Of Chadwick Boseman And Yes...Wakanda Forever!

It is time to say goodbye to the MCU, well Phase 4 at least.  Let's be real, we know of at least 2 more phases in the works.  But Black Panther: Wakanda, or Black Panther 2 is the end cap of big screen movie entries for this phase, of course we have Disney Plus shows and a few seasonal specials.  So this is the perfect time to recap one of the more highly anticipated entries of this phase.  We of course we all excited for the latest Spider-Man entry, but this had to be right below that.  

But this movie had the a lot of tasks placed on it outside of the normal expectations for being a good movie in the fairly up and down phase for the MCU.  Not only did this, and every other movie of this phase have that question of what the long standing goals for the over-arching MCU were.  It also had to tell a good story that honors it previous leading actor, Chadwick Boseman, while also moving on from him and simultaneously finding a way to address his real world death.  

So let us figure out together how this movie manages to work through all these important and lofty goals and to what degree.  Let me know on social @NickNackMovies and @NickNack_IC on Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd where you can see my latest full MCU rankings, now 30 films deep.

Transcript

Nick Nack Goes to the Movies Pod S3E19

-Intro/Jingle

-Well loyal listener, it is the end of an era, but with so much on the horizon, fret not.  We have come to the end of Phase 4 of the MCU, and there are some questions afoot, something that has been the case since the end of Avengers Endgame.  This has been the longest phase technically with 7 movies, 7 shows, and 2 seasonal specials that both turned out to be very good.  Not counting What if, I just can’t bring myself to do that or make the canon truly make sense.  Overall, I am not sure how much I really vibed with that show, even though I will still check out season 2.

-So yeah, as far as main non-holiday entries, this is the latest movie to come out in the MCU timeline and our everyday linear just like normal passage of time.  We have a bit of a break until the much-anticipated Phase 5 start film, being the third Ant-Man movie as well as the introduction to the next big bag that can hopefully rival Thanos, something that has not really been addressed at all in Phase 4 for the next big threat.  Probably that is one of the biggest criticisms of this phase, that or the quantity over quality notion.  

-Now as a super hero lover of all things movies and shows, I thought this phase was fine, some movies and shows were better than others, but it was all fine, Shang Chi and the latest Spider-Man movies being particular stand outs at the theater.  But with the latest DC movie discussed on our latest podcast episode, and the whole level of concern with what the heck they are doing with their movie slates now, we turn to how this MCU phase was closed out.  The big question, how was Black Panther 2, AKA, Wakanda Forever, just as a movie as a whole and how did it exist with the real-world death of previous leading man, Chadwick Boseman.

-Actors

-So, if you were wondering if Chadwick Boseman is in this movie at all, he is not.  There is archival footage, there are murals and other references to him, and he does play a big part in the story, but he is not actually in the movie.  But his legacy is celebrated here in a tasteful and good way.

-Sadly, we could not get the return of Daniel Kah-lou-yah, he is just far too busy with Jordan Peele movies.  But while he could not return to his Black Panther role, we can always hope for the next time, he will be in another Marvel production, this time the sequel to the surprisingly good hit movie that has no MCU ties, the 2023 movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

-So, they are not in this movie, but there are a ton of both returners and a few new faces.  Some spoilers ahead, so just be warned and ready for that.  

-Winson Duke is back to bring some of the better comedy to this specific franchise, Martin Freeman is here too, albeit in a much smaller less interesting and less connected to most of the plot role.  The main 4 women are back here too including new black panther, who we all kind of expected to take up the mantle, Luh-tea-shah Wright.  But more excitingly, Duh-naih Gurerea, Walking Dead superstar who is thankfully coming back and rejoining Andrew Lincoln for some form of conclusionary spinoff.  Lupita Nyong’o had a bigger role in the last movie as well, but she is a bit more sidelined here as well, but gosh is she good whenever she is on camera.

