BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER review

BLACK PANTHER : WAKANDA FOREVER

The sequel to BLACK PANTHER has been playing in the cinemas for 8 weeks now. As a film, BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER was very good. It followed in the colorful footsteps of the first film, while at the same time acknowledging the immense loss that we all felt when Chadwick Boseman passed away. It makes the beginning of this film even somewhat sad to watch.

But when the action comes in the person of NAMOR, Prince of Talokan, played by the Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta, the film moves swiftly towards a new feeling of excitement. The director has Huerta  portray NAMOR as a MesoAmerican / Mayan Prince, which is very surprising. For the film, it works. Namor engages the forces of Wakanda in battle because of a rather unacceptable ultimatum that Shuri can not condone. Shuri sees herself forced to take up the mantle of the Black Panther and as the New Black Panther (and she does look great in this role) Shuri fights NAMOR to a standstill and gets him to say yes to a WAKANDAN-TALOKAN AGREEMENT.

The film is somewhat long at 161 minutes but the story is not too over-extended. However in the visual depiction of the battles, director Ryan Coogler chooses to use a lot of stylistic moves which I find unnecessary. Close ups, slow motion, sudden accelerations, total overviews. For God's sake, Ryan, pick a style and stick with it! Where director Ryan Coogler chooses not to have NAMOR rule over Atlantis but over an underwater land called TALOKAN, I find he somewhat misses an opportunity.

You see, this is Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, as created by Bill Everett in 1941, drawn by the legendary artist John Buscema. This Prince Namor is a normal, Caucasian, Shakespearean English spouting Monarch with a bit of an ego problem. (He has a chip on his shoulder bigger than the Grand Canyon at times. But at other times, he is a sympathetic character.)

Ryan Coogler has chosen to make Namor an ethnic hero. He gives Namor a MesoAmerican / Mayan background and also rewrites his origin completely. And what do we get?

This person, a Prince of ethnic origins, perhaps with a lot of power but a person who has been shoved into an ethnic niche, just so this film can pretend to be a little more Politically Correct. I am so sorry that I have to say this but when I see the above face, all I can think of is this face:

And I think we can all agree that that was perhaps the biggest mistake of this particular actor's career. I also think that if Bill Everett, the aforementioned creator of Namor, would have seen this current look of Namor, he would have turned over in his grave. 

I have no doubt that from now on this is the NAMOR of the films and that my complaining won't change that:

I think it is just a pity that the development of the Cinematic Marvel Universe again now chooses to change one of the strongest characters they have ever had, just so they can look woke. 

In the SHANG CHI film, the name FU MANCHU wasn't even mentioned, because it was felt that that character is racially insulting. Well, Kevin Feige has admitted of late that the changing of the Ancient One in the DOCTOR STRANGE film into a Celtic Woman was a mistake. I hope that in some future Kevin Feige may also see that in the long run, this MesoAmerican / Mayan interpretation of NAMOR is a mistake. 

Do I hold my breath for that?

No.

But when I think they are making a mistake, I, as a fan, will use my right to say so. I do hope to see Shuri and her people again, in another Black Panther film. I just hope we don't have to go thru this again.