Black Panther

Si Captain America était le premier Avenger, alors Black Panther est le premier Avenger dépourvu de tout charisme. (31/05/2018)

J'ai réussi à visionner tous les nominés pour l'Oscar du meilleur film et j'ai gardé pour la fin les deux obligés du quota noir. Black Panther m’a ennuyé pendant une demi-heure et je me suis demandé si j'allais tenir jusqu’au bout, mais heureusement, l'histoire a ensuite pris une tournure intéressante et j’ai eu droit à plus de jolies noires que dans BlacKkKlansman. Cela dit, je trouve qu’il ne serait pas inutile d’élaguer le scénario, étant donné qu’il suffit de regarder une émission documentaire sur la nature si l’on veut admirer de beaux paysages. (24/02/2019)

Last year, Marvel decided to try and make us laugh in theaters, which it did quite well, but I'm very glad that Black Panther isn't afraid to play on a more serious note. Again, there's some humor, but this time we get a Marvel movie that's much more personal, serious, and earnest. And it works brilliantly. Ryan Coogler manages to work cleverly with the characters, their traumas and motives, and as a result we have perhaps the best Marvel villain, one whose actions we can understand, relate to and respect. And then there's Wakanda itself, a visually stunning world full of colourful costumes, masks, music and a stylish combination of modern technology and African traditions. There are several "wow" moments here, and they appear both during the ordinary macho machismo of the unglamorous world, and in the elaborate action scenes. Towards the end, though, it all gets a little out of hand and we get a perhaps unnecessary wildness. But the result is still an excellent Marvel film that attempts to test whether audiences would be able to stomach a comic book movie that's a little more serious in addition to the already slightly corny antics. Personally, I appreciate this approach much more than the goofing around in Thor. (27/07/2018)

It's definitely not the best Marvel film, and a big role in the hype is played by the political level which, btw, sounds perfectly fine to me, like when a black boy from the Ghetto tells you a fairy tale that he has been hearing since childhood. T'Challa is a remarkably humble figure by MCU standards - Tony Stark stripped of vice and infected with a mixture of Shakespeare and the Lion King. It's magically naive and refreshing, because unlike other Marvel films, Black Panther is really devoted to its characters and, for example, the villain played by the charismatic Jordan is better depicted here than most of his competitors. Black Panther in turn shrinks the MCU world and curtails it by a cosmic dimension. In fact, it only deals with very familiar and current problems, and as a result, it feels like an even bigger fairy tale and escapism. In a way, Coogler concluded his black trilogy, which creates the figures of black saints. In Fruitvale, his efforts were undermined by social realism and in Creed by a lot of clichés, whereas Black Panther feels like his most convincing film, despite all of its problems with tempo and tricks. It's a pity he doesn't have a slightly sharper edit and a greater use of the hip hop soundtrack. Otherwise, this textbook Afrofuturism is really a very pleasant companion. A film that believes in a better world and that the super-protagonist is sometimes the one who just does something selflessly for the community. Political correctness? I say common sense. (13/02/2018)

Direction-wise a solidly crafted Marvel movie with literally amazing action scenes, but with an average main character. The existence of the comic book character doesn’t help him and neither does the fact that Marvel is attempting to balance the representation of genders of the human race. Maybe it wasn’t intended in that way, but it definitely looks like it; Wakanda is so boring and unfunny that it’s hard to find anything positive about it. But yeah, I realize that Black Panther has a place in the universe. He for sure won’t be my favorite hero, though. (19/10/2018)