Ryan Coogler’s third film installment, the Black Panther, was by far his most anticipated movie. However, maybe too anticipated.

Overall, my review of the movie is a seven out of ten rating and is by far one Marvel’s better movies. What sets this movie apart was its style done differently from most superhero movies. While the setting and characters are very comic book-like, Coogler shows us that even the most outrageous comics can have a down to Earth presence with people and carry deeper messages than just superheroes fighting villains.

The premise of the Black Panther story is that Wakanda-one of the world’s poorest nations in reality- is secretly the world’s most technologically advanced nations. This is due to a meteorite that landed thousands of years ago, Vibranium a metal that is stronger than no other, was deposited inside the country. Like the actual country, Wakanda is ruled in a traditional monarchy. With the previous king killed in Captain America: Civil War, Prince T’Challa (played by Chadwick Boseman) is now on the ascendance to the throne. In this ascendance, however, he is challenged by an outsider named  Erik ‘Killmonger’(played by Michael B. Jordan), a mistake left behind by his father.

To me, the storytelling of the plot made the movie amazing, as it focuses on the evolution of the characters’ perspectives based on the world around them. In turn, the story revolves around how the characters view the world and how they can make it better. Due to this internal conflict of the characters, the messages this movie makes come across extremely clear by invoking multiple issues that a wide range of people in the audience can relate to in their lives and connect to the movie.

Not only do the messages connect audiences to the movie, however, but I also felt closely intimate with the conflict’s morality itself. Killmonger takes over the movie the moment he appears due to his differing perspective and overall style. What I like best about how Coogler displayed Killmonger not did he make Killmonger make a  physical conflict, but a moral one seen battling and taking shape in the minds of all the characters.

Personally, I was drawn into the conflict and the morality of the differing perspectives, as the craftsmanship of this multilayered plot brought me into what it is they were struggling with internally.

I have two negative points, however, as this is not a perfect movie, and they are both about the presentation of the plot. Graphically, the CGI in multiple fight scenes and at one or two spots in the Wakandan scenes seemed almost unfinished. Overall the CGI brought some really great drop dead beautiful moments and a sense of perfection that only supported the atmosphere of the movie, it had flaws. On the point of the fight scenes, they were very underwhelming. A couple were hard to follow due to the setting and lighting of the scene. This movie is still a superhero movie, and being the director of Creed, I was hoping Coogler would deliver heartstopping action sequences, but I felt the fighting was very underwhelming.  

The worst part of this movie came from the acting. This is not to say the acting was bad; in fact I would say the opposite. Across the board, the acting was great as each actor and actress represented their character in an enjoyable way. However, the character of T’Challa is very dull on his own. The fault of this fully lies on the character. T’Challa is extremely intelligent and carries himself that way, unlike Tony Stark, Doctor Strange, or even Spiderman, who are all interesting and amusing to watch by themselves. T’Challa thought, relies on others to make situations interesting or funny, and does not create it himself. Unfortunately, as the beginning of the movie follows mainly him, the beginning of the movie suffers.

Despite all of this, walking away from the theaters I was left thinking about the moral decisions and actions made in the movie, and comparing their relevance to reality. To me, I feel that should be any movies goal in the end.