WAKANDA FOREVER, the sequel to the 2018 smash-hit and Oscar winner BLACK PANTHER, and the 30th (!) film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), is a film with a massive hole to fill. In 2020, rising star and new cultural icon Chadwick Boseman passed away from cancer, leaving the MCU and its fans with one less hero. For Marvel Studios and director Ryan Coogler (who also helmed BLACK PANTHER), the task is nearly too big to overcome.
A year after the passing of King T’Challa, the country of Wakanda, which is the source of the energy-absorbing element Vibranium, is under threat. Countries of the world are seeking the power, as is a new threat from under sea…led by Namor (Tenoch Huerta). Without their king, the defense of Wakanda is left to Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), and Shuri (Letitia Wright), who is still in mourning.
In broad strokes, WAKANDA FOREVER is perfectly balanced. It plays out on a world-wide scale while staying intimate with the grief of the characters. While the world battles for Vibranium, Ramonda and Shuri battle with their emotions and the future; who will protect and lead their beloved country during a time when everything seems to be coming down on top of them? By far, it’s the heaviest-feeling MCU film to date.
For the first time, we have an MCU film that feels overburdened with universe-building. Marvel knows it’s fans and what they expect, and setting up a larger universe has been part of the game since IRON MAN first took flight way back in 2008. This time, it feels like too much. Namor and his underwater army and kingdom gets a ton of backstory and mythology (unavoidable, it’s fine), and he plays out not so much a villain as a man trying for the betterment of his people. Other elements, such a genius college student (a wonderful Dominique Thorne), and CIA fuckery (led by Martin Freeman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus), feel like they could have been left on the cutting-room floor and are just a distraction every time they have a scene.
Coogler is playing with themes of grief and colonization, and pulls them off very well. The storyline of big white countries wanting the shiny objects from colored countries resonates not just in modern optics but throughout history. The film is at its strongest when it is focusing on characters dealing with their grief; T’Challa’s absence hangs over those scenes and it can be felt like a weighted blanket. Masterfully done. The action scenes are staged and executed very well, the film looks amazing, and Ludwig Goranssoon’s score is excellent.
Also excellent is the acting. Angela Bassett dominates every scene, and Letitia Wright carries the emotional heft very well. Tenoch Huerta has a commanding screen presence. Martin Freeman is his usual charming self but he exists to just provide information dumps, and where his character winds up at the end is just weird.
Despite its bumps, WAKANDA FOREVER does find a way to offer a satisfying and emotional closure by way of a mid-credits scene (slight spoiler: nothing at the end), that wraps the film and secures the future of the Black Panther in a tear-jerking wallop. It makes up for the overstuffed feel and sends us out the door feeling all right. WAKANDA FOREVER is a unique film in the MCU, and is needed to be seen for some sense of closure…even if the attempts to fill those holes don’t always stick…which is exactly how grief works.
BOTTOM LINE: See it
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