Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Late to the party on this one, but finally made a journey to Wakanda again. It turns out to be a mash-up of Wakanda, Aquaman, with shades of Iron Man and Avatar. Unexpectedly for an action hero movie, it is one of mourning, loss, grief and with a huge focus on women — as mothers, friends and sisters.
Shuri (Letitia Wright) battles to save her brother T’Challa, but it is too late — he is gone. We next see his funeral — a moving tribute to Chadwick Boseman’s brilliance and integrity. Ruling a group — who will be the next Black Panther. Shuri focuses on the science and ignores this question.
Meanwhile, the nations of the world want to get their hands on Wakanda’s fabled vibranium — and Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) is like ‘no way, look at what you’ll do with it!” She wants Shuri to continue her research into resurrecting the ‘heart-shaped herb”. The next bit was a bit mysterious without further research — but a rig is attacked by mysterious blue people (not Avatar), who really don’t like them being there. Turns out this is a CIA/Navy SEALS research mission into using a vibranium detecting device to locate some underwater vibranium deposits — and surely Wakanda is to blame for the dramatic attack? (Even though they most definitely aren’t blue — global racism here?)
Amazingly the machine was made by a student — to prove their professor wrong. (And if Doctor Watson aka Martin Freeman tells you this — it must be true!) There’s a funny mission where Shuri and General Okoye (Danai Gurira) head to the campus and Shuri impersonates a student. They are going to take the dangerously creative science student to Wakanda for safe keeping (and the safety of the world). Only the CIA have other plans. In a big chase scene, Shuri ends up getting fishnapped into the deep…by Namor.
Namor (José Tenoch Huerta Mejía) is underwater ruler of Talokan, heaving with vibranium — he’s even wearing heaps of it. This is a really beautiful sequence — and I was hoping for romance between Namor and Shuri at this point. Namor also really has a point — not only is his ocean home being polluted, but he’s now being drilled on. He has a peaceful people to protect and a beautiful city. Namor’s had enough, so decides to fight back and flood the world. Uniquely, Namor can fly like Hermes and also exist on land and in water. Originally from a Mayan people at the time of the Conquistadors, Namor’s mother was among those who drank the ‘heart shaped herb’ to survive. But it had strange consequences — curing them of Smallpox, but forcing them to flee the land for the sea. In returning to bury his long-lived mother in her homeland, Namor experiences the horrors of invasion and conquest — slavery, forced labour, really bad othering by priests — he really isn’t a child without love.
Rather than allowing Shuri and Namor to remain in romance, wonder and work out a peace — distraught Queen Ramonda summons super spy Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) from her really cool school in Haiti to find and rescue Shuri — at any cost. Which she does — leading to war between Namor’s people and Wakanda. It’s also a hard day for servants caring for Shuri and science student Riri Williams as they become collateral in the escape bid.
Everyone wants the science student and in saving her from a flooded Wakandan palace (and Namor), Queen Ramonda drowns. Shuri is now distraught having lost all her family — Nakia offers her a home in Haiti when she’s ready. Meanwhile, having successfully created a synthetic version of the ‘heart shaped herb’ Shuri communes with the ancestral planes and in a disturbing meeting with her duplicitous cousin Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) seeks revenge and a suit…
Pretty much everyone has a suit now…The Wakandans are ready for a fight..by boat. Namor arrives in style by Killer Whale — delivered into battle with a tail flick. Plus he can fly. However the Wakandans have new tricks too — the Dora Milaje can fight by rope to stop the Talokans boarding.
In a violent and gruesomely focused fight between Panther Shuri and Namor, choices have to be made — about mercy vs vengeance, how to live in equity and gaining victory at what cost? Compared to Black Panther, the fight sequences felt more violence focused — police cars are gleefully blown up or flipped with their occupants still in them; the General too is trapped upside in a battered car; Shuri and Namor claw, stab and burn each other, in a way that Black Panther’s fights didn’t. And at the end of it Namor does have a point which sits uneasily with the film’s story — his people are being threatened and he has a very reasonable fear of exploitation…
As ever the envisioning of Wakanda is the strength of the movie and the characters are wonderfully, strongly played. There is some humour, a lot of science and the real strength is in women, black women, talking, loving on each other and being mothers, sisters and friends to each other. Not to mention men and women working together — M’Baku (Winston Duke) is a terrific and kind ally. Also the uniqueness of Namor as a caring leader on the defensive attack to protect his people, and in Shuri working out what leadership might look like for her. Another beautiful moment is seeing the cultural shock of Wakandans at ‘primitive’ technologies around the rest of the world, and in Queen Ramonda and Shuri talking, mourning, remembering…Not to mention the loveliness of being able to move Wakandans to safety in the Jbari mountains (including winching in their amazing buildings).
Stay around until mid-point of the end credits — there are more surprises!
