The MCU makes its return to the world of Wakanda in the sixth and final film of it’s phase 4 in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Returning from Black Panther are, Letita Wright (Shuri), Angela Basset (Ramonda), Danai Guirra (Okoye), Lupita Nyong’o (Nakia), Winston Duke (M’Baku), and Martin Freeman ( Everett Ross). New additions to the cast include Dominique Thorne (Riri Williams), and Tenoch Huerta (Namor). Director Ryan Coogler returns to direct. If you are not already aware, this movie was made in very difficult circumstances due to the tragic death of the male lead Chadwick Boseman from Colon Cancer. Coogler and company made the decision to instead of recasting for a new Tchalla, to continue the story without this character and in doing so have Tchalla pass away in the film. Warning this is a spoiler review .

Plot:

The movie opens with Shuri and Wakandan scientists frantically trying to save Tchalla from an illness that is killing him. In a last dtch effort, Shuri attempts to create a new heart shaped herb that had been previoulsy destroyed by Erik Kilmonger, in the first film. Before she has a chance to use the herb, Queen Ramonda, walks down from a flight of stairs to tell Shuri her brother has died. We move into the first emotional tribute to Chadwick, a celebratory funeral procession in the streets of Wakanda, and a completley silent Marvel Studios intro with only clips of Tchalla from previous marvel installments playing in the logo. We fast forward a year later, where Wakanda is facing critcism from the rest of the world as it remains Isolated to protect itself and its most valuable resource Vibranium. In the Atlantic Sea a Navy Seals operation is attempting to mine Vibranium out of the depths of the ocean. They are attacked by a new threat of warriors from an underwater city called Talokan, led by their superhuman winged feet king Namor.

Ramonda Brings Shuri to a lake where the queen thrown the Tchalla Funeral robes into a fire, which she describes as a ritual marking the end of mourning and a new beggining. Ramonda tells Shuri their is something she should know about Tchalla but is interuppted by Namor appearing at the shore of the lake. Namor wants Wakanda to return an american scientist who helped build a virbranium mining machine , or he will return with his army to destroy Wakanda. Shuri and Okoye leave for America where they find agent Everett Ross in Virginia. He tells them more details about the american operation, and that the American goverment believes Wakanda was behind the attack. Ross tells Shuri & Okoye that the scientist who built the Vibranium mining machine is a 19 year old college student named Riri Williams. The two head to MIT university to find Riri. She takes them to a wharehouse where she has been building tech in secret including an “iron man” suit. The FBI closes in on the three, and a chase ensues. After Shuri, Okoye, and Riri escape from law enforcement, they are abmushed by a group of warriros from Talokan. The warriors defeat Okoye. Shuri pleads that they spare Riri and take the two of them to Talokan to negotiate a peace with Namor. Okoye returns to Wakanda, where in an emotional moment, Ramonda releases Okoye from her position as general of the Dora Milaj. Ramonda goes to Haiti, to find Nakia, Tchallas lover and asks her to help find Shuri as Ramonda believes that Namors kingdom is somehwere in the Yucatan penninsula where Nakia is familliar with.

Namor meets with Shuri, and explains to her how him and his people came to Talokan. Namor’s family in the 1500’s were invaded in their land by conquistadors who brought disease with them. Namors mother and her people in a effort to survive from Smallpox drink a vibranium liquid found in the water that allows them to live underwater. Namor is born as a mutant with wings on his feet and the ability to breathe on land and is seen as a god among his people. As a child he returns to the surface to bury his dead mother in her home soil, but finds slavery and attrocities occuring. He murders the occupiers of the surface, and explains after this moment he had no more love for the surface world. Namor takes Shuri on a tour through Talokan. As a gesture Namor gives Shuri one of his vibranium made bracelets. Shuri t negotiates a peace to spare Riri and stop a war from occuring but Namor fears that the surface world will attempt to enslave and destroy his world if they find Vibranium. Namor tells Shuri if Wakanda will not be an ally to Talokan in the war against the surface, than they will be an enemy and will be the first destroyed. Nakia finds Shuri and Riri, and rescuces them both but kills a woman. Namor finds the dead woman in Ririr’s holding quarters. Namor becomes enraged and rallys his soldiers to go to Wakanda for revenge.

