Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is Reviving the MCU’s Strengths

The 30th MCU movie is among the franchise’s most emotionally rich adventures.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever—sometimes, it feels like the MCU has started lacking the soul for releasing Disney Plus shows and movies one after another. Of course, the studio wants its fans to stay involved. However, this can often lead to mediocrity, as fans were not particularly thrilled by Thor: Love & Thunder and the She-Hulk series. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever could be reviving the interest in MCU!

Wakanda Forever is now ready to hit the theaters and is a big reminder of all the strengths of the MCU. It features some incredibly relatable characters. Furthermore, Wakanda Forever would be a sequel to the first Black Panther movie and the 30th in the MCU.

It appears that this Black Panther sequel is all set to give tribute to the legendary Chadwick Boseman, the lead actor who tragically passed away at 43 in 2020. However, Wakanda balances the fun and excitement within its tribute in a very neat way. It gives us everything that we would expect from a good superhero movie from the MCU.

It was wise of Marvel to recast Boseman’s role. The returning director of the movie, Ryan Coogler has intelligently covered the death of the main character in the movie’s narrative. We see the African nation mourning the leader’s death. With that, the movie carries a sense of grief throughout.

Ramonda, the mother of the late king, and his sister Shuri are shown struggling with the loss. At the same time, Shuri has a scientific mind and is trying to let go of her trauma by focusing more on logic. On the other hand, Wright has suppressed the suffering due to which the performance has been crippled a bit.

The action in the movie begins once the superpowers of the world do not respect all the grief that Wakanda is going through. The death of T’Challa is a good opportunity for the superpowers to plunder vibranium from Wakanda, which is an extremely rare and priced metal.

This leads to the underwater Talokan empire and its king, Namor. The king ends up rising as the next big threat to Wakanda. We see Huerta making his debut in the MCU as an anti-hero, as he slides between being brutal and charming very effortlessly. Now, this character has quite a rich story. He invokes a lot of sympathy. However, he also has an aura full of danger, just the way it has been shown in the Marvel comics. Without a doubt, this man seems to be a worthy rival of Loki.

Talokan is a very visually captivating empire as well. It features some amazing architectural designs that take elements from the Kingdom of Atlantis comic and Mayan culture. His results in a very stunning aquatic setting.

Unfortunately, though, this Black Panther sequel does not go into the depths of Talokan. That is because most of the movie’s action is taking place on the surface instead of beneath the waters. It would make sense if Marvel was to return to Talokan sometime in the near future.

Furthermore, it is also possible that Disney does not want the fans to spend too much time under the water. One reason could be that Avatar: Way of Water is coming out very soon and is expected to be very refreshing for the fans.

Back outside Talokan and Wakanda, we get introduced to Riri Williams, who is a genius from MIT. The student has crafted a superpowered armor suit that takes its inspiration from Tony Stark. This character is quite cheerful and adds a good contrast against the never-ending intensity of others.

The car chase and battle following Riri’s intro really bring out the best of Arkapaw’s cinematography. Of course, the identity of the new Black Panther is not hidden. However, Wakanda Forever is building it up in a seamless way while giving tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman so that his legacy may not get forgotten.

Overall, this Black Panther sequel is a worthy watch and definitely an amazing continuation of the franchise. It’s great that Marvel has taken a step back and truly created something unique and memorable, as it gives us a nice break from some of its recent mediocre productions.