There are so many splendid things I can say about it, but they won’t do it justice. “Black Panther” is one of the only superhero movies of our time that gives me hope that this genre can still achieve greatness. Other Marvel big-sellers (Captain America, Iron Man, The Avengers, etc) are overrated, overplayed, and have long lost their momentum.
“Black Panther,” on the other hand, is fresh, diverse, and game-changing – and not just for the superhero industry, but for movies in general. As one of the most highly-anticipated films of the year, “Black Panther” was expected to be all these things and even more.
It definitely hit way above the mark.
I like to make it a habit not to have any prior knowledge or expectations of the films that I go to see (no trailers, fan theories, etc), but I do believe I watched the trailer for this a while back. Even so, I only went in with a high expectation for the visual aspect of the movie. It met these expectations and went above and beyond – the visuals were stunning, the costumes, fight scenes, and camera work were similar to other hero films, but not quite as rough and raw.
The one thing that convinced me of this movie’s greatness, however, does not have to do with any visuals – it has to do with the plot. A typical hero movie usually consists of overused plot techniques and devices such as the macguffin.
A macguffin, defined by Google’s Dictionary, is an object or device in a movie or a book that is used only as a trigger for the plot. One major example is the blue diamond necklace in “Titanic.” Another example, used incorrectly, is found in “The Justice League” when the characters are fighting over energy boxes.
The whole point of a macguffin is to trigger the plot, not become central to it. Audiences don’t care about macguffins. They aren’t meant to – so why do writers in recent movies, like “The Justice League” think this is a good plot basis?!
Anyhow, “Black Panther” uses it correctly and successfully. It works. In the beginning of the movie there’s this whole scene where the villain, Claw, steals a piece of Wakanda’s precious metal, Vibranium, which is the macguffin.
At first I thought the writers had caved and focused the plot on the struggle to get this metal back. That is not what happened at all. It was about killing Claw and getting the Vibranium back at first, but then the real plot was revealed when Claw was killed and delivered to Wakanda by the real villain – Killmonger. This shift in power completely took me by surprise, as it was meant to, and it surprised me even more that a modern superhero movie could still break barriers like “Black Panther” is doing.
On top of this excellently done plot twist, the originality and culture were brilliant. I cannot think of one thing that I disliked about “Black Panther.” This is very surprising for me, considering I always have at least one bad aspect that I find in almost every movie.
I’m glad that I decided to give Marvel another chance – now to countdown for the release of “Deadpool 2”.