Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) | Film Review

Ever since Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman passed away in 2020, fans have approached director Ryan Coogler’s sequel, Wakanda Forever, with trepidation. While this is assuredly one of Marvel’s most successful characters, Coogler and Marvel head Kevin Feige’s choice to move forward with the death of T’Challa rather than recast is a dicey one. On one hand, you pay respect to the legacy of the actor, a beloved thespian seeping with talent. On the other, you have a duty to the legacy of the character, one who has existed in the hearts and minds of comic book fans since 1966. The day of release has arrived and now we can answer the ultimate question: did Marvel make the right choice?

Wakanda Forever immediately opens with the death of King T’Challa, thankfully occurring offscreen. Much like Chadwick Boseman’s death impacted audiences around the world, we witness the impact of King T’Challa’s death on not only Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright), but on the citizens of Wakanda as well. It is a scene of both embracing the beauty and sanctity of life, as well as mourning the steely bitterness of death. Overall, this is an unprecedentedly genuine presentation of death by Marvel and is captured with a finger consistently tapping on the heart of Chadwick himself.

Then we move forward with Wakanda Forever’s story of rebuilding, both this franchise and the Black Panther myth as well. Wakanda is under siege by foreigners demanding the vibranium that King T’Challa had promised to share with the world. Nation’s governments demand these resources, while simultaneously conducting covert operations to forcefully steal the coveted materials. One thing Wakanda Forever does AMAZINGLY well is point out that humans cannot be trusted with endless power, and that King T’Challa made an extremely naïve call on this decision. Truly, 10 minutes in and by Wakanda’s own account, T’Challa brought more hell on Wakanda than Killmonger ever dreamed. Whoops.

As it turns out, it is not only Wakanda that holds a healthy supply of vibranium. An underwater city akin to Atlantis known as Talokan also hoards the material and has existed in peacefully unknown isolation for generations. Thanks to T’Challa’s poor life choices, the Talokan people – mutants fully adapted to an aquatic life who are led by Namor (Tenoch Huerta) and look remarkably like the Na’vi from Avatar – are now under siege and having their home city decimated by foreigners desperate to kick up any vibranium these intruders can muster. Maybe Shuri should call Doctor Strange and ask for one of those memory favors, seems like the world needs to forget about vibranium ASAP. Thanks a lot, T’Challa.

Namor poses an opportunity or a threat, depending on how Wakanda sees it: identify the mysterious scientist who has developed the vibranium identification tool which is leading all of these governments to their hidden city and bring them to him for slaughter, or face war with Talokan. Fierce warrior Okoye (Danai Gurira, who lights up every scene she’s in) whisks Shuri away on a quest to find this scientist, while simultaneously hoping it will help her process her grief, and everything goes sideways. Throughout the course of the film, two things are certain: you will feel the impact of Chadwick/T’Challa’s death, and we will be treated to the birth of a new Black Panther. Even if it takes well over two hours to get there.

It is admirable that Ryan Coogler and company have decided to go against the grain of simple recasting and pay debt to Chadwick Boseman with this film. There is not a frame nor a performance that does not honor Boseman’s legacy, and the poignancy is a marvel to behold. Even the newcomers, Dominique Thorne as the brilliant Riri and Huerta’s enigmatic Namor, understand that while they may play a large part in the story, the soul of this film belongs to T’Challa.

Truly standing out, performance wise, are Angela Bassett and Letitia Wright. Bassett is well documented as one of the most formidable performers in entertainment, and she does not disappoint as Queen Ramonda. The Queen mourns her son, her Kingdom’s resources, and her daughter’s spirit with suitable gravitas. Never losing her character’s resolve, even under duress, Bassett infuses Queen Ramonda with a furious passion that dominates every frame she occupies.

Letitia Wright graduates to the majors as Shuri takes a more central role this time around, wrestling with the anguish and internal torment from her brother’s death, while attempting to find a peaceful solution for Wakanda’s conflict. Wakanda Forever evolves to become a showcase for Wright, and she assuredly rises to the occasion, carrying a healthy amount of Boseman’s effusive charm while injecting her own variation of Marvel pathos. Letitia Wright has done an admirable job in taking the reins of this franchise, and it will be interesting to see where Shuri goes in the future.

Winston Duke again delivers as the affably no-nonsense M’Baku, Martin Freeman returns as “Wakanda’s favorite colonizer” Everett Ross, and Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia eventually takes the stage, though she is vastly underutilized. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a film overstuffed with talent, a stellar soundtrack, production value, and legacy. It is also an absolutely beautiful goodbye to Chadwick Boseman. So why is it only a good, but not great, Black Panther movie?

For one thing, there are so many moving pieces, it becomes monotonous. Characters bounce in-and-out for long stretches of time, the screenplay seems to lose place of where we should be, and that term overstuffed also applied to the script. A bit of tightening up and the end result would feel a tad less bloated. There is a magnificent set-piece with Okoye and Shuri as they evade authorities, but the remaining action – including the concluding chapter – comes across as almost mundane in its presentation, falling closely to far too many other recent Marvel conclusions. It just does not click nor excite.

For another, it takes over two hours to see our new “Black Panther”, and the entrance is simply not as grand as the character deserved, especially by that point. Without spoiling, whether it is the performance or simply the effects, the physicality of our new Black Panther lacks punch, instead feeling manufactured rather than earned. Then including a stinger which is well intentioned yet also slaps several characters and their journeys around a bit, and I was left with a sour taste in my mouth. There is so much to love in this film, but the Black Panther of the title is the most important part, and this reveal was a cliched swing and a whiff.

With the talent in front of the camera – especially the powerful performances from Wright and Bassett – and the story now focused, the next film should benefit and present this character more assuredly. Until then, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will live as a moving testament to its former star, and a suitable sequel in the Black Panther franchise. But to answer the question, should the filmmakers have recast rather than deliver Black Panther’s Family and Friends? The answer feels much closer to yes than I would have expected. At least in the next film, Coogler and company can finally hit the ground running.