First off, I’d like to apologize to James Cameron for telling him to “eat it” just now. After Black Panther came for Titanic, and now Infinity War might give Avatar a run for its money, the man’s ego might be doing spasms. Why else would he be quoted as hoping this Marvel “thing” fizzles out?
But enough about Mr. Cameron. We’ll let him get back to working on Avatar 2,3,4, the rebooted Terminator franchise, and lobbying to get fresh ideas into Hollywood. It’s time I talked about a few issues with the movie that the head of Marvel said was their best film. Eat it, Kevin Feige.
Secondly, I’d like to apologize to Kevin Feige for telling him to “eat it” just now, because Black Panther was awesome. I was sad to find a few things that bugged me. I wanted it to be perfect, but nothing in life is perfect, except maybe nachos or nacho-flavored stuff.
1. Kendrick Lamar made me see a different movie.
For three months I’d been listening to The Black Panther Soundtrack on regular rotation. Holy balls crap, what an amazing album. It’s no wonder he won a Pulitzer. Lamar is a genius. Eat it, Yeezy.
I’m not going to apologize to Kanye, because Lamar’s soundtrack had me so pumped for this movie. Each track wove a tapestry of thoughts, emotion and sound experiment. So, I had this epic soundtrack in my head and I went in and saw a mostly quiet, intimate movie about a good man learning to be king. It’s like if Tupac and done the soundtrack for The Lion King and Picture Me Roarin’ never made it into the movie.
I guess this isn’t really an issue since I loved both the movie and the soundtrack, but they’re two different creatures. One will take you on an emotional rollercoaster and make you want to work out all the crazy sh*t in your life and the other one will take you adventuring and make you want to move to Wakanda.
2. How was Klaw useful to Killmonger again?
Vibranium is Ulysses Klaw’s equivalent to Pokémon. He’s gotta catch it all. Unless he wants to sell it? This is where the plot got a little muddled for me. If I remember right, didn’t Ultron wire 5 billion dollars to Klaw in AoU? It only cost him an arm and not a leg. Shouldn’t being one of the richest men in the world calm him down a little? Hell, when he pulls up to the casino, he’s rollin’ in a procession of multiple black Cadillac SUVs. The man is screaming money, but he’s got to risk it all to get one tiny chunk of vibranium and then sell it? He could have been caught stealing it. He could have been busted by the CIA selling it.
Then, when Black Panther did catch him and was persuaded not to eviscerate him on YouTube, what was his end game after that? He’s caught. Did he know Killmonger was going to break him out? It didn’t seem like it.
I’m sorry for all the questions and maybe some of you can clear this up, but if I break this plot point down, it still doesn’t make sense to me. Here’s what it would be if Black Panther hadn’t interfered.
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Killmonger points out some vibranium to Klaw, and they kill people and steal it.
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Klaw takes vibranium and tries to sell it in Asia
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?
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Profit.
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Killmonger needs Klaw to take him to Wakanda (a place on every world map).
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Klaw refuses. Says Wakanda will never let Killmonger in.
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Killmonger reveals lip tat and says it’s a key to get in. Then he shoots Klaw.
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Killmonger flies to Wakanda in a tiny plane.
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He strolls up to the boarder and instead of showing his lip key, he shows Klaw’s body.
To me, it would have been much easier to
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Set up a meeting with Klaw
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Kill or capture Klaw
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Fly to Wakanda and whatevs.
But then again, I’m not a screen writer, mandated to put X amount of action scenes in a comic book movie. Or, maybe Killmonger had just never seen anyone killed in a museum before. Everyone has their own bucket list.
3. Shuri, the forgetful scientist
What’s a scientist without a kill-switch? A forgetful one. I loved Shuri’s character, and she was one of the best things about the movie, but she did a dumb when building her Black Panther suits. Maybe it’s just me, but if I’m building indestructible suits that can refocus energy and have pointy claws, I would add a turn-off switch in them, just in case Uncle Joe got liquored up one night and decided roll over a Safeway.
Maybe it’s an age and experience thing. Tony Stark can turn on, unlock, or explode his suits whenever he wants. And he doesn’t even need to worry about someone coming in to duel him to the death for the ownership of Stark Industries.
If she built both the suits and her panther-blasters, she should have known they were no match for Killmonger in a suit. I thought, “She knows the capabilities of all this stuff, so neither of us should be surprised when she fails to subdue him.” Maybe it was just to buy time until T’Challa got there. Only a good guy in a Black Panther suit can kill a bad guy in a Black Panther suit, I guess.
I’ll go with that, because I loved the move. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if T’Challa makes a quip about it in the sequel. “Fail-safe? Good. You never know when a mad man will toss you over a waterfall and take one of your suits.”