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Black Panther: It's just as good as you were hoping

I was not optimistic about Black Panther.

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Demetri Ravanos
RALEIGH, N.C. — I was not optimistic about Black Panther. Ever since the character was introduced in Captain America: Civil War, I have been calling him Black Batman. I mean think about it. They’re both super rich. They both decided to save the world because they watched a parent or two get murdered. They both use gadgets and hand to hand combat to beat up bad guys. I mean, hell, they wear the exact same mask!

So I was pleased to see the character’s eponymous film getting great reviews, but I was skeptical. It isn’t lost on anyone that socially, Marvel, and Hollywood’s superhero obsession in general, has a lot riding on this movie. And to be fair, a lot of us that see these movies early really do want them to be good, especially those of us with kids. My son really latched on to Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War. I know I am going to have to see this thing multiple times.

Black Panther isn’t derivative. It’s great. The look and sound of the film are both perfect. The world of Wakanda is built so well. It is almost a shame that Black Panther is part of the Avengers, because director Ryan Coogler has created a part that is more interesting than the whole.

T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns to his homeland of Wakanda after the death of his father to be crowned king. Wakanda is an African country that has chosen to hide the fact that it is a wealthy, technologically advanced paradise from the rest of the world.

His sister Shuri (Black Mirror’s Letitia Wright) is one of the country’s smartest scientific minds. His ex (Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o) is an accomplished spy. His most trusted general (The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira) is a warrior feared across the world. In many ways, the women behind Black Panther are as important as the superhero himself.

That is part of what makes this so different from most superhero movies. It isn’t just that the cast looks different. It isn’t just that the damsels spend more time saving the day than being in distress. It is the idea that being a superhero is kind of a business.

Black Panther may be the face of the franchise, but there are a lot of moving parts that make what he wants to accomplish possible.

The movie’s villain is Erik Killmonger (Creed’s Michael B. Jordan). He is one of the most charismatic bad guys in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

He is an American of Wakandan descent and wants to use the country’s riches and technology to kill world leaders that thrive by keeping minorities oppressed.

Admittedly, there are times when the movie’s message can be a little heavy-handed, but it really does give us an interesting take on a super villain. We want our hero to thwart the villain’s plans, but the villain’s motivation isn’t entirely wrong.

One of the things that most impressed me about Black Panther is the look of this fictitious world. Wakanda is in the middle of Africa, but it is also more technologically advanced than any other nation on Earth. So, T’Challa owns a stealth jet, but when you see the jet from the bottom, you notice that it looks like a traditional African mask. Their weapons, which are described as powerful laser cannons, are designed to look like spears and shields. The design is perfect for the dichotomy we’re told Wakanda represents.

The movie also sounds right. Kendrick Lamar worked on the soundtrack. The driving beats sound like hip hop when they need to sound like hip hop. They sound like traditional African drums when they need to sound like traditional African drums. It is an element of filmmaking that can really suck an audience out of their trance if it is even slightly off.

It is just another one of the small things Black Panther gets right.

Now, look, I have said this a million times in these reviews.

I could give a damn about source material or if the spirit of a character was captured the right way in its film adaptation. All I want is to be entertained. I am judging these things solely as films, and solely as a film, Black Panther is awesome.

I do want to talk briefly about something that happened in the theater on Monday night when I saw the movie. I was sitting in my seat waiting for the standard Marvel post-credits scene when two younger, African-American women walked past me. One looked at the other and said, “I loved the sister. She was so smart. That is inspiring. It made me feel so good!”

As I was walking into the bathroom, I noticed an older African-American man with tears in his eyes. He noticed my notebook and I guess figured I was reviewing the movie. “Don’t let me down, my man,” he said to me. I told him I really liked the movie and he told me he was glad. I asked him why it would let him down if I didn’t like it and what he said choked me up a little bit.

I’m going to paraphrase here, because I don’t want to attribute the wrong words to someone that felt what he said so deeply. He said that he has loved superheroes his whole life and he never misses the movies when they come out, but this one was something special, because he has never seen black people represented like that.

“We never get to be the ones with the answers,” he said.

He also appreciated that the heroes and villains weren’t (no pun intended) so black and white. He viewed characters like Iron Patriot and Falcon in the Avengers movies as underdeveloped and regulated to being the white hero’s either wise or wise-cracking sidekick. “We don’t usually get to be the one kicking ass like that.” We shook hands. He told me that he couldn’t wait to read my thoughts (So, hi James!), and he was on his way.

I get why this matters to people. This is a big cultural moment and the fact that the movie is actually good means that no one has to insincerely say the right things. You need to see Black Panther. It is fun and different and everything a big, popcorn-fueled blockbuster should be.

Demetri Ravanos is a member of the North Carolina Film Critics Association and has reviewed movies for Raleigh and Company, Military1.com and The Alan Kabel Radio Network.

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