Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Back in the land of Marvel and this time we’re back in Wakanda as writer and director Ryan Coogler (“Creed”, “Black Panther”) gives us an emotional return to the no-longer secret land.

Things kick off with an emotional turn as Shuri, Letitia Wright (“Death On The Nile”, “Black Mirror (TV)”), does everything she can, with the help of her AI Griot, Trevor Noah, to save the Black Panther. Alas, as we all know, she can not.

An emotional funeral and we quickly move forward with the story which concerns a new tribe, one even more secret then Wakanda. The Talokan’s are an underwater tribe who also have access to Vibranium, much to Queen Ramonda’s, Angela Bassett (“Gunpowder Milkshake”, “Soul”), surprise.

The Talokan’s leader is Namor, Tenoch Huerta (“The Forever Purge”, “Madres”), who has even more super powers than the rest of his already powerful tribe. Whilst they appear to have some incredible strength, Namor can also fly, with some small wings around his ankles.

Namor has some serious beef with the rest of the world, the surface dwellers that is, for the Talokan’s are an underwater tribe. He wants to stop the surface dwellers getting their hands on Vibranium, as do Wakanda, but he will stop at nothing in his quest, including going to war with everyone, Wakanda included.

Stuck in the middle of this is Riri, Dominique Thorne (“Judas and the Black Messiah”, “If Beale Street Could Talk”), a 19-year old student who has created a way to find Vibranium which the CIA have begun to use, with some small success.

There is a fight to get to Riri first with Wakanda winning, initially, but then both her and Shuri are taken by the Talokan who say they want to kill Riri. Shuri is having none of it.

With the help of some old friends, the pair escape and head back to Wakanda to decide on the next step, though Namor doesn’t hang around and attacks. He demands Wakanda join him in his attack on the surface world, else he’ll destroy them all.

I wasn’t a fan of the first Black Panther movie but here’s the thing, I’m not sure I can tell you why, not for any reason other than I don’t actually know. There was something, or maybe lots of things, that just didn’t gel with me.

In Wakanda Forever the first thing that struck me was the directing, it felt jarring, there are moments when Coogler adopts an almost documentary style to it, a sort of run-n-gun style of shooting, shaky cam-esq that felt at odds with some of the more stylistic directing that happens later.

The movie is also long, coming in at over two and a half hours, but despite this, or perhaps because of this, it feels unfocussed at times, from rambling to lurching, it never quite manages to pin its sails to a mast and move forward with conviction.

This is a shame as there are some great performances on show and some not bad action, but it all gets a bit lost somewhere along the line.