-But if you want to look for the acting MVP, the person who really steals the show, has to be Angela Bassett.  She acted her ass off, and I hope she gets some form of recognition in award season, because she had some moments of pure brilliance and perfection, we gotta hype her up for what she brought to this movie!

-As far as new or new-ish adds, I really am still trying to sort out what to think of Julia Loui-Dreyfus’s role in these movies.  It hasn’t really been fleshed out yet, the Black Widow tease never really did anything for her, there is a baseline idea for her from Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but I now feel more confused about her overall goal in these movies, we may have to just wait for that Thunderbolts movie to come out for some clear direction or answers.

-I was pretty happy with Tay-Nuch Wear-Tuh as a closer aligned version to a sympathetic enough villain who had a flushed out enough back story to be compelling and interesting, who also remember was the lead in the Forever Purge, which not I have to watch to rewatch his performance in that, never a bad time to rewatch one or all 5 Purge movies. 

-And lastly, Dominique Thorne took on this new role of someone that had elements of both Iron Man and Shuri.  She is fine in this movie, I just don’t know if the movie gave her enough to do or they knew what to do with her overall.  I don’t know the future of Iron Heart in the MCU, but I am curious.  Sometimes she really did just feel like an object to a bunch of waring countries and factions, and how it all came to be never truly made sense to me.  None of this is the actor’s fault at all, I just hope she gets more of a chance to do her thing in future movies or potentially that series she might headline that could potentially bring back dancing Sam Rockwell.  Not that there is a whole lot of confidence in these shows existing with the rumors of more movies and specials like Werewolf by Night, movies less in bulk and more focused on quality, these Disney Plus shows may be a thing of the past in Phase 5 and beyond, only time will tell though.

-There was also another fun cameo, like Black Adam before it, but we for sure have to save that one once again for later in the episode.  And last thing before we get to the plot.  Remember those early Iron Man movies with fun cameos of people playing themselves, especially news people, well Anderson Cooper filled that role here in another franchise that likes to dabble in fictional geo-political conflicts, being the real-world news reporter commenting on something.  These are small things, but they are fun and help sort of make things feel real and ingraining our fiction into small elements of reality.

-Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

-So, to the movie at hand.  The beginning really gets you right into some hardcore things.  We don’t see T’Challa, but we see his sister trying to hastily come up with a cure to some deathly illness he has, unsuccessfully.  With the lack of the heart shaped herb from the first movie, it all ties in nicely for a way to both honor the character and have a way to tell a story, the toughest part of this movie is having to do both things in a somewhat delicate manner.  

-The funeral procession and everything around that is just done well, you felt at times, and not in a bad way at all, you were watching something that really did feel like it was taking you to a place of worship or a memorial, even though it was a fictional moment for a fictional character.  All of that also just had that base in reality which made it that much more, well real.

-Now initially there were all these rumors of maybe this military invasion into stealing Wakandan vibranium being led by an early introduction to Doctor Doom and his country, that was not the case, but I did like the follow up of Wakanda revealing itself to the rest of the world at the end of the first movie to now everyone wanting a piece of their resources and technology, it is a new arms race in a time of relative piece.  But that does not vibe with some as they try to take it themselves, there is always a ton of fun with the cool ways Wakanda defends itself, and this moment was no exception, and of course, this is all just more time for Angela Bassett to eat up her on-camera appearances.  

-Now you all know, I love me some spooky things, and while the MCU has had little of this so far, Werewolf by Night was a very pleasant surprise, but the moment of having the CIA get hunted down on the ocean with the introduction of Atlantis was the closest this franchise has gotten to horror in a big screen way, this and elements of Multiverse of Madness of course.  That had more slasher vibes with one entity hunting people down, this was a whole group of people, more like a vampire or zombie movie.  Both very fun, and I really can’t wait for a full horror movie with Blade eventually on the horizon when all that gets sorted out with directing and such.  But this scene, like the Multiverse of Madness scene where Wanda was hunting people through mirrors and such, very fun to get a little scare with my super hero stuff.

