‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Relies on Black Women Leadership

 

Black Panther:Wakanda Forever film poster.

Ryan Coogler’s ability to place his art house style into a big budget Marvel film remains an incredible feat. From the special Marvel opening credits to the pivotal end, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever  respectfully tribunes the late Chadwick Boseman. Grief provides a third-dimensional component enhancing a genuine response from each important woman in T’Challa’s world on screen. Every fallen tear, every wobbled breath holds tremendous despair. Shuri, Queen Ramonda, Okoye, and Nakia express their sorrows differently, channeling their broken hearts and spirits by carrying on with individual duties. Shuri continues inventing technological devices in her lab, the very place she tried finding a cure for her dying brother. Queen Ramonda focuses on her remaining child, desperately hoping Shuri releases her pent up sadness. Okoye stays the valiant general, constantly at ready whenever her country needs strength, but her eyes shed an unhappy truth. Nakia, however, cannot even bear returning for T’Challa’s funeral, opting to make a divine purpose in Haiti teaching children nature. 

Once these four women come together, the healing can begin. 

Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and Shuri (Letitia Wright) encounter Namor. DP: Autumn Durald  Arkapaw.

Without the Black Panther, Wakanda appears weak and defenseless. The Dora Milaje remedy that foolish notion. Queen Ramonda expels regal grace and fiery authority over a U. N. Conference, telling the countries that she knows their true allegiance does not lie with Wakanda, but with their lustful hunger for Vibranium. This powerful scene showcases a commanding woman who lost two important men in her life, the two beacons meant to protect her nation, and though she must rule alone, she will do so with a clairvoyant eye and a diligent resolve. Those present in the meeting view Queen Ramonda as rude, threatening, and disrespectful. In truth, she exudes a one-time kindness offering that they should take advantage of. 

Still, a new apparent danger exists underwater, a blue people unlike anything James Cameron could create— for these people refuse to be seen, much less conquered by the colonizers. They are called the Talokan and may have come from land ancestors as far back as Mayan civilization