With all its excitement and spectacle, Wakanda Forever also makes sure you pay attention to the quieter moments making the overall experience an emotional and cathartic one for the audience and a fitting tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman.
In the wake of King T’Challa’s death and still grieving their loss, Wakanda not only has to contend with allies wanting access to their vibranium but also a new threat from below the ocean.
This review will be SPOILER-FREE…
It’s obvious that the unexpected passing of Chadwick Boseman had altered the plans of Marvel Studios as well as director, Ryan Coogler’s intentions for the sequel to Black Panther. While there was plenty of debate about whether to recast the role (even though I had no place weighing in, I was fairly agnostic about the idea), what they’ve been able to achieve here is a fantastic and near-perfect “course correction” that feels like a natural progression of the story, that would have happened anyway just skipping forward a little bit.
As “course corrections” go, at over two and a half hours there’s a lot going on in Wakanda Forever, and the film does a good job of balancing all the different elements, from the fallout of T’Challa’s passing to introducing new characters and setting up plot points (within the narrative and for the greater MCU). It may have been a matter of personal taste and expectations on my part that maybe a couple of things didn’t quite stick the landing but these were overall so minor as to not detract from the rest of the movie.
It’s a gorgeous looking film with Wakanda looking even more vibrant than before and what we see of Talocan is appropriately other-worldly in its fresh take on an underwater world. Design-wise, the contrast and the parallels between the Afro-futurism and the Mayan-inspired undersea civilisation are very cool and helps to convey some fantastic seldom-seen Latin-American influences (while also throwing in a tiny bit of a history lesson too). I wouldn’t be surprised if POC cosplayers saw this as a smorgasbord of future projects because there’s a lot of impressive new looks going on (and I don’t normally comment on costumes as part of these reviews).
The spectacle is on par with what you would expect from a major Marvel Studios movie that isn’t an Avengers crossover, with the energetic action sequences and a thrilling third act climax. But they are more bookends and crescendos surrounding the quieter moments in this movie. In any other film, slowing down the movie can mess with the flow of a story but thanks to the writing and performances the momentum is not lost as the characters take time to have their more personal and dramatic scenes.
You can’t help but be drawn into those moments because the film wants you to compels you to. And as each main character is taking the opportunity to process their grief over T’Challa, it’s made all the more convincing realising that the cast is using this as their opportunity to process their own grief over the passing of Boseman. It feels genuine and allows the audience their chance to mourn alongside those who knew him.
The cast really do give genuine performances with Angela Basset (Queen Ramonda) throwing out a powerhouse act that is already creating Oscar buzz. The always stern Okoye (Danai Gurira) is always delightful especially when she lets her guard down and there’s the always welcome gentleness provided by Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) who also gets to be a badass again. While there are moments of it in this film, Shuri (Latitia Wright) has to step up and away from being the cheeky little sister to actually being Princess of Wakanda and she carries that as best as possible considering Shuri is perhaps struggling the most with the death of her brother. As I implied earlier, this is one of those aspects that we might have seen later down the track as part of her arc had it not been for the passing of Boseman. Wright does fantastically to portray that struggle of “growing up through grief.”
The debut of Namor (Tenoch Huerta) into the MCU was not only spectacular but also successfully creepy as Huerta gives an appropriately dangerous performance for the film’s antagonist. A lot like Killmonger, he is motivated by the responsibilities of protecting his people and doing what he thinks is necessary to achieve that (it’s curious to note that this live-action incarnation of Namor appears to be a response to a lot of discourse about Killmonger and how “he had a point” because I don’t think people are going to be so quick to agree with the sub-mariner like they did Erik and that’s despite both being master manipulators).
While I loved her performance, for my money, I think the introduction of Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) may have been a tad underdone. Admittedly, that’s because I had high expectations for her but also I think the film had so much going on, so many characters to utilise, that a few things had to be trimmed down. Think back to Captain America: Civil War and her role feels like a combination of more Peter Parker rather than T’Challa in how they’re integrated into the main narrative. What we get of her is a lot of fun and sets up some great potential for future films.
For all the drama and emotional weight, it’s not an outright dearth of fun. There is the usual sense of humour and levity that these films always remember to include (because comic books). And by this point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the more “ridiculous” and “out there” aspects just feel comfortable and par for the course (Namor has wings on his ankles). And if you’re worried about trailers revealing too much… oh hell no, there are plenty of surprises to come!
As I said before, not everything works to the fullest success but with so many balls to keep in the air you are bound to drop one of them. The first act pacing feels choppy as it tries to balance updating the audience on the passing of T’Challa with setting up this story proper. There’s also a lot of trimming off the fat that probably resulted in a few things not being explained properly in the few (and appreciate) exposition dumps and the “blink and you miss it” moments but nothing that ruins the story. There’s also a vital character turn that is (in my opinion) not well timed and should have happened earlier to make for a more satisfying denouement but that it happens anyway is enough.
There is only ONE mid-credits scene and I’m not going to give anything away, it’s more of an epilogue than a traditional setting up for another film.
Some people are going to struggle to reconcile their own expectations of what they want/needed from a sequel to Black Panther but in terms of what this film needed to be for the cast and crew, Wakanda Forever is a fitting and cathartic tribute to Chadwick Boseman that allows friends and fans alike to mourn the loss of someone so inspirational (in-universe and out) as well as being an exciting and thrilling action-adventure in its own right.
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