Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Review: Phase 4's Emotional and Uplifting Conclusion

11/08/2022 12:01 pm EST

"Soon we'll reach the shining river, Soon our pilgrimage will cease, Soon our happy hearts will quiver, With the melody of peace." – Robert Lowry/Ronald Pedley, 1864, "Shall We Gather at the River?" 

Grief is both formless and rigidly defined in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Water is everywhere in the film, as seen prominently in its marketing materials, and those teases are brought to bear in the finished product. In order to engage with this movie, you're going to have to swim through the real-world emotions of the last few years. Grief, at times, has been a vicious torrent threatening to bring the whole house down with a foundation pushed out into the depths. Grief, at other times, has been a general ripple of longing for the past and knowing that it isn't coming back. Director Ryan Coogler pushes this particular Marvel Studios project out to sea with the full knowledge that nothing will be the same for him or any of his stars.

Superstar Chadwick Boseman's tragic and sudden passing is both said and unsaid in the text of this movie. Of course, there's the acknowledgment that King T'Challa no longer walks the streets of Wakanda as their leader and sworn protector. But, more than any fictional monarch, we've lost something far more essential at the same time. The former Black Panther was something of royalty that walked among us; a kind spirit that seemed to be aware of what he stood for with every step on the red carpet and every beleaguered Wakandan Salute to fans.

How do you press forward in the wake of such an unmistakable tragedy? The world is so different than the one that the first Black Panther came into in 2018. For a multitude of reasons, both Marvel fandom and the general populace are struggling. As a culture, the United States especially struggles with loss and grief in particular. What were once cheers for Wakanda Forever at its unveiling became skepticism at its very existence when Boseman's loss was reported. 

Coogler made a point to tip the press off about what the animating question to his sequel would be: How do you carry on in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds?

Understanding his viewpoint is pretty simple, considering the filmmaker was navigating a literal plague outside and the pressures of delivering a crowd-pleasing sequel to the one Marvel movie that even the Academy Awards had to step up and acknowledge with a Best Picture nomination. Making this all even more concrete, Coogler told Inverse that the original script for the film concerned grief. "[T'challa] was grieving time he couldn't get back. Grief was a big part of it," the director explained. How do you move forward when all that time has been lost?

Like Black people in this country have been doing for years, he forged ahead with his eyes on unifying those contributing to this movie. The result is a tale of faith, identity, and legacy built upon the grief of the present. Wakanda Forever floats at the top of Phase 4 by allowing its emotions to overflow in order for something new to grow in its place.

Down by the Riverside

The topic cannot be avoided: there is no CGI Chadwick Boseman in this film. He's not stepping through a portal or anything as wild as that, but, in a special way, he flows through the film. Decisions that were made in Avengers: Endgame, Black Panther, and other spots of the Marvel Cinematic Universe pay off in ways that will surprise fans. People who had questions about the trailers giving too much away will be in for some shocks.

Coogler deftly manages to hearken back to both Captain America: Civil War and the first movie on multiple occasions. However, while there is some sunlight from those choices, they also force the viewer to confront the fact that time has passed and things have changed. The Sokovia Accords have been repealed (Thanks She-Hulk!) and even more importantly, the world is shaking off the rust from Thanos washing away half the population.

T'Challa's sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) is an ostensible protagonist. But, in actuality, the entire supporting cast of the first film is called on to lift the narrative above these morose circumstances. All that effort comes to bear as Wright is anchored in her family and country by Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong'o, and Winston Duke. Just like in real life, the principal players are adrift without their beloved king.

Still, time surges forward and their myriad of enemies see a transfer of power as a time to test the limits of peacetime. Tenoch Huerta's Namor rises from the depths as the movie's central antagonist and might have a claim to the title of Phase 4's most memorable "villain" (and not just because of that physique).

The Sub-Mariner is hard to pin down and can play differently depending on the experiences you bring to your seat as a viewer. Is he an anti-hero or more like Wenwu from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings? For my money, he skates across the limits of what we've known in this universe and what's to come. Spending so much time getting to know the Talocans means he's not a complete villain. (The Internet would tell you Thanos and Killmonger aren't either.) But, he clearly provides a worthy adversary for the country of Wakanda.

It's more clear than ever that the world is still trying to establish a new normal and just bringing everyone back didn't solve everything (a theme similarly explored in some of the other Disney+ shows). Everything is propulsive in the early goings as beats bubble up and the audience is asked to digest them quickly before heading downstream, especially in the first hour. Yet, as the movie presses onward, the characters are allowed to ponder their pasts and futures in this expanding world. 

Alex Livinalli and Mabel Cadena help put a face to the Talocan nation. As the followers of the "Sub-Mariner," the water and sense of community below the waves is central to their identity. Viewers will see that the ripples of Black Panther's circumstances reverberate out in Namor's story. If the two could have stood across from each other on film, the common ground between these two nations would be even more underlined. However, as is the case in our real world, outside factors have a way of inserting themselves at the worst possible times.

Things are not locked to just the water and Wakanda, though. One of the shining rays of exuberance in this movie is Dominique Thorne's Riri Williams, a.k.a. Ironheart. If you're an MCU fan looking for that textbook style, look to the skies for the power-suited hero. She's here to remind us that we're indeed inhabiting the long-running franchise. Thorne's inventor becomes a quick glance at what's to come in the future for her Disney+ series and makes for a fist-pumping addition to a number of set pieces throughout the film.

Sites of water and community always flow back as key settings for this movie. Both Wakanda and Talocan clearly could not function without that element. The water has a memory, and so do the people who inhabit the two kingdoms. To wit, the element's presence forms the groundwater where this tale of two differing nations springs from. 

If you've never thought about the MCU's Earth and some of the secrets it must hold, you're going to leave the theater with a ton of questions for Phase 5 and beyond. Even with the 2-plus-hour run time, it can be hard to color in MCU newcomers, but they do it here. You understand how these people came to be, and where they stand in contrast with the surface-dwellers quite easily. 

Swim Good

At moments, Wakanda Forever threatens to crash against the rising emotion of honoring Chadwick Boseman. But, through the collective efforts of a cast intent on doing right by the man who started it all, the film percolates with purpose. There is a new Black Panther, and they will figure into the future of this universe, while other plot threads are left for the fans to debate on the Internet into next year. After the credits roll, there's a big surprise that will light-up social media the night of the premiere. 

For some Marvel fans, this is going to be a more somber affair than they're used to. It turns out that seeing half the universe wiped out by a purple alien isn't as emotional as thinking about one of your favorite performers being gone. Though, when you emerge from the theater, you'll be thankful for the ride Boseman took us all on and the road he's paved for those who walked beside him. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever might be a trip down to the river to lay an old friend to rest, but the journey is necessary to move forward.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever lands in theaters on November 11th.

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