REVIEW: "Black Panther" Breaks Barriers, and the Marvel Mold, to Thrilling Effect

Anyone who reads my blog knows I’m not the biggest fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  It’s not that I don’t like the characters, or appreciate the attempt to translate the sprawling Marvel Universe to film; it’s just that the films have, in recent years, traded originality for security.  They’ve been formulaic and have leaned heavily on established characters, like Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, to get behinds in seats.  And that’s taken away from the storytelling, and the unique voice of each character that every film should have.  Marvel has even, in these last several years, moved away from employing film directors like Jon Favreau (“Iron Man,” “Iron Man 2,”), Kenneth Branagh (“Thor”) or Joss Whedon (“Avengers”), in favor of workmanlike TV directors such as Joe and Anthony Russo (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War”), who, prior to their association with Marvel were mostly known for shows like “Community” and “Arrested Development.” 

Marvel’s troubles deepened when Patty Jenkins (“Monster,” “Wonder Woman”) turned down “Thor: The Dark World” and Whedon walked away from the franchise after “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”  Most recently, Ava Duvernay (“Selma”) turned down the opportunity to do “Black Panther” because she felt that Marvel was too hands-on and wouldn’t let her make the film she wanted to make.  Enter Ryan Coogler. 

Ryan Coogler’s first film (as writer and director) was “Fruitvale Station,” starring Michael B. Jordan, the true story of Oscar Grant, a Bay area resident who was killed in Fruitvale Station on New Years’ Eve 2008.  The film got a lot of attention at film festivals and won a lot of awards, including an AFI Award for Movie of the Year.  It made Michael B. Jordan a star almost overnight.  He went on to star as the Human Torch in Josh Trank’s “Fantastic Four” reboot, and then as Adonis Creed in the “Rocky” spinoff, “Creed,” written and directed by Coogler. 

Coming off of the success of “Creed,” which also won a ton of awards and saw Sylvester Stallone nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role as Rocky Balboa (he did take home the Golden Globe for the performance, at least), Coogler was approached to direct “Black Panther.”  I like Ryan Coogler’s work, he’s a very talented man and when I heard he was doing “Panther” I was surprised because Marvel is notorious for losing talented directors.  But it also meant I became more interested in “Black Panther” because it stood a chance of not being the same regurgitated paint-by-numbers superhero movie that Marvel has become famous for making (guy is a jerk, guy gets power, guy loses power because he’s a jerk, guy learns to be less of a jerk -- possibly with the help of a previously established Marvel hero -- guy gets power back, guy beats villain, the end).  From 2008’s “Iron Man” to last year’s “Doctor Strange” and “Spiderman: Homecoming,” the plot hasn’t varied too much. 

I’m happy to say that Ryan Coogler hits a home run, and delivers the best Marvel film in years.  Much like DC and Warner Bros. made the right decision in giving Patty Jenkins the keys to Wonder Woman, and much like Jenkins successfully walked the line between making the film the studio wanted, and injecting her own voice and sensibility into the film, creating something special, so too does Coogler handle the demands of a mega-budget franchise film with the focus and assurance of a truly great filmmaker.

Left to right: Lupita Nyong'o, Chadwick Boseman, and Danai Gurira in Marvel's "Black Panther".

From the film’s opening, in Oakland, California in the 1990’s, kids shooting b-ball through a milk crate nailed to a sheet of plywood, it’s clear that this is a different kind of Marvel movie.  It feels real and immediate, and it looks real, too.  Many of these superhero films take the alternate reality aspect to the level that you don’t recognize the world they’re set in as our own.  “Panther,” though, knows that it has some work to do because you’re about to see a movie about a fictional African country called Wakanda, that exists in a cloaking field, and we’ll buy that as long as we can still recognize the world as our own.  The sequences in Wakanda are beautiful, and the performances are all top-notch.  I’ve liked Chadwick Boseman since his turn as Jackie Robinson in “42,” and the beautiful Lupita Nyong’o has been a favorite of mine since “12 Years a Slave.”  She’s utterly wasted in Star Wars as the CGI Maz Kanata, but not so here, where she gets to appear in person and participate in action scenes, particularly the film’s big finale. 

Andy Serkis is back from “Age of Ultron,” reprising his role as arms dealer Ulysses Klaue, and Martin Freeman returns from “Civil War” as Agent Ross.  They’re also, I realized sometime after the film ended, the only two white guys in the whole picture, which is fantastic since in most films those numbers are more or less exactly reversed.  Also of note here, is the fact that no previous established Marvel heroes show up to help Black Panther on his journey.  This is his journey and his alone, but he has an excellent support team in Nyong’o as a spy named Nakia, along with a fierce bodyguard named Okoye, portrayed by Danai Gurira; his tech genius sister Shuri, played by Letitia Wright; Daniel Kaluuya as his military leader W’Kabi; and a couple of well-placed legends: Forest Whitaker as Zuri, and Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Black Panther’s mother. 

And you know Coogler had to put Michael B. Jordan in there somewhere.  He’s Killmonger, the Black Panther’s nemesis, in a twist that beautifully pays off that back-alley b-ball opening in Oakland.  Killmonger, despite his name, is a character who is almost sympathetic.  You hate the things he does (he’s a bad man) but you can understand why he is the way he is, and that lends him a necessary humanity, a three-dimensionality that the best villains have.  And thus, in the best superhero tradition, the final conflict is more than just a power battle, it’s a clash of competing points of view, and the only thing that really decides you on who is right, is the fact that you recoil from how far Killmonger is willing to go to get what he wants. 

The net result?  Even if this wasn’t a “black” movie, it would still be the best Marvel movie in years because Ryan Coogler made all the right choices, and gave us a hero who stands on his own as a compelling character, and will therefore be a worthy addition to the canon.  The fact that it’s a milestone picture, a movie about a black character, with an almost all-black cast, written and directed by a black man, well, that’s why this film is destined for greatness.  In a saturated market, this is a superhero film that stands out as meaningful and important in so many ways, and it has a strong, clear voice, it has a point of view, and it makes its point without insulting or talking down to anyone.  Ryan Coogler’s voice is a good one, and welcome, and I firmly believe he’s about to be highly sought-after in Hollywood.  I hope we see many, many more films out of him – in any genre he wants.