This was a necessary movie. Necessary for Marvel, certainly, whose landscape is positively bursting with white people. And necessary for the film industry at large. Black Panther is a cultural sensation. And rightly so. It’s a well made movie, full of interesting characters and cool action sequences, and it has a backbone too. It doesn’t feel cheap. And it very much could have, I think, if it had been handled differently. For all the action sequences it already contained, they could have just filled the screen with crazy explosions and action set pieces. But they took time to explore the traditions of the characters, along with fleshing out their motivations. When we see a huge battle, we know WHY there’s a battle. Some of these super hero movies tend to resort to flimsy plot devices and twists to justify their fight scenes. But this movie felt more purposeful. It was necessary, as I said. Really cool movie.

4 out of 5 stars