Black Panther: Wakanda Forever review: Overshadowed by loss

By Nicholas BarberFeatures correspondent

Ryan Coogler's Black Panther sequel struggles after the loss of Chadwick Boseman – despite dazzling visual effects and impressive acting from Angela Bassett, Letitia Wright and Lupita Nyong'o, it feels like it's missing a central character, writes Nicholas Barber.

Chadwick Boseman was one of Hollywood's most important actors. As the titular star of Marvel's Black Panther (2018), he helped to prove, in the face of long-held industry prejudices, that a film with a black superhero and an entirely black cast could be a colossal hit. Both the actor and the character of T'Challa, the king of Wakanda, were hailed as inspiring role models. Tragically, Boseman died of cancer in 2020.

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As well as being a heartbreaking loss, his death put Marvel in a horrible position. He was too closely associated with the part of T'Challa for the role to be recast so soon, but how could the studio make another Black Panther film without him? How do you make a Superman film that doesn't have Superman in it? One answer is to kill off the main character – and that's what Ryan Coogler, the director and co-writer, does in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. T'Challa dies of an undisclosed illness, off screen, before the opening titles. But as his death can't help but remind audiences of Boseman's, that still leaves the question of how a rip-roaring action movie can carry on without being dragged down by grief.

In a way, the whole film is about Wakanda getting over the loss of its beloved king. His regal mother (Angela Bassett) has to convince the rest of the world that her country can stand up for itself without its legendary protector. His tech-genius sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), is too upset to follow Wakanda's sacred rites and traditions. And his girlfriend Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) has to decide whether she wants a life in Wakanda at all. But Coogler and his co-writer, Joe Robert Cole, dispense with the initial mournful tone within a few scenes. There is a royal funeral sequence that looks like a fabulous street carnival, and then the film jumps to a year later when Wakanda has other problems to contend with.

The nation's power rests on its sole possession of a metal called vibranium. (Two films into the series, and I still don't understand what's so special about vibranium, but never mind.) The trouble is that Americans have discovered another lode of vibranium at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. But when they investigate, their vessel is stormed by a regiment of mysterious merpeople: this attack is the film's most thrilling sequence, an eerie set piece straight from an alien invasion horror movie. It turns out that Wakanda is not the only futuristic hidden nation in the world. There is also the undersea Mesoamerican kingdom of Talokan, ruled by the pointy-eared Namor (Tenoch Huerta). And he blames Wakanda for bringing American forces too close to his country for comfort.

In Marvel comics, Namor is the half-human ruler of Atlantis, but presumably Coogler and his team decided to make some revisions so as to differentiate Namor from Jason Momoa's Aquaman in the DC / Warner film. They needn't have worried too much about the comparison. The seaweedy realm of Talokan is more beautiful and well-realised than anything in Aquaman, and Namor's tragic origin story, which dates back to 16th-Century Yucatan, is more interesting.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Directed by: Ryan Coogler

Starring: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Tenoch Huerta, Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke

Film length: 2hr 41m

In fact, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is superior in nearly every respect to most superhero blockbusters. The dialogue is polished and intelligent. The acting is consistently impressive, with Bassett, in particular, being so intense and imperious that it's hardly surprising that she can reign over a global superpower. The design is gorgeously bright, crisp and intricate: everyone in Wakanda and Talokan can apparently afford their own personal stylist. The visual effects are as dazzling as those of any intergalactic science-fiction movie. And the politics are progressive, in that most of the main characters are black women.

What is lacking is a plot that will grip anyone who isn't already deeply invested in the geopolitics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Without one central character to follow, it roams all over the place without picking up the breakneck momentum that the best superhero blockbusters have. It pauses for long discussions about the future of Wakanda and the history of Talokan. It checks in on old characters, such as Martin Freeman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus's CIA agents. And it spends plenty of time introducing new characters, such as a teenage Iron Man wannabe played by Dominique Thorne, and a Wakandan warrior played by Michaela Coel, the creator of the hit BBC series I May Destroy You. All four of those characters could have been edited out without much difficulty. An over-stuffed soap opera that lasts almost three hours, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever might have worked better if it had been turned into a six-part series for Disney Plus.

One issue is that, after a couple of scenes set on US soil in the first half, the world as we know it is largely forgotten. Everything leads to a battle between Wakanda and Talokan – and as both countries are invented, and both seem like wonderful places to be, it's hard to root for a victory on either side. You can sit back and admire the tremendous craftsmanship involved, but don't expect to be drawn into the story. The hole left by Boseman hasn't quite been filled.

★★★☆☆

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is on general release from 11 November.

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