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Review : Black Panther Shakes Up theMarvelUniverse

ByManohla Dargis Feb . 6 , 2018 A hook other movies A of a movie Black Panther " creates wonder with great flair feeling partly through somethingHollywood rarely dreamsof by myth.Mostbigstudio fantasies take you out for a joy ride only to hit the same exhausted story and franchise- expanding Notthis one. Its axis point is the fantastical nation of , an African Eden where verdant- landscapes green meet Corus blue-sky science fiction. There, spaceships with undercarriages pourpose (f resemblingtribalmasks soar overmajesticwaterfalls, touchinghing statement downin a story thathas far moregoing for it than branding

Wakanda is hometo Black Panther, a.k.a . T' Challa (Chadwick Boseman), thelatest Marvelhero to leap off the comic-book pageage and into his ownmovie. in by Stan Lee script) and Kirby ( art), the originalBlack Panthera in a slinky suitwith claws and ears — debuted alongside the Fantastic Four in history an adventure in Wakanda, which is powered by a mysterymetal, vibranium . It was a splashy timely entrance the revolutionary group that shareshis nameofficially formed that sameyear) , and by the end of his first escapade, the Fourhad assured T Challa “ there' s no reason for the Black Panther' s career to cometo an end !” Background transition intro In thedecades since Panther has undergone a variety of costumealterationsand adventures in the comics, someunder the direction of the filmmaker Reginald Hudlin and,more recently, the author Ta -NehisiCoates. To direct the first Panthermovie, Marvel tapped Ryan Coogler, who with his last outing, “ Creed, shook the dust offtheRocky seriesby giving it an African -American champion played by Michael B . Jordan. For Black Panther,” Mr. Coogler brought back both Mr. Jordan and some former crew members including RachelMorrison, the director of photography on his first feature “ Fruitvale Station continuity thatmay help account for thismovie' s intimacy and fluidity

As with allMarvel screen ventures, the story has a lot ofmoving parts, but in general the results don ' t register as the same-old superhero busywork , the kind that makes for forgettable stories and

Phrase strenuously overinflated running times. Written by Mr. Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, “ Black Panther brings T Challa s storyup to the present, sketches inhis past and looksto his future, allwhile clearingroom for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its othero parellism unitard- wearing warriors. (Black Panther was first wedged intothethe forgettable “ Captain America: CivilWar." ) The movie also rather too breezily establishesWakanda as a militaristicmonarchythat is nevertheless fair anddemocratic.

The story initially involves a satisfying ifobvious cartoonish villain, Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis, having a conspicuously very good time), an underworld arms dealer with a weaponized arm , an Afrikaans sneer and a rampaging cohort that includes Erik Killmonger (Mr. Jordan ). Ashis nameannounces, Killmonger has, well, issues to go with his striking body ornamentation. The band s evildoing ways attract the attention ofthe Black Panther and an internationallawman in the person of a friendly C .I. A agent (the customarily cuddly Martin Freeman ), whose good- guy status is enthic just one reminder that Panther adheres to at least some dubious Hollywood conventions.

For a while , as the story and the Black Panther veer here and there, jumping from Wakanda to Busan , South Korea, the filmmakers seem as if they re simply going to deliver a remix of James Bond with a touch of Spidey shenanigans. The Black Panther even slinks Critique into a swank casino with some backup and before long the place has erupted with the kind ofchoreographed mayhem that — as legs and gowns twirl liftoff. There ' s also the inevitable chaotic car chase that turns Busan into a video game and, dispiritingly , a carcommercial, an egregious tie-in that is 9 s somewhat alleviated by the amusing image of a woman warrior ' bare foot putting pedal to the . transitions Flourishes likethis (along with an amusingly airborne wig and, later, rampaging rhinos) and the Wakandan backdrop give the action sceneskick and actualpersonality, butMr. Coogler s directing strengthsare more intimate. There are sequences in Black Panther thatmaymakeyou cry because ofwhere they go and whatthey say, butalso because ofthe sensitivityhebringsto them . Hemakes somesavvy story choices too . And so, beforeMr Serkis can steal too many scenes, Mr. Coogler turnshis attention to Killmonger and pushes themovie in another direction, away from a white villain wronging black people to black people living their lives. defies Partof the movie' s pleasure and its ethos = wends through its visuals — is how itdispenseswith familiar either/or divides, includingthebinary opposition thattends to shape ourdiscourse on race Life in Wakanda isat once urban and rural, futuristic and' han setting traditional, technological andmystical. Spaceships zoom over super soaringbuildings with thatched tops; hover train zips over a marketwith hanging woven baskets. In one ofthemoststriking locales, an open -air throneroom is horizontally lined with p / thatpointedlyblursblurs escamples f typical suspended tree limbs, creating a loosepattern pointedly the divide between the interiorand exterior worlds and is echoed by the fretwork in costumes and other sets.

