Black Panther
Casting: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan, lupita Nyong'o, Forest Whitaker
Rated: 9/10
Slick, happening and quick-paced — this technologically enhanced sci-fi thriller opening in the imaginary African nation of Wakanda is the marvel of the week. The action is great because it is gentle despite being accomplished by the wonders of VFX. The story has gumption. The plot is chinkless and the sequences stunning in their own right.
It all starts with Wakanda getting its new and young but no so ready for the throne king after he gets convinced by his black panther late father that he will struggle but he will prevail with trusted people around him.
Now Wakanda is a third world agrarian country high on poverty for the outside world. But they have a best kept secret for generations and that is their actual and futuristic technological advancements which build next generation arms and ammunition with a mined wonder metal called vibranium. But then no one outside Wakanda should know this and keeping it all hidden lest it gets misused, is the job of this new king.
Black Panther much signifies the animal it is named after — it is stealthy, it is dangerous and it is slick — a film pegged on royal imagination, on African sentiment, on a mythical land of engaging rules and traditions and a venture that never gets waylaid from its core strength — to entertain through thrilling sci-fi action.
King T’Challa and his team of women warriors led by the bald Okoye, his spy friendly girlfriend and his Mr Q type of sister Shuri who manages the wonder-technology innovations are all created with a personal passion to showcase the Black and their continent by script writer Ryan Coogler. The beautiful thing in the film is that the action is all there but never over the top. The actors, right from Chadwick Boseman as King T’Challa to lupita Nyongo as Nakia and letita Wright as Shuri are all impeccable. The story is real but rooted in fantastic situations and actions that are both unimaginable and yet believable at the same time.
Resembling Christopher Nolan’s Batman, King T’Challa, aka Black Panther aka superhero in a powered black suit is both romantic and a groovy action man on trail of a rogue who has stolen a part of the vibranium treasure from the poor-visaged Wakanda’s hidden chest.
The futuristics have been delightfully choreographed and the characters — every single one of them — do justice to the job at hand.
Black Panther is definitely a film to contend with, a wonderfully engaging movie of the year. Indeed, a Marvel not to be missed!