In “Black Panther,” Ryan Coogler’s artistry transcended the film’s franchise-building purpose, tnyfrontrow writes. The sequel “is overwhelmed by the call of duty.”
whose inspirations, for which I had similarly high hopes, appeared more tightly tethered to the demands of franchise-building. The best thing about “Black Panther” is the rare passion that its director, Ryan Coogler, brings to what is usually a perfunctory element of superhero movies, the backstory. For Coogler and his co-writer, Joe Robert Cole, world-building carried the implicit force of nation-building.
Wakanda is, of course, the sole known source of vibranium, an invulnerable metal with a wide range of supernatural powers—and refuses to export it. Wakandan troops at a Malian outpost face an attack by French forces seeking vibranium. An American military detachment, too, pursues the mineral, albeit in an unexpected place—the floor of the Atlantic Ocean—and these forces also come under attack and are destroyed; the U.S. government blames Wakanda for the assault and is preparing a response.
The strength of Coogler’s dramatic imagination is held back by a sense of franchise obligation, of mandatory steps to set up Round Three . In Reed’s second “Ant-Man” film, his exuberant and playful approach to the character was constrained by the intricate but rickety story construction that involved many other Marvel figures. In his second round with the “Black Panther” franchise, Coogler, too, seems to be executing compulsory figures.
This time around, however, the movie’s aesthetic elements appear merely decorative, and mind-numbing grandiosity takes the place of behavioral nuance. The fight scenes in the sequel, unlike those in the earlier film, are neither thrilling nor frightening; the martial artistry appears merely functional, and one complex chase scene, set in Boston, is rendered facile and disposable.
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