Rod and Karen review “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” We also discuss some movie trailers and your feedback on Black Adam.
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SMR 423: Black Panther Wakanda Forever
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Great review y’all! Of all the review shows I listen to, I was looking forward to y’all’s thoughts the most.
I really loved this movie and I think I might see it in 3D next. I saw it in imax but the underwear scenes seemed so dark.
Y’all I’m such a sucker for a fine ass man in a movie. I really thought Namor was going to suggest an alliance by marriage to Shuri. Lol.
And I would have wanted her to accept! Like, YES! Let’s burn the world together Imperious Rex! He had the most intense looks. Scary yet charming. I couldn’t handle it.
I cried twice at the beginning and end, you could hear sniffling at each moment of silence in my theater.
My daughter cried when the Queen died, apparently a lot of parents said their kids had the same reaction.
I agree that I hope we get to see Shuri as the Black Panther in more movies. I saw so many people ready to throw her to the wind just because we find out about Tchalla Jr.
Thanks for another great review,
Iman
Man, this was a great ride. All the tributes to Chadwick were beautiful. The silent marvel opening credits with all Chadwick got me, and then the funeral, lawd. I was in there tearing up, but acting like I was adjusting my glasses lol. I know the people around me were like, “damn nigga, just wear contacts” lol.
Boyyy when queen mother read them folks in that un meeting lawd. All you heard was “I know that’s right!” And ” come on queen mother!” Side note, I’m glad I was in the theater with the “mmhmm, I know that’s right” blacks and not the “dress in white and kente cloth and do African dance in the theater” blacks. Angela Bassett did her thing, and Letitia Wright was amazing, despite her off the court activity. And Winston Duke is my mans. Can I get a short series or couple of videos of Mbaku just doing Mbaku stuff? Namor was everything I thought he would be. I loved the ruthlessness, but it never felt senseless. Like it was extreme, but I can understand trying to protect your people. I really hope when Dr doom gets in the mcu, we get the doomwar storyline, although personally, I’m waiting on “horny” Namor to start breaking up marriages. Also I enjoyed ri ri. I think sharing did have a throw away line when they first got to her garage about stark tech. Something like “wow, you have stark tech” or something like that. I loved the comparisons between the two cultures, and how they have similar goals, and how they really humanized them. It would have easy to just paint one as “savages” to convey they were the “bad guys”. Ryan Coogler did such a good job, the mouse needs the flex that muscle and get that bank and the police to apologize to my mans. They really need to let him get a bigger project. He’s 2 for 2, especially with the villains . I actually wouldn’t mind seeing him tackle Dr. Doom. If somebody don’t walk away with an Oscar or two from this film, imma go will Smith on that committee. Thanks for the dope revue!
Man, this was a great ride. All the tributes to Chadwick were beautiful. The silent marvel opening credits with all Chadwick got me, and then the funeral, lawd. I was in there tearing up, but acting like I was adjusting my glasses lol. I know the people around me were like, “damn nigga, just wear contacts” lol.
Boyyy when queen mother read them folks in that un meeting lawd. All you heard was “I know that’s right!” And ” come on queen mother!” Side note, I’m glad I was in the theater with the “mmhmm, I know that’s right” blacks and not the “dress in white and kente cloth and do African dance in the theater” blacks. Angela Bassett did her thing, and Letitia Wright was amazing, despite her off the court activity. And Winston Duke is my mans. Can I get a short series or couple of videos of Mbaku just doing Mbaku stuff? Namor was everything I thought he would be. I loved the ruthlessness, but it never felt senseless. Like it was extreme, but I can understand trying to protect your people. I really hope when Dr doom gets in the mcu, we get the doomwar storyline, although personally, I’m waiting on “horny” Namor to start breaking up marriages. Also I enjoyed ri ri. I think sharing did have a throw away line when they first got to her garage about stark tech. Something like “wow, you have stark tech” or something like that. I loved the comparisons between the two cultures, and how they have similar goals, and how they really humanized them. It would have easy to just paint one as “savages” to convey they were the “bad guys”. Ryan Coogler did such a good job, the mouse needs the flex that muscle and get that bank and the police to apologize to my mans. They really need to let him get a bigger project. He’s 2 for 2, especially with the villains . I actually wouldn’t mind seeing him tackle Dr. Doom. If somebody don’t walk away with an Oscar or two from this film, imma go will Smith myself on that committee. Thanks for the dope revue!
Hey Rod and Karen. Love the review, as always. I just wanted to add something that stood out to me in both Black Panther films. The idea that slavery played a key part in the formation of these 2 villains is blowing my mind. And for a disney movie to show a physical representation with a whip cracking somebody’s back is incredible. And then you understand why his enemies call him Namor. I did the WeeBey gif in the theater when I put it all together. This movie was so impressive from start to finish. Everybody was acting acting and I can’t wait to see what they do with Namor on the future.
I’m also seeing in real time how diverse stories and casting are increasing new audiences. My wife isn’t in to this nerd stuff at all but she’ll come with me to see the movies. She also enjoyed seeing the story of the Partition in Ms Marvel and I showed her the episode of Moon Knight when you learn where his Disassociative Identity Disorder comes from with his abusive childhood and she was amazed. And she was shocked when i told her that Riri Williams will take over the Iron Man suit as Iron Heart. One day I’ll get her to say she’s a fan. Shout out to Disney capitalism. Take it easy you two
As someone who grew up with Black Panther and Namor being my favorite comic book characters, this movie did an exceptional job of handling these characters.
Also, Letititia Wright was amazing playing an atheistic genius despite who she is irl… I am also glad that they didn’t do the “spiritual awakening” thing when she saw the Ancestral Plane. Also, the interactions between her and Riri were so wonderful. There was mutual respect and it was nice to see her character with someone on the same intellectual level (sorry Banner…)
Finally, I would have liked to see the opening sequence and the tour of Talokan in 3d, but the rest of the movie was fine in 2d…
Great review (although I felt the movie may have been penalized for not living up to the first movie, but, to be honest, 99% of movies are not on the same level of Black Panther).
Ryan Coogler and cast did not disappoint me (Nate Moore included). I dressed to the nines and turned up to the Crown Wakanda event by For All Nerds and even got to chill with Karama Horne before and after the movie along with Tatiana and DJ BenHameen.
To the movie, I loved it. It was good to see my man Namor and is that dude fine. Honestly, if he offering visa and medical procedures, I don’t mind moving to Talocan. They living good down there, take me.
So at our theater, it was straight into the movie. I was warming up for trailers and bang I see Shuri in the lab. I’m thinking to myself, what commercial is this? Then I realized oh shit, we straight to the business. I appreciate how they handled T’Challa, my Queen mama gone too RIP. Now I laughed when I saw Killmonger, well played
I loved how everyone was shown to handle their grief, anger, strategies… even Mbaku who seemed to be the comedic guy had some heavy moments (the black men can’t shine crowd won’t be satisfied I know lol). After watching the movie, I listened to the first episode of the Wakanda Forever podcast hosted by Te-Nehisi Coates. He interviewed Ryan Coogler, after hearing that interview between them. A lot made extra sense. I loved all performances and shall go see the movie again.
Wakanda Forever! Great episode as always from you two
Simply a heavy film. It wears the nobility that Chadwick Boseman led with in his appearances as T’Challa throughout the MCU. Wakanda Forever was painstaking in its grief, that was comforting to not just the cast and crew, but the audience watching it.
At first, I was slightly worried ten minutes in with how saccharine it was. Then having to put the entire film on the backs of Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o, Tenoch Huerta, Dominique Thorne, Winston Duke, Michaela Cole and Danai Gurira, was a heavy task and in their own individual ways, handle it like the pros they are.
Bassett, to me, evokes nobility in all of her work and she absolutely up to the task, scene by scene here. She not only propels the movie, by extension, she even aids Wright to a degree. Her Queen Ramonda even suffer a noble death.
Letitia, ya fucked up with your anti-vax, religious propaganda, but goddamn it, she murked this role. I have zero problem with her being The Black Panther. Great performance. Even the inclusion of Killmonger returning to provide an essence of vengeance was a nice touch. Shuri developed throughout this film.
I really liked Huerta too. Makes me wanna look up his prior work. His Namor was Outchea giving people them “ya done fucked eyes” business. He was wise as he was vicious.
It’s not perfect and I don’t think having Martin Freeman and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss here was that necessary, even if you have to push future projects. I don’t like using the word filler, but, yeah, I think that applied to them. They were good, I just think they were that needed, I guess. We did need more Black Panther for Shuri’s character arc. Didn’t get enough of that here. I did love the mid-credit scene. Forgot to mention, the fights didn’t disappoint at all.
Ryan Coogler just doesn’t miss, even under immense pressure and grief. That is a focused director who makes everyone perform at their best. They were tasked with a heavy toll of making everyone be at their very best. I think it was achieved nicely.