Black Panther has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Original Song, Production Design, Costume Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Original Score. It is rated PG-13 for prolonged sequences of action violence, and a brief rude gesture. I don’t follow Marvel films, rarely see them, and I’m not really interested in action, super-hero films.
But I watched it (on streaming Netflix) due to all the buzz about its nominations this award season. As expected, it is a super-hero movie, with all the high tech wizardry the film industry has perfected in order to make other worlds seem almost plausible.
Where this film is unique is in its characters, who live in Wakanda, an entirely black community deep in Africa, hidden from the rest of the world. The story briefly travels to LA where some of the Wakandans had lived. Some things I liked about the movie was how the warrior-king, the Black Panther, time travels with the aid of a medicinal drug to speak to his ancestors. These are some of the most moving scenes. I also enjoyed a bit of a nod to James Bond movies, where T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and his companions run into a CIA agent (Martin Freeman) where the intrigue turns into spy kind of antics.
I also really liked the ending where T’Challa is speaking to the United Nations with a message that taken a certain way could be important to our times. (Be sure to stay tuned for this, as it occurs after some ending credits.) The fighting was boring, as usual.
Did you see Black Panther? Do you like super-hero action films, and did you think this one broke out of the genre?
I just rented it last week and it is a cut above the normal super hero flicks but I think it is no better than Thor or Iron Man or even the last Avenger film. It does bring up race but in a unique way with the villain someone you wish would not be one. You feel the anger and the injustice but other main issues have also been brought up in the other flicks. I also saw the James Bond homage with the sister playing Q. Should it be up for Best Picture?...No. this is to appease the average audience who think the Avengers and other movies that rake in tons of money is just as great as BlacKkKlansmen. Never let the average Q public dictate what films are good because, otherwise, Rambo would have won best picture. I don’t think I am a snob, I mean, I detest In The Bedroom which I found a huge bore and I do like the action shows but some are excellent like Black Panther but this film still does not seem as great as many other films.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you; it is not Best Picture material. There must be some politicking within the Academy to nominate certain films in various genres, no matter the high quality of others that are eligible. I don't think Black Panther will win much of anything.
DeleteI’m not generally a superhero viewer, but I saw this one and enjoyed it. I thought it well done and yes, I liked the fact that the main “villain” could have turned around and joined the good guys if he hadn’t been conveniently killed off at th end. Andy Serkis was the one who played the usual two-d villain and he got killed off early.
ReplyDeleteWhat I liked best was the film’s treatment of its female characters, all of them ass-kicking types, and the fact that even the Q character was female. It won’t Get Best Film anyway, because SF and fantasy rarely do - the only exception I can recall is Return Of The King, which was better than Black Panther, and BlackkKlansman is brilliant, but I bet that won’t win either. To be honest, I can’t recall many Best Film winners and I bet I’m not the only one. There is a snootiness about most awards, including literary ones, that won’t allow popular stuff to win.
I agree that the female characters were given good roles, and I liked how well Andy Serkis played the villain. I doubt it will win more than perhaps some technical type awards at the Oscars. We will see on Sunday!
DeleteNice poost thanks for sharing
ReplyDelete