Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Review

By Walker Kesler

Before Wakanda Forever, the last really good Marvel movie I had seen in theaters was Spider-Man: No Way Home. The other movies I had seen after that were okay, but not the quality of the MCU that I had come to expect. However, Wakanda Forever gives me more hope for this franchise in the future as it’s a solid entry to the MCU. Despite its plot points and character arcs hitting some very predictable beats, it still is able to do what in my opinion an MCU movie needs to do. It tells a standalone story that does not require knowledge of the rest of the films to understand it, but it injects enough hints, old characters, and new ones to hype fans up for more Marvel movies which do the same thing. Then, the cycle repeats itself, and I’ll be watching Black Panther 5 in thirty years! But, back to the movie. 

From the onset of the movie, it was clear that they really wanted to honor the late Chadwick Boseman and his legacy. As the film’s characters reflected on the death of T’Challa in the film, it mirrored how people felt about Boseman’s sudden and unfortunate passing. The movie did a great job of moving forward while still reminding us that the original Black Panther will always have a significant and special place in the MCU.

 If I could describe this film in one word, I’d have to go with heavy. While the film still had your usual MCU action sequences — crazy car chases, one-on-one fights, and impressive battle sequences between two gigantic armies, the film was able to deal with serious themes like grief, loss, and revenge. While many Marvel movies have tackled these themes before, I’ve never seen them dealt with in such a dark and serious tone. However, this film is still a Marvel film, so it still has plenty of lighthearted moments and clever one-liners. Most of these come from MCU newcomer Riri Williams played by Dominique Thorne. I won’t give away her role in this film because of spoilers, but just know it looks like she’ll be very important for the future of this franchise. 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever completed the MCU movie checklist with flying colors. However, that caused the film to be predictable in many places. There were several instances in this movie where I thought, “haven’t I seen this scene before?” Though they had many opportunities to play around with the formula a little bit, they instead played it safe. While this would have been a solid choice early in this franchise, it’s becoming very boring as the MCU drags on. 

Despite its minor shortcomings, Wakanda Forever never failed to entertain as a superhero movie while also going the extra mile by becoming one of the most emotional films of the MCU. If you’re looking for a good movie to watch this Thanksgiving break, look no further than Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.