-And while the jury is still out to see how Nah-more will fare in the rankings of MCU villain history, you can’t mistake the balance of menace he has with his threats and also there is some sympathy with his people who while they have their own thing and world going, everything in their ocean world feels a little less glamorous compared to the DC Atlantis and it all feels a little more refugee like, even years later.  Which is kind of how it all started off with how they did their history for the start of Atlantis.  Always the tough thing bringing in history and groups of characters so much later into the history of the MCU as we know it, can’t wait to see what they do with brining in the X-Men, be they new or some version of the ones we know.  Speaking of X-Men, once again, there are for sure Magneto vibes.  It doesn’t feel the same way as good as it did, but besides that comparison, we once again here the term mutant and we know that is another tease to their inclusion into the larger MCU.

-And before we get into move movie stuff.  The last movie of course was good, it was and still is one of my favorite MCU movies, you can of course check my previous episodes ranking all of that, the Instagram and twitter lists, and of course Letterboxd for my up-to date rankings of all these movies and such.  That list is massive now and there continue to be minor tweaks to it.  

-But one of the best things of that was not just the acting or action, but the music.  The soundtrack by Mandalorian composer Ludwig Gorranson and of course Kendrick Lamar.  And while Gorranson is back for the sequel, the less orchestral soundtrack this time around is not a majority artist, but Rhianna, singing legend and one of the first albums I ever bought, Music of The Sun, lends her talents to a few particular memorable tracks, especially Lift Me Up, one of those special memorial-like songs.  

-But music discussion over for now and back to the plot stuff.  The movie takes a bit of a weird turn here with this search for this person who I feel like there are some questions.  A vibranium locating device feels super specific and part of me wonders how anyone outside of Wakanda can discover it, especially a kid, but I will roll with it even if I don’t agree with it.  This part of the movie all has a bit of weird balance of that trademark MCU humor, something I can kind of take or leave.  Darkness in my soul Nick likes jokes here and there, but sometimes, as much as I love super hero content, the jokes are a bit much, and that is certainly the case at times in this movie.  

-The CIA storyline overall is kind of blah with us just waiting for the Thunderbolts stuff, but Ross is pretty much used as a mole and eventually just arrested for pretty much being made to do that, that is like his whole thing, and eventually we will see more from Julia Louis-Dreyfus, just not here obviously.

-And while some of the movie halts here, seeing the MIT breakout from the government as well as her Iron Man suit, that is a cool deep build dive from the early MCU days.  That is more believable that some smart kid could end up working their way to making a personal version of that, it may be a bit rough around the edges, but it works.  And this harkens back to that thought of just how far people were back to making an Iron Man suit from that sequel.  Obviously, the power dynamics in this Phase 4 of the MCU, the Iron Man suit is just not the strongest thing out there anymore.

-Now as a big Walking Dead fan, I know it is not a perfect show and a lot of people have moved away from it, but I love the original and am pretty chill with the main spinoff Fear as well, so seeing Duh-naih Gurerea in this franchise and the MCU as a whole has been fun, especially with what she has done with her appearances.  So even though Shuri and Riri Williams, AKA Ironheart both got taken by the Atlantians after a fun fight scene that shows just how strong the Atlantians are, but the whole dismissing by the Queen, that is crazy, makes no sense.  Also, while that is crazy to me, that does give us more and more M’Baku scenes.  And yes, all of his stuff is primo MCU humor, that is the right kind of it.  

-It takes ages for Lupita Nyong’o to come back into the fold, there was always the chance she could become the new Black Panther, even slimmer odds for Gurerea, but we always knew deep down that Wright would be the one to be the Black Panther eventually, heck that was her whole arc this movie.  But while she will eventually become the Black Panther, she first kind of has a whole semi-captive tour of Atlantis

-And it is cool to see that parallel viewpoint and another world hidden from the known world and just their culture.  It did eventually obviously become a bit of a culture war, but before that incredible failure to communicate where this could have kind of been all avoided, that and some just bad timing.  Look they are not gonna send that child prodigy to get killed off by ocean people, but that will always be a greater good question, this ain’t Game of Thrones though, so no obvious child murder here.

