“What’s my brother’s heart rate?” -Shuri
“Your brother is with the ancestors.” -Queen Ramonda

Plot:

The movie begins with Shuri (Letitia Wright) trying to save her dying brother, T’Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). Shuri tries her best to save her beloved brother’s life, she tries to recreate the Wakandian herb that could heal her brother, which we saw was destroyed by Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) in the first movie. But then her mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) arrives and says that her brother is with the ancestors now. The silent treatment of the director and then the introduction logo of Marvel Studios showing us glimpses of Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa makes the atmosphere really sad and it makes the viewer so emotional that it gets difficult to breathe. The cause of the death of T’Challa is not revealed in the movie, most probably out of respect for the actor’s death.

“He wasn’t there mother, the pressure that you felt was just a construct of your mind.”
-Shuri

After the introduction, we see the funeral being held for T’Challa, everyone in Wakanda is dressed in white clothes. And the funeral of the Black Panther is celebrated as he is the hero, the savior, and the King of Wakanda.
As the movie begins, we see that a scientist has made a vibranium detector, that is used illegally by Ocean Expedition team where team of divers is using a drill to extract the metal, but here the vibranium is found under the sea. As they find the vibranium at the bottom of the sea, we see the people of Talokan, fighting against and killing every person on that ship, and then appears K’uk’ulkan/Namor, the Sub-Mariner (Tenoch Huerta), the king of Talokan and its people.
From there we see the conflict between Wakanda and Talokan increase as Namor wants to kill the scientist who made that device that lead people near the Talokan empire or country. Shuri and Okoye (Danai Gurira) find that the scientist is an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) sophomore year student, Riri Williams (Dominique Throne) made the device of finding vibranium as a science project, and Wakandians decide that it will be wrong to kill a student who never had intentions to harm anyone, but unknowingly her invention got into wrong hands.

“If I sit and think about my brother too long, it won’t be these clothes that burn it will be the world and everyone in it.”
-Shuri

From there the fight between Wakandians and Talokans start where Namor and Talokans wants to capture and kill Riri Williams, on the other hand, Wakandians trying to save Riri Williams. We see Shuri and Riri visit the underwater world of Talokans as they have captured them both. Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) arrives and saves them both but also kills a Talokanian in attempt to save them, for which Namor starts a war with Wakanda.

“I have given everything. Let me die serving my country.“
-Okoye

Review:

This is surely one of the best movies and one of the best projects of Marvel’s entire Phase Four. The way the director handled the loss of Queen Ramonda, and especially T’Challa was brilliantly handled. The way Ryan Coogler handles and creates the atmosphere through the visuals and sounds in the entire movie was perfect. The movie is really intense and Ryan Coogler handles the death of the beloved King of Wakanda near perfectly.
Also, the acting done by every actor in the movie was really good. Everyone carried the intensity and emotion as per the movie requirements. Dialogues of the movie were so well written and topped on with the acting quality every actor presented that those dialogues leave a long-lasting impression on the audience.
The way the movie portrays the loss of T’Challa and Ramonda becoming the Queen and representing Wakanda in the United Nations’ Summit really showed how the rest of the world uses Wakanda for their resources. Also, Angela Bassett stole the spotlight through her acting skills. She portrayed the role of a mother who first lost her husband, and then son, so well that everyone in theatre could feel what the character must have felt. Angela Bassett will surely be getting nominated for Oscar’s, and I won’t be surprised if she wins the award.

“I am Queen of the most powerful nation and the world and my entire family is gone.”
-Queen Ramonda

And Marvel Studios needs to learn more from this movie that how a character development of a female hero is done. The way Shuri failed so many times in the movie, first to save her brother, then later she failed to save her mother and protect the nation of Wakanda was deeply heart-breaking. But instead of giving up, Shuri keeps on learning from her mistakes, she invents the magical herb and gains the power of the Black Panther, and later takes the fight to Namor and is remains successful for what her motives were.
This is how a female superhero is established. Previously, in She-Hulk, it felt bizarre that Jennifer Walters gained her powers and was perfectly normal after gaining it. Jennifer never faced any difficulty in her life. And the entire show felt like a parody of superheroes and their struggles.
Moving onto the anti-hero the movie brings for us, Namor. The actor felt really convincing on the screen. The way he portrays the difficulties he has faced throughout his lifetime and the things he has witnessed from so many centuries were immensely narrated. The Sub-Mariner ages slowly as we see that he was born in the year 1571 and still looks like in his mid-thirties. And the fantastic action sequence Namor has while fighting against Wakanda was an event to watch out.
At last in the mid-credit scene, we see that Shuri visits Nakia to complete the last rituals of mourning. As told by her mother, Shuri burns the clothes she wore on the funeral of her brother and her mother. And as we see Shuri grieving near a fire-pit, Nakia arrives with a little kid and introduces him to Shuri. We see that the 6 or 7 year old kid is the son of T’Challa and Nakia. And Nakia has named him after his father, and now the kid’s name is also T’Challa, son of King and Black Panther, T’Challa.

“I was blinded by hope.” -Namor

5 things I Liked about the movie:

The movie keeps the viewers emotional from the beginning until the end. It felt like the most perfect movie we have watched in the entire Phase Four. Here are my picks on what I liked about the movie.

1. The emotional aspect and intensity of the movie were perfectly handled by the director. We depth of loss of T’Challa hits really hard to every viewer. And then we feel what Queen Ramonda has been going through, the sheer pain and tragedy Ramonda and Shuri have been facing. And then the death of Queen Ramonda makes the viewer feel the helplessness of Shuri.
2. The character development of Shuri and Ramonda was really well portrayed on the screen. We see how they still work for their nation despite the loss and mishappenings they face. We see how the entire Wakanda as a unit collects themselves whenever there was a tragedy happening. Whether it was the loss of Black Panther, or when Namor and Talokans flood Wakanda, and even when the Wakandians have to shift after the warning by Namor to protect the entire community of Wakanda.
3. After a long time, we get a Marvel movie where they treat their viewers as a mature enough audience. The Geo-Political aspect that is carried in the movie shows us a bigger perspective of the entire world towards Wakanda. The movie showed us how other countries were using and extracting wealth from Wakanda in the rough phase, instead of helping the nation.
4. Action sequence of the movie was well choreographed. As Wakandians faced the Talokans, there was hardly any advantage the Wakandians had as the Talokans weapons was also made with vibranium.
   The scene where Namor invades Wakanda was the absolute best action sequence in the entire movie. Namor flying around from one point to another and with the speed and agility he had was really mesmerising to watch.
   Also, the final fight between the Wakanda and Talokans on the ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was really well choreographed. We see fighter of every tribe from Wakanda uniting together to fight against Talokans. The army of Dora Milaje hanging on the side of the ships and fighting against the Talokans climbing up from the ocean was really enjoying.
   Along with that, Shuri fighting Namor showed us that even though Shuri has become Black Panther now, but she still lacks the experience of fighting in the battleground. But the rage and rebeliousness inside Shuri is what keeps her going despite getting stabbed by Namor.
5. Danai Gurira as Okoye, the former Dora Milaje and now the Midnight Angel of Wakanda deserves as many praises as she can. Give Danai Gurira any weapon, whether it is a Japanese Sword in AMC’s TV Series – The Walking Dead, or a spear in the Black Panther and more projects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
   She suffered because duty and role assigned to her in the first movie when Erik Killmonger became the Black Panther as she could not oppose him and later even had to give up on her husband and his wishes to remove T’Challa as Black Panther.
   In Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, she lost her King to the snap of Thanos (Josh Brolin).
   And now, Queen Ramonda removes Okoye from the role of General of Dora Milaje as she failed to save Shuri from the Talokans army who took her to Talokan to Namor.

“He was King, Black Panther to everyone, but to me… he was everything.”
-Nakia

5 things I Disliked about the movie:

The movie was well made but it still had some minor issues that could have been improved or made better.

1. The final fight between Shuri and Namor could have been better. We hardly get to see how Namor is attacking the new Black Panther. Yes, the director shows us Shuri’s point of view in that fight but still it could have been shot better.
   And later, after all the struggle and suffering, all Shuri did to Namor was tear his wing and made an alliance with him.
2. The character development of Attuma and Namora should have been done better. The two friends of Namor are hardly introduced to us, and we hardly know what role do they play in the life of K’uk’lkan.
3. In the Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Bruce Banner introduces Wakanda to the Marvel universe, we saw in the map that the country of Wakanda is in the middle of the African continent, but somehow in this movie we see that Wakanda also has a sea shore. Now this is a mystery for all the viewers who have been following MCU for a long time now. No one knows if this question will ever be answered by the director, or writers of the movie, or even Kevin Feige.
4. We see that the vibranium detector plays a significant role in the unraveling of the plot in the movie. Still, we hardly know how the science project of a college student got into the wrong hands, and for whom was the vibranium extracted. Was it extracted for the US Government, Kingpin, or maybe someone like Doctor Doom who we could potentially see in the upcoming movie, Fantastic Four?
5. In the third act, we see that Riri Williams makes a new suit for herself with vibranium that is given to her by Shuri. But the CGI of the Ironheart suit looked really bad. It hardly felt realistic, and instead, the Ironheart suit looks cartoonish. Remebering the suit of Mark-II suit from the first Iron Man movie was the best CGI work I have ever watched. You could see every bolt, minor scratches on the suit. But the vibranium suit Riri Williams had in the movie was really bad.

“Are you going to be Noble like your brother, or take care of the business?”
-Erik Killmonger

Future of Black Panther and Marvel Universe:

As we see the son of T’Challa at the end of the movie, we won’t be seeing the Young Black Panther anytime soon as the character is hardly 6 year old currently in the MCU. So there is still time, at least 10 years time span in the MCU before we see him.
As for Shuri being the Black Panther, we won’t be seeing her as well for sometime as the actress, Letitia Wright said an interview that after the loss of the actor Chadwick Boseman, she is currently not ready to claim that mantle yet.
And for now, the King of Wakanda is M’Baku, from the Jabari tribe. Also, there are rumours that there is a special series being developed for Okoye, showing us her past life and adventures. And maybe, we might even get to see her as the Midnight Angel as well.
Now moving onto Namor, we don’t know when could we get to see him next.
At last, we will soon be getting to watch Riri Williams, aka Ironheart in her stand alone series on Disney Plus, in the Fall of 2023.

It’s Review Time rating-
8/10

“Wakanda Forever”