Black Panther

[SloanePeterson]

Anyone seen it yet? We went last night and it was packed. I tend to go along with Dh to Marvel films out of a sense of duty but tbh I do always enjoy them. I thought it was amazing, still thinking about it today.

Stunning visually. Loved the powerful female characters, I'd like to see a film about Okoye. The costumery was great. King and Lupita were so one-dimensional but I guess that fit in with the stupid political message (expected, as it's Hollywood) reinforcing who are the good guys who are the (usual) bad guys thing. The end made me sad. Happy to see Black characters that weren't slaves, victims, the help, drug-addled thugs etc. That's about it.

I've seen all the Marvel movies and love them, so was very much seeing it in that context. Set against those, it is much much better in its representation of women - there isn't a single other Marvel movie with four female characters who are as/more kickass as all the men. But I found T'Challa really dull and pretty poorly characterised. And I prefer the films where the big bad is some kind of evil world conquering alien (Thor 2, The Avengers) rather than a family spat got out of hand (Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War). Now Avengers: Infinity War I am super excited about.

I finally got round to watching it and DS and I loved it. But I can see why it's not a straightforward watch for someone who's Black American (as opposed to white British like me). I found the final scene (massive spoiler alert coming, look away now if you haven't seen the film...) moving and thought it did give a nod to the underlying complexity - having just read A Respectable Trade I was really caught by Killmonger pulling the spear out saying that he wanted his body cast into the ocean to rest with his brothers who'd chosen drowning over enslavement. I thought that was a nod (maybe too subtle) to the idea that Kilmonger was an understandable antagonist whose world view made sense rather than a baddie (and whose death partly drove T'challa to change his views from isolationism. But I can see that it wouldn't necessarily come across that way to someone who was immersed in American racial politics: I found this review (again, contains spoilers) bostonreview.net/race/christopher-lebron-black-panther very thought provoking.