-Also, isn’t it crazy just how many water type movies are all coming out now, this, the new Avatar, that eventual Aquaman sequel, so many water movies to compare and contrast to see who does water effects best.

-So, seeing Nyong’o do her cool spy stuff, something we only saw in the beginning of the first one movie and once here, her spy skills are cool to see on display, and she even does some assassin stuff, unintentionally and setting off the whole crazy series of events.  A series of events that continues to change Wakanda in this series.  They lost a few rulers, the trailers made us think maybe Shuri was gonna get taken out, and there was one scene face to face with Nah-more and Angela Bassett.  The later was the one that gave us the trouble.  The king of Atlantis went wild with his mini invasion/assassination attempt taking out that queen, not just of Wakanda but the queen of acting in this movie, she ate in this.  And this also gave some stakes/menace for a character that went from opposing viewpoints to a country war, the action and fights in this were very good!

-There is something neat about even though the diplomatic trip did not work because of bad timing and multiple murders, and just people not talking to each other, having Shuri getting part of an herb from Atlantis that makes them strong so now she can be the Black Panther, and this of course led to the best cameo that thankfully was not spoiled for me.  When going to the Ancestral Plane, we could have seen so many people for her to meet.  Her dad played by John Kani who is who T’Challa saw when he went.  It could have been her mom, something that could have mirrored how T’Challa saw the parent he bonded with the most.  Now we know who we were not going to see with director Ryan Coogler making it known they were not going to try and digitally recreate Chadwick Boseman here.  So, the surprise had to be there when we saw Michael B. Jordan revealed to her in the ancestral plane.  There were rumors of bringing him back from the dead to be the new Black Panther but instead this interaction started her on her understandable enough revenge path.  And the crazy action set-piece we were looking for

-Multiple Iron Man type suits are flying around, a new Black Panther, Shuri under the helm this time, and a big ass fight on a boat in the ocean.  Which you think would be a poor idea to fight the water people on the water, no matter what their plan is.  And this action scene is crazy fun, it always helps to not just take on some big monster, but this whole mini war was just fun to see.  And with that going on, seeing Shuri almost straight up murder Nah-More, she comes back from it all to befriend him and have a truce between their nations.  It feels a bit quickly wrapped and may not be fully believable, but it is the end we have after some fun fight stuff.

-Now the end tries to fly through, saving Martin Freeman from jail, planning more heart shaped herbs, and all the political royal family/ruler Black Panther stuff.  That and it teases why Nah-More can’t really be trusted, not sure that is a huge surprise, but once again, it is what it is.  And of course, the mid credit scene has us introduced to Lupita Nyong’o raising the son of T’Challa which seems cute and nice and assumedly won’t cause a crazy royalty issues of lineage down the line.  The end wrapped up a lot of stuff really quick and maybe not in the most satisfying way, but, there is a lot good here, which takes us right to our Letterboxd rating for this latest MCU movie before we set our sights on Phase 5. 

-Letterboxd ratings:

- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – 4 Stars

-wrap/call to action

-So that is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a fine addition to the MCU that I think not only did the job of the movie it had to, but also just finding a way to memorialize Chadwick Boseman.  This was just good overall, and while not perfect, it was absolutely one of the better and more complete Phase 4 MCU movies to come out.  We maybe never got a true direction for the MCU as a whole, and just a small sprinkling of Kang, but I hope people see this movie, not just overall, but especially for the amazing performance of Angela Bassett.  But what did you think of not only this MCU movie, but the entire Phase 4; shows, specials, and movies alike?  Let us know on all social media platforms, Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram, Letterboxd, and more at either Nick Nack underscore IC or Nick Nack Movies.  Well, that is all for me so cheers and as always, until next time cinephiles.