'Black Panther' Is So Important

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Black Panther is worth a thousand academic treatises on systems of oppression. It is a blockbuster, reaching far and wide, old and young, liberal and conservative, that stars a nearly all-black cast and challenges your complicity whether you want it to or not. A superhero movie that throws around the word “coloniser” and makes explicit, accusatory references to slavery is so current and so fucking powerful.

Black Panther is still very much male-centric; the female characters mostly exist to support, save or accompany, thwart or kill the men. Nonetheless, there are several strong, memorable women, who are named and talk to each other, however much about men. Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia and Danai Gurira as Okoye are instrumental in the Black Panther’s various missions, but it is his little sister Shuri, played by Letitia Wright, who truly stands out. She is funny, irreverent, clever, and a brilliant scientist with a dope-ass sense of style, the kind of empowered woman we could do with more of on the big screen and in media as a whole.

But Black Panther doesn’t get lazy just because it’s breaking down barriers; it’s exciting as heck the whole way through — impressive, considering the 2h14min runtime. The plot is intricate, the pace suspenseful and the fight scenes, during which I just black out and wait for the outcome, plentiful. I don’t know much about Marvel, once fell asleep during The Avengers, but for me this was a good superhero movie, up there with The Dark Knight Rises (weird choice, I know) and both Sam Raimi and Marc Webb’s Spider-Man series.

Also, Michael B. Jordan’s midriff.

8/10