The group from Talokan flood Wakanda, and drown Ramonda. Namor Tells Shuri that they have a week to join them in an alliance or he will go to war with them. At the funeral of Ramonda, M’baku tells Shuri that vengeance and hatred is not a path to go on for war, but sympthaizes with Shuri that she has had more loss than anyone could imagine.Now more unprotected than ever, Shuri with the help of Riri begin looking to recreate a new heart shaped herb combining the braclet Namor gave her with the DNA of Tchalla. In the meantime, to better protect her people, Shuri has the citizens of the City temporarily relocate to the Jabari mountains that are looked over by M’Baku. Shuri and Riri discover that if Namor can be drawn away from water and be “dried out” that he can be weakened and defeated. Back in her lab, Shuri is able to create an artificial duplicate of the heart shaped herb. In a small ritual with just her, Nakia, and Riri, Shuri drinks the herb and goes to the ancestral plane. There instead of one of her lost loved onces, she finds Kilmonger. Kilmonger tells her that she cannot be noble or hypocritical like her brother and father were, that she needs to “handle buisness” with Namor, but she insists she is nothing like Kilmonger and will not emulate his actions. Shuri with her new powers puts on her Black panther suit and reveals herself to M’Baku and the other council members. Shuri asks of the council and M’Baku to go to the ocean and fight Namor and his army. M’Baku warns Shuri that killing Namor will result in a eternal war with Talokan.

The Wakandans take a ship to draw out Namor and his warriros in the atlantic ocean and a battle ensues. Shuri traps Namor inside a flying craft that uses heat to dry him out and dehydrate him. Namor starts destroying the ship with his vibranium spear. Shuri gets the craft to a nearby dessert where it crashes out on a beach. Namor and Shuri begin fighting each other, and Namor appears clearly weakened after being dried out heavely on the craft and on the sand of the dessert. Namor spears Shuri, but she is able to pull herslef out and blows the remaining ship up behind Namor. While holding a spear to Namors neck, Shuri tells Namor that Wakanda will protect Talokans’ waters’ and people if he yields. Echoing a simillar statement from her brother when he was faced with killing Zemo in Civil War, she tells Namor that Vengeance has consumed both of them. Namor Yields and the two nations begin an alliance and avoid war. Shuri goes to visit Nakia in Haiti to enact the post funeral ritual of burning the final robes that she wore at her mothers funeral, the same ac that Ramonda did earlier. Shuri starts seeing flashabcks of Tchalla and cries. In the Mid credits scene, Nakia brings out a child to meet Shuri. Nakia tells Shuri that the child is her and Tchalla’s son. Nakia explains that her and Tchalla did not want him to grow up in Wakanda due to the pressure of the throne, and that Ramonda had met the child. The child introduces himself with his haitian name Toussaint, and tells Shuri his Wakandan name is Tchalla.

Positives:

Where this movie shines the most is the cast and the tone of the movie. Deciding to not recast Tchalla and re-molding the story to deal with the death of the character allowed these actors, in my opinion, to really show true emotions that they were feeling. From all accounts, everyone involved with Black Panther was very close to Chadwick and for many, his death was a shock, so you can imagine it was not difficult to let those emotions pour out in scenes of this movie.This is a mostly serious, quiet, slow burn of a movie with a few well times jokes and action but mainly focus3w on the characters dealing with loss, grief, and anger. The fact that Marvel could make something with a tone like this is imporessive considering a lot of their films tend to have a high level of jokes/action with some serious storylines. Everyone in the cast is great but the true standout of the movie is Angela Basset. This woman is a force throughout and balances being a mother to botj her daughter and the nation she leads, while also being a fierce leader who wants to remind the world that Wakanda should not be played with lightly.

One of my favirote things about the first Black Panther movie, was the score by Ludwig Goransson. He knocks it out he park again in Wakanda forever, this time combining african and latin elements for both worlds represented in this movie. I really enjoyed the Talokan people themes particuarly one of my faviortes being when Namor and his warriors attack the Navy seal crew and we seem them for the first time and we hear the “Sirens” score. One of my favirote scenes of the whole movie is when Namor takes Shuri through Talokan and the song “Con La Brisa” plays during the scene. Ludwig’s score for this one and the predecessor, t have really helped the Black Panther movies feel different from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic universe and appear more as their own story.Ruth Carter should get another oscar nomination, because the cosstumes and makeup design for this movie are stunning.

Cons:

Despite the amazing effort of Coogler and the team to essentially rewrite a new movie after a terrible tragedy, this movie is a long running narrative mess. Wakanda Forever has three movies in it, the first being a tribute for Chadwick Boseman, the second being a sequel to Black Panther, and the third continuing the marvel machine as they now have 30 movies in ther guantlet. This movie has way too many characters, way too many side plots, and holes in the script. We have multiple scenes with agent Ross that overall do not contribute much to the main story. Doninique Thorne does a great job playing Riri, but her character just feels rushed. We meet her and are shown and told that she is this young super genius but we are not given any details on how she became so. It just reeks of Marvel throwing in a character in there because they knew they had to get people for her Disney + show. Removing Riri and Ross from this movie you could add more scenes for M’Baku and Nakia who though have good performances, have the least amount of time on screen. l Nakia doesnt show up till dam near more than a hour after the movie starts!

Though the origins of Namor and Talokan are explained in the movie there are still several things with these new characters that dont make quite sensse. Why can Namor breahe on land without a mask but his people cant? How are Namors soldiers killed? In their introduction scene, several of them are gunned down but, Okoye couldnt kill any of them with her spear. This movie tells us that Talokan are suppsosed to be a much bigger threat than Wakanda but they dont really show how. Yes they live in the water and can control whales, but what technology do they have that makes them superior? Suppsoedly their city has vibranium so shouldnt they have some type of weaposn or even ships or boats that can match Wakanda? Tenoch Huerta does a really good job playing Namor but overall he is basically Kimonger 2.0, another anatagonsit who wants to destroy the world for whats it has done to his people.

Visually this film is an improvement over the first but the action is not. With the exception of the car chase, most of the action here is badly shot, confusing to tell what is happening and usses a lot of emphasis on slow motion which is usually Zach Snyders calling card.

Final thoughts:

Black Panther Wakanda forever is an heartfelt adventure with a lot of great character moments but its long runtime and multiple storylines drag it down and stop it from being a great movie. 7/10.

Dwayne the Rock Johnson smashes his way into the world of superheros in the latest DC universe film Black Adam. Joining the rock in this adaptation also stars Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Noah Centineo,Quintessa Swindell, and Mohammad Amer. The film is directed by Jaume Collett Serra.

In 2600 B.C a young slave boy (Teth-Adam) is given the powers of Shazam by the council of gods and uses his powers to overthrow the king of his home city Kahndaq. We fast forward to present day in Kahndaq, where the city is being run by a group of high tech mercenaries called Intergang who essentially have the city in a tyrnanical state. A group of archeologists and resistance fighters led by Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi), while looking for an artifcat called the crown of Sabbac, awaken Teth-Adam from his thousand year slumber in an attempt to save them from intergang forces. Ishmael (Marwan Kenzari), betrays the group led by Adrianna has he has his own plans for the crown of Sabbac. Adam awakens to a world he is not familliar with and begins wreaking havoc on intergang forces in the city. Shortly after these events, leader of the Suicide Squad Amanda Waller calls in another group of super beings called the Justice Society to head to Kahndah to stop Adam and imprison him. This group consists of 4 new heros being Dr.Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Atom Smasher (Noah Centino). The 4 beings fight wage battle with Adam in the city, but soon learn he may be the only hope in saving the world from a much bigger threat. Does Black Adam really shift the balance of power in the DCEU? Well lets get into it.

I will say my favirote thing about this movie had to be Pierce Brosnan. There is just a cleverness and sense of grounding that he brings to the role that keeps the movie from completley going off the rails (which its pretty rough throughout). There are many attempts at humor throughout the film, and the most times I felt like laughing were from his jokes. Not too suprised by his characters name Dr. Fate, he has the ability to see future events and can alsoc reate copies of himself to trick and decieve his opponenets. From many of the films action scenes, he uses these powers in ways that elevate the action and the tension throughout. And other than its just good to see Brosnan in a big screen movie again, and that his charm has not wavered. Now how about the rest of the movie?

If you are in the 5-15 age range or if you are just lookig for pure action/adventure and not much else than you will move this movie. But if you enjoy action, story, good character development, and not having your eyes/ears abused with noises and explosions than this aint it. I think the most offensive thing aboout this movie is it promises us the takeover of the D..C verse by the Rock but this movie completley puts everything we love about him to the side. I think with the exception of a few scenes the rock does not even change facial expressions for the majority of the movie. The rock does not have an inch of charisma in this movie and just swaps it out for stocisim and dull jokes. There is not a single standout or remotley memorable charcters in this movie outside of Dr Fate. The members of the Justice society should bring some much needed energy to the movie being a new group of characters but Hawkman, Atom smasher, and Cyclone just feel there because they needed extra people to be there. There are several fights between Adam and Hawkman in this movie, and not one time, NOT ONE DAM TIME, do they make you think that Hawkman has a chance against him. Aldis Hodge is just under utilzied to just tell Adam “your being bad, you need to be good, use your powers for good”. Also this movie has something that I have not seen since the very early days of Marvel (pre MCU), a character skating around on a skateboard, giving the bad guys running the city hell, I just interanally groanded watching this unfold on the screen.

The climax of this movie is just flat our ridculous and combines imagery that combines something that looks like it came from one of the Mortal Kombat Games and Jason and the Argonauts. This movie is a 2 hour orgy of fights, flying, explosions, dust flying, and nonsensical looking CGI. Some may enjoy this, some may not, but for me it kept remidning me of Man of Steel which I am not an adamant fan of. I dont think this movie has done much to change the heirarchy in the DCEU, which quite frankly with the direction their going in right now and several on/off set issues I dont think their is a heirarchy right now. I wont deny that this movie has its fun moments but it is not enough for me to recommend it to anyone. 6/10.