(The rejection of the either/ or divide extends to Killmonger ,whose emotional ,fraught back story gives the moviemore heft and real world friction than any of Marvel s other superhero blowouts. Like defy a lot of adventures ,“ Black Panther” turns on a familiar father-and hero son drama - ' s an assassination , a power vacuum anda somewhat reluctant heir a patrilineal intrigue that is filled in here with intense face-offs involving questions of ancestry super identity , the African diaspora , the new world and the old . One characters Brown, a = characters particularly moving narrative thread features K . tremulous, vibrantly sensitive actor who conveys entire chapters of Phrase typical grief. (He could out-weep Juliette Binoche.

Mr. Jordan is a terrifically charismatic presenceand there are times when you wonder ifhemight havemade a better Black Panther. Mr. Boseman s magnetism is more slow -burning and his performance ismore physically restrained than Mr. Jordan , even deliberate, though hehas his splashier, freewheelingmoments, includingsomehand-to -hand grappling. (Wrestling is big in Wakanda, hence smackdowns featuringacresofbare sin and jumpingmuscle. Likemany other Wakandans, he speaks in English with a South African lilt, an accentthat vividly allusion summons up NelsonMandela and suggests that T ' Challa will soon be assumingthe roleof international diplomat. fle female important to the movie s politics andmyth-building that he is surrounded by a phalanx of women , among them a battalion of women warriors called the DoraMilaje. These aren ' t moviedom s tupical super hero irritatingly token strong chicks, the tough babes with sizable biceps movies and skills but no realroles. For allhis father issues, T Challa is enveloped bywomen who cushion him inmaternal, military, ( sisterly and scientific support. A female general (DanaiGurira) seperat standsbyhis side; his baby sister(a vivacious Letitia Wright) 12 provides gadgets and withering asides à la Bond' s gadgetguy. Angela Bassett swans in as the royalmother, while Lupita evidnce Nyong' o , as a spy,makes the case forher own spinoff transition Buoyed by its groovy women Afrofuturist flourishes, Wakanda itself is finally themovie' s strength , its rallying cry and state ofmind. Early on a white character carelessly describesitas third world country , shepherds, cool outfits.” Part of charactera the joke, which themovie wittily engages, is thatWakanda typical certainly fits thatprofile except that its shepherds patrolthe border with techno-wizardry , and its textiles and costumesdazzle because difies of the country ' s secret vibranium sauce. More critically, having never been conquered Wakanda has evaded the historicaltraumas

/ endured by much of the restof Africa, freeing it from the ravages f who ofboth colonialism andpostcolonialism .

Racematters in “ Black Panther and itmattersdeeply, not in terms ofManichaean good guys bad butas a means to explore larger human concerns aboutthe past, the presentand the uses and abuses of power. That alonemakes itmorethoughtful abouthow the world worksthan a lotofmainstream movies, even if those ideas are interspersed with plenty of comic-book posturing. Itwouldn' t be a Marvelproduction withoutmanly skirmishes and digital lists avatars its emphasis on black imagination, creation and liberation themoviebecomesan emblem of a past that was denied and a future that feels very present. And in doing so opensup its world, andyours, beautifully. Micdrope Closing