I finally saw Black Panther this weekend with my wife. I'm not a big fan of superhero movies but I go see these movies because my wife loves them and also because she endures lots of artsy and foreign movies for me. I tend to dislike superhero movies because I find the characters too one-dimensional, the dialogue too artificial or expository, and these movies are unable to generate any genuine concern about the fate of the main characters. I would say this was pretty much all true of Black Panther. I also didn't really like how the kinetic energy blasts from his suit was treated as a deus ex machina plot device. However, I still enjoyed the movie mostly because I was really impressed with Ryan Coogler's direction. That casino fight scene was a particular standout for me with the frenetic combination of stunts and fight choreography and CGI and the camera swooping between the two levels of the casino. It was shot so cleanly with a limited number of cuts -- usually, a scene like that would be presented as a blurry jumble of edits. Pretty awesome scene to experience on the big screen.
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