Black Panther

Ryan Coogler’s first misfire, Black Panther follows Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa as he assumes power of the prosperous nation of Wakanda in the wake of his father’s death – with the picture primarily detailing T’Challa’s ongoing struggles with a would-be usurper named Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan). Filmmaker Coogler, working from a screenplay cowritten with Joe Robert Cole, delivers a sluggish narrative that mostly seems designed to set up future installments (ie the movie feels, even by the standards of comic-book origin stories, like a prologue to other, more interesting tales), with the decidedly tedious atmosphere compounded by Coogler’s continuing emphasis on slickly conceived yet wholly unexciting action sequences. It’s clear, too, that Boseman’s stiff, far-from-charismatic turn as the one-note protagonist perpetuates the prosaic vibe, which, in turn, ensures that many of his familiar costars are unable to make much of a positive impact – with the one obvious exception to the otherwise bland landscape Jordan’s often exhilaratingly electrifying work as the vicious Killmonger (to the extent that one can’t help but wish that he were playing the title character). And although Coogler has peppered the proceedings with a few admittedly compelling sequences (eg Killmonger makes his aggressive claim for the throne), Black Panther generally comes off as an erratic and momentum-free actioner that climaxes with an almost prototypically overblown third act – which ultimately does cement the film’s place as a predictably underwhelming Marvel release.

** out of ****