Chadwick Boseman & Ryan Coogler Talk Making History With Black Panther
- by Earnest Huff
- in Culture
- — Feb 7, 2018
Set one week after the events of 2016's Captain America: Civil War, the 18th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe operates nearly entirely as a standalone feature; it's the first solo outing for the character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who debuted in comic-book form in 1966.
Critics are also hailing how "Black Panther" tackles complex themes while still maintaining its sense of high action. For kids who grew up with this as the standard look of blockbuster movies, the landmark of representation will mean more than lamenting the days of location photography. This shouldn't be a huge surprise to most of us, however, as this is yet another Marvel Studios movie to start off with a flawless score on Rotten Tomatoes. As a piece of pop art, Black Panther is a real marvel.
While conventional wisdom would expect some form of world-threatening destruction in a superhero film, Black Panther wisely eschews the trappings of tropes for a deeper pondering unlike anything yet seen in this genre. The added fact that he is also a politician separates him from the rest. It was risky because, in most cases, this can cause a film to become confusing and end up all over the place. "I don't know what happens next and that always excites me", said Kaluuya.
Handled with a similar bombastic flair is T'Challa's violent coronation, where he must defeat mountain tribe leader M'Baku (Winston Duke) in single combat - a biff-fest that recalls Coogler's previous movie, Rocky sequel Creed.
Black Panther is way better when it's about the royal family than when it's about the vibranium Maguffin mission. Someone had to approve it. Hundreds of thousands of dollars had to be spent to render something that, in any other movie, would just be "space blue".
ICC launches investigation into suspect cricket match
The tournament involved expatriates from a number of South Asian countries, and a few former global players. The game has given cricket another black-eye in the war it is losing against corruption and match-fixing.
Speaking with Variety about the upcoming film, the actor had the following to say about what it was like to first suit up as the iconic Marvel character. "What is great and classical is considered British". I went to Oxford when I studied, but I [also] went to Howard. "It just set us up in such an awesome way". An opportunity to tell a story about black lives, which matter and are not defined by their pain but, instead, by their glory. The intonation and melodies inside an African accent are just as classical as a British one or a European one.
Many fans think Black Panther was overdue for a stand-alone feature - but then, it took a long time for him to get his stand-alone comic. So he had to speak with an African accent. "Not only do you see the power and potential of where you're from, but you see how skewed it's viewed by the world, and how misrepresented it is, and how distorted it's received by the world so often".
The film premiered in Los Angeles on January 29 with stars and attendees dressed in African garb, walking on the purple carpet. But in reality, Wakanda is a technological marvel, built on a vast store of the metal Vibranium, a powerful resource that has allowed the country to thrive in isolation, with vast, lovely cities hidden from outsiders by a power-shielding technology. Coogler is that kid and this is his fairy tale-a fairy tale for other kids who rarely get them, and never like this.
All in all, the reviews that have hit the web seem to show a near-universal liked for Black Panther.