Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Theory says that Wakanda Forever takes place during "the blip".  T'Challa would be "dead" for all intents and purposes for five years.  By setting the film during that time frame it allows the cast in the real world to work through their loss on-screen while telling a very powerful story about what Wakanda went through for those five years that I don't think many of us thought about beyond what we saw on-screen in Infinity War and Endgame.  And with doing that it would allow for T'Challa to be recast a little more down the road after everyone returns from being "blipped" and now that the actors have had their time to put some of the emotions out-there and behind them.

I knew a couple of things going in.

1. I probably wasn't going to like it.

2. I wouldn't hold that fact against it.

Truth is I liked it slightly more than I thought I would, but I still didn't like it much. Aside from the fact that it's unreasonable to expect a secondary actor like Letitia Wright to carry the franchise in the same way as Chadwick Freaking Boseman, the truth is, it's a movie about grief, and that's no fun. And it's only about grief because of real-world events. I can't fault the producers for being so shellshocked by Boseman's death that they refused to recast T'Challa. But still, this is not the sequel that was planned or that we were due.

Ross was married to the Contessa? Poor dude. Lucky he got out of that marriage alive. Is Everett Ross related to Thaddeus Ross? I forget if that's ever come up before.

I actually like Namor which is a bit of a surprise considering what a turd every other incarnation of that character is portrayed as upon their introduction. Yes, I would describe his plans and motivations as sinister. But the reason Kevin Feige has value is he understands the character can be sinister, and still civil, reasonable, and likable. Every other cartoon I've seen Namor in as an antagonist goes out of its way to say how much he sucks and what a jerk he is. It's unnecessary. Take note: Recent Marvel Cartoons used to portray T'CHALLA as a jerk of all people, but it never occurred to the Marvel Television producers that "complicated" and "a total bunghole" are not actually synonyms. Kids, your antagonists looking to reform someday on your superhero cartoons don't HAVE to be as unlikable as the adults making the cartoons show them as. They are they way because those adult writers are simply bad at their jobs.

I love that Shuri sees Killmonger on the Vision Quest. And nothing really told me later on that that was inappropriate either.

I love M'Baku. He is a full out villain in other incarnations, but I like that the MCU has put him in the role of Wise Counsel instead. He's the one character besides the Williams kid making me smile.

Is that Ironheart? Weird movie for her to debut in, although it seems weird to debut Namor in a Black Panther movie too (or at least one without T'Challa).

I didn't much dig it. But my epic hate rants against Eternals, and the latest Thor and Doctor Strange sequels simply do not apply to this movie. It's a bummer, but really that's actually through no fault of its own. **1/2.