REVIEW: BLACK PANTHER - WAKANDA FOREVER

4/5

Chadwick Forever.

161 Mins. Starring: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman & Angela Bassett. Director: Ryan Coogler. 

Sorrow shrouds the opening scene of the sequel to Marvel's massive 'Black Panther' movie, which was the groundbreaking first of its type to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. That's because two years after its release and two ago in the worst year of our lives (from Kobe to corona) we lost the late, great Chadwick Boseman, unexpectedly and tragically to cancer. Not only the once and forever, King T'Challa. Marvel have movingly made sure of that. But also in a few short years, the most important actor of black biopics. Jackie Robinson in '42', a number retired across all of Major League Baseball after the first African-American professional player and civil rights movement broke the colour barrier. The first African-American justice to the Supreme Court of the United States of America, Thurgood 'Marshall'. And none other than the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. WOW! And of course the fictional Black Panther, named after the political party, but a literal inspiration to a genre and game changing world that now sees superheroes in any and everybody. Regardless of colour or creeds. That just one of the legend's lasting legacies. May he always rest peacefully, as all he's done lives on further like 'Wakanda Forever'. 

Ryan Coogler's returning and successful sequel like his Michael B. Jordan 'Creed' franchise is that much deeper like 'Fruitvale Station'. The funeral ceremony in celebration of the life of both T'Challa, but more importantly in mural, Chadwick is tasteful, respectful and absolutely beautiful. Restrained yet powerful in its raw passion. A monumental moment for the movie and the culture it created and cultivated. All from the vision of a man who had the foresight to see all this and still looks over all that comes next. Boseman gave us the first real black superhero aside from Anthony Mackie's Falcon, who now makes a serious statement as the new Captain America. Now 'Black Panther-Wakanda Forever' celebrates the marvel and wonder of black women. But we won't spoil who takes the throne of 'Black Panther' in the same week as Netflix's penultimate season of 'The Crown' and God's Son rapper Nas' conclusion to his 'King's Disease' trilogy. Even if it is the worst kept secret since the Spider-Man one, we still won't unstick for you, even though everyone already knows. 

Clues are everywhere like an M.C.U. Easter Egg, but we'll let you work all that out for yourselves. Otherwise, what did you wait all this time for like a powerful post-credits sequence in all its earned emotion? As for the big-three, putting in work for Wakanda with the big-hole that Chadwick's death has left. Born star Letitia Wright ('Death On The Nile'), scene-stealer, throwing the wig down, Danai Gurira and '12 Years A Slave' Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, show behind every great man is so many women, as it takes more than a village to build this civilization. All of them deserve to bear the claws. Yet, it's Queen Angela Bassett, regal and graceful, who stirs the most emotion since her monumental, Academy Award nominated performance as the great Tina Turner in 'What's Love Got To Do With It'. "I'm Queen of the most powerful nation in the world and my entire family is gone. Have I not given everything." It'll take all you have not to lose it all at this moment of collective, conscious grief. 

Florence Kasumba who really moved the Marvel machine in 'The Falc...Captain America and The Winter Soldier' also strikes her vibranium spear down. As does (sort of, with an upgrade across the Dora Milaje) franchise newcomer Michaela Coel, who changed the world herself with the urgent 2020 statement of 'I May Destroy You'. But it's the Heart of Dominique Thorne (who already like Chadwick has monumental movies in her arsenal. 'If Beale Street Could Talk' and 'Judas and the Black Messiah') who really has the star power to soar. Yet, again, Mum's the word. And Winston Duke (who has now played The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne in the 'Batman Unburied' (talk about more monumental heroes) podcast) who steals the show (again). Still, with Martin Freeman's CIA agent back in the colonizing fold and another recurring Marvel character we're not sure if we are at liberty to say, but love to see (not to mention 'The West Wing's' Richard Schiff as a special guest star), the 30th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has another trick up its sleeve. Underwater on the poster. 

'Aquaman' eat your heart out. You too, James Cameron. Because the titanic, avenging Marvel have just pipped 'Avatar' to the post. Their way of water only had more than a decade to do so, themselves. The comic-book genre goliath like a juggernaut adds more legends to their new phase. As a representing Tenoch Huerta's terrific and hallmark, Namor grounds the wing-tipped feet of the underground legend in realism and a brutally relevant backstory. Realms of untapped universes that would make even the 'Love and Thunder' of Thor jealous, open up a whole new world for Disney's hottest property (sorry, Star Wars). Proving that earthquake like explosion under the sea that Okoye dismissed in the last Avengers movie is the actual Endgame we're in now. Huerta with a Thanos like army behind him (not to mention some Killer Whales, Fish Man) looking like a King himself. Doing double duty in both honouring a classic comic character and following-up the greatest Marvel villain not named Loki, Jordan's Erik Killmonger (making up for his departure like the one of 'Get Out' star Daniel Kaluuya due to scheduling ('Nope')). Add Rihanna's title-track lifting us up like her Star Trek 'Sledgehammer' did out of the darkness, and Tems taking over from Kendrick Lamar's curated soundtrack, mixing it all together. Like covering Bob Marley like a Fugee, 'No Woman, No Cry'. In the wake of Chadwick's death, everything is going to be alright. Forever. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Black Panther', 'Iron Man', 'Avatar-The Way Of Water'.