Haven’t seen this since the theatre in February. I remember initially liking it then, but being underwhelmed the more I thought about it as time wore on. When films get universally praised to this extent, it becomes the cool thing to do to hate on them (see La La Land). All the Oscar buzz around this made my skin crawl; it’s a good film that’s important, but an Oscar? Then again, that little golden statue driven by money & the Hollywood machine seems more insignificant to me every day. Even so, I thought this movie was alright, & that was it.

Rewatching it today, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I liked this way more than previously. It was kind of great at times? There are definitely some Oscars this could net that I’d be all for. Perhaps best of all, this actually didn’t feel like a Marvel movie...mostly. I know that’s been said to death & refuted even more, but I was impressed by the rhythm of this movie. It takes its sweet time telling a story of royal intrigue, isolationism, racial unrest, & character motivated plot points. I’m not saying that it doesn’t feel like a Marvel movie because the story is more potent, I’m saying it doesn’t feel like a Marvel movie because of its restraint, pacing, maturity, & tone. Sure, there’s the occasional misplaced attempt at humor that falls flat on its face, or the occasional glaring CGI/green screen failure, or the occasional PG-13 censorship, but this otherwise feels like its own thing, which was downright refreshing for me.

The cinematography is excellent. Beautiful framing/compositions, dynamic fluid movement, & a diverse color palette are complimented by a rich mise en scene thanks to the elaborate production design. I turned the brightness on my computer all the way up & was finally able to make out what was happening during the convoy fight scene, which was nonsense in the theatre. The editing was mostly solid in depicting the action, but lacked overall (more on that later). The costume design was phenomenal; I recently had the chance to see costume designer Ruth Carter speak at my school, & it was enlightening. She talked about how she researched actual African tribes to inform Wakanda’s depiction & authenticity, & how her practical work melded with the visual effects team. For example, she told of how Chadwick Boseman had trouble breathing in the mask, so they removed the nose & added it back in during post. It was really cool to see & hear, but even beyond that anecdote, her work onscreen was stellar. The CGI was a mixed bag. Plenty of it straight up SUCKS (the final battle on the train tracks, those goddamn rhinos, much of the car chase in Busan, other obvious green screen moments), but there’s a fair amount I liked (the afterlife sequences, the opening animation is stellar, the establishing shots of Wakanda).

This movie is ultimately a bit of a mess, & that’s thanks to Eric Killmonger’s plan, which is more convoluted than the Joker’s (The Dark Knight), Loki’s (The Avengers), & Silva’s (Skyfall). Let’s run through it step by step:

1. Collaborate with Klaue to steal some random vibranium & mask while shooting people in the head with no blood.

2. Let Klaue go to Korea to sell the vibranium to the CIA, except it’s really a setup (????), only for the Wakandans to capture him in a car chase that’s basically Mario Kart.

3. Rescue Klaue from the least secure CIA compound, thus giving T’Challa a hint of your identity.

4. Kill Klaue to use as leverage to get into Wakanda, thus getting Wakabi (Daniel Kaluuya) on your side, despite having no knowledge of his history with Klaue & drama with T’Challa over Klaue, & ascend to the throne.

As a result of this plan that doesn’t make much sense & even includes a thread of letting himself get captured, the movie really starts at the one hour mark. This is when we got more Killmonger, & the film resultantly improved, but it’s a shame he’s not here more, & an even bigger shame that an hour & a half to an hour & forty minute movie got stretched to two hours and fourteen minutes. Every now & then, the film also undercuts Killmonger by overdoing his villainy (burning all the flower juice, the stupid scars & the even stupider dialogue about them, his line “The sun will never set on the Wakandan empire” equating black power to British colonialism/imperialism), effectively sabotaging the best part of the film.

The music was phenomenal though, as expected from Ludwig Göransson, whom I will only refer to as Childish Gambino’s producer. This is objectively the MCU’s best score, & it’s complemented by a phenomenal soundtrack if listened to out of context. It doesn’t really work in the movie. The only scene where the music actually ruined the film was when Killmonger revealed his Wakandan heritage, & some generic trap beat proceeded to play. The performances are pretty great across the board, even if the characters sometimes lack proper motivation beyond being a plot device.

All in all, Black Panther is truly one of the most interesting messes of a film I’ve ever seen. There’s so much going for it, yet also elements that make me facepalm & scream, “COME ON!” at the screen. Still, this is worth seeing, entertaining, & thought provoking. If the movie really sucked, I’d say, “Black Panther? More like Bland Pander! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” But it doesn’t, since it’s actually fairly solid & well done, so I’ll have to save my snooty critical blurbs for something else.