Going into Wakanda Forever my expectations were virtually non-existent. After the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman and Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
(MCU) being frankly terrible, I thought we would get another mediocre sludge of CGI and bad jokes. So it is safe to say that I was very surprised when I witnessed one of the greatest superhero movies of all time.
Wakanda Forever takes a completely different approach to the genre than the rest of the MCU, being more of a slow-burn drama than anything else. Instead of recasting the role of T’Challa, Marvel decided to continue the story without him. The king dies in the first scene and most of the film after that is about another character processing his death.
This new approach works phenomenally, especially due to the acting, which is easily the best out of any MCU film. The actors worked personally with Boseman on set so they were equally as hurt by his death as their characters were by the death of T’Challa. The emotions of the characters on screen perfectly reflects the emotions of the actors and audience, blurring the line between art and reality. This approach to drama hits the viewers on a deeper emotional level than any other superhero movie has since Logan.
Even if you only care about the more traditional parts of superhero movies, Wakanda Forever is still more than worth a watch.
Firstly, I was worried about Shuri becoming the new Black Panther but she does a great job at it. She manages to keep all the parts of T’Challa’s Panther that we loved while adding her own parts to the mix. She uses the power of her grief and anger in combat, perfectly tying the action and drama parts of the film together.
The main villain is truly unique—both visually and thematically—and it is the only time I have seen an Aztec-based character in anything but the Mortal Kombat games. His backstory and motive are somewhat underdeveloped compared to Killimonger but still much more complex than your average Marvel villain.
The action is also great, especially for a Marvel movie. Instead of hurling balls of CGI at each other like in The Avengers, the combat of Wakanda Forever is very down to earth with lots of melee and unarmed fights. This level of grittiness also helps to hammer in the dark themes of the film. I think this movie could have gone further and maybe have gone for the R-rating like Logan, but unfortunately, the MCU will never go that far
Even the comedy was well done. It wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny or anything but it also didn’t get in the way of the more serious parts of the movie like what happened in Love and Thunder.
The movie is quite long at two hours and forty minutes but it never really drags on. In fact, it felt infinitely shorter than Black Adam, the other recent comic book film which was only two hours.
Overall, the movie is amazing and you should watch it even if you hate modern Marvel. This is so much better than all the other garbage in Phase 4. Overall I give this movie four out of five stars—which is incredibly high for a superhero film. I look forward to Phase 5 with these new and exciting characters.