I liked it overall, but agree with some of the complaints that they could have edited out at least 30 minutes and made it better.
Could have cut out Julia Louis-Dreyfus entirely. Also I had no idea who Ironheart was, but she could have had way less involvement and I think the story would have been better. I get that she has her own comic book history, but it always feels like such a cop-out to have someone conveniently be essentially the smartest person in the world who can make the most advanced technology easily (and also a cool kid!).
Same with the plan to fight the water based army at sea... just a baffling strategy.
I think with 30 minutes cut out it would have been good-great, but it was ok-good as is. Also, Lupita Nyong'o is gorgeous.
Yes. She's one of those girls that is so pretty it's hard not to stare. To be honest I was hoping she would be taking up the mantle. Not based on physical attractiveness, but ability to act and just her already established ability to fight. She seemed like T'Challa's equal in the first movie. Seemed like the logical choice to me..
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
Tough to tell your own story, be a backdoor pilot for a new character & series, and also lay groundwork for another movie. The interconnectedness is a selling feature, but it's also a hinderance when it's not used right. Reading some of these remarks makes me think the balance was off on this one. Especially when little mid-credit and post-credit teasers have worked well as scaffolding as the movies to date have rolled out.
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Tough to tell your own story, be a backdoor pilot for a new character & series, and also lay groundwork for another movie. The interconnectedness is a selling feature, but it's also a hinderance when it's not used right. Reading some of these remarks makes me think the balance was off on this one. Especially when little mid-credit and post-credit teasers have worked well as scaffolding as the movies to date have rolled out.
For a company who has done a tremendous job at knowing when to introduce a character cold and when to give them sufficient background and a soft intro, Marvel/Disney sure flubbed this one.
I'm only a moderate BP fan but this is one of those movies that felt like it was so close to being amazing that it is kind of annoying that they screwed it up. When a movie is awful, it feels like a total miss and it's like 'who cares? that was unsalvageable' but this was legit frustrating because they were so close, yet so far.
I'm just happy there's a marvel property I care enough to talk about. For the last little while it's been pretty meh.
My 5 point plan to turn BPWF into a great superhero film. Spoilered for length:
Spoiler!
- remove Ironheart from the movie completely. This has been beaten to death so I won't repeat all the criticism. Suffice to say, everything about this character was terrible.
- make Dreyfus/Ross key to the vibranium finding mission. I get they kinda were already involved but by removing Ironheart, you make them the focus instead of her. The CIA is trying to find it to weaponize it, betraying the wakandans in the process, and pissing off the atlanteans. Ross could be the "link" character that connects Wakanda, Namor and the CIA, effectively replacing Ironheart if they need a hostage/target to replace the ironheart action scenes.
This gives us more of a reason to include Dreyfus and Ross. It also gives us a proper human villain and sets up more motivation for Ross to abandon the CIA.
Plus you could really play up the relationship between Ross and Wakanda. They'd be pissed at him for being involved in the vibranium plot but he could eventually redeem himself by siding with wakanda and getting himself kicked out of the CIA. Disney would likely get pushback because there would be a white saviour angle but whatever, at least it wouldn't make the movie demonstrably ####tier like the path they chose.
- Get rid of the stupid water battle on the boat at the end. Either make it that Namor is invading Wakanda for protecting the humans and pissing them off or, even better IMO, have Wakanda defend the humans from Namor and his atlantean superiority/revenge plot.
This helps up the stakes and make the battle actually mean something. Again, problematic because now wakanda is defending white people, but whatever, at least it produces a good story.
- Fix whatever was going on with the Dora Milaje. Get rid of the midnight angel suits, those were dumb. Give Okeye an actual redemption arc instead of whatever we got. Nakia could also have a slightly larger role too. Perhaps as Shuri's partner in atlantis.
- i referenced this above but make namor's plan based on straight up revenge against surface dwellers and a pre-emptive strike against humans' attempts to develop vibranium weapons.
The opening scene could stay as is, but now we have Namor explain to Shuri when she visits atlantis that his people were killed by the CIA while they were searching for vibranium. The boat attack was revenge. Again, this also sets up Dreyfus character as a better gov villain. You still keep Namor as the main bad for the movie but now at least he has some motivation beyond some 400 year old grudge.
Then you really play up that final battle as Wakanda defending the colonialists/surface dwellers because it's the right thing to do. Similar to X-Men when they fight Magneto and he gets mad that they defend people who fear and hate them. Wakanda may not have much love for the white man but at least they're not crazy murderers like Namor. Two wrongs don't make a right and all that.
So now we've got a few themes that we can really play up and focus on. Dora Milaje redemption arc, Wakanda defending the rest of the surface dwellers, Shuri coming to terms with death in her family and her rage.
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I think the Midnight Angle thing would have been fine as a teaser. Show the suit, introduce the girlfriend, and leave it be until the TV series. Then in the TV series, give them a training montage, and reason to need to suit (there were a whole bunch of Dor in that battle, so it's not like they couldn't have joined the battle without the suit).
An almost 3 hour movie about how to deal with grief. What an emotional journey.
I liked a lot about this. The main story and themes were great and I loved Namor as the villain. Ryan Coogler definitely has a knack for presenting serious themes in an entertaining way. I did not like the addition of Riri or the suits. Was like Disney saw how America Chavez was used as a plot device and wanted an even more useless plot device character. Also not a fan of the final battle especially after how good the 2nd act fight scene was. Another critique is that for a movie called Black Panther there was very little Black Panther. To be expected given the circumstances but couldn’t help but feeling there was a better story here if Boseman was still alive. My favourite part was the Killmonger cameo. One of the best scenes in all of the MCU. 7/10
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