This movie was terrible. Absolutely terrible. I have come to despise the banality and low quality of Marvel's stupid comic book movies, but I was curious to see the cultural phenomenon of "Black Panther" for myself. After all, a film that moved and inspired African Americans to such an extraordinary degree and is even up for Best Picture at the Oscars had to be a cut above the run-of-the-mill. It was not.
The conceit of a small African country secretly possessing the most advanced technology in the world is a good one, but this movie failed to execute it in a successful way. The CGI was sub-par, the acting, especially by Michael B. Jordan, was terrible, the storyline was unbelievably moronic and- when you think about it- the whole concept is really very insulting towards Black people.
After all, the only reason the Wakandans achieved anything was not because of anything inherent in the people but because a meteorite of almost magical power landed in their territory and imbued the population with supernatural abilities. Such an idea isn't exactly complimentary to African people. In addition, you have a tribal chieftain nicknamed Big Gorilla who grunts like a monkey when angered and people who, in this supposedly advanced society, wear plates in their distended lower lips. That's like Queen Elizabeth sporting a face tattoo like her German ancestors or presiding over a royal audience bare-breasted and painted blue. No one can see a person with a plate in their lips without breaking out in laughter. Similarly hilarious, the people of Wakanda prove their bona fides to each other by pulling down their lower lips, a ridiculously undignified gesture, to reveal some sort of vanadium birthmark. That's only one step up in stupidity from dropping drawers and presenting bare bottoms. These tropes reflect the patronizing and even derisive atmosphere in which the Black Panther universe was created.
I can understand why African Americans were so excited to see people like themselves as heroic protagonists, but this was in reality a movie for morons that was actually rather denigrating towards African people, so perhaps the craze over Black Panther tells us something about the low cultural level of a large percentage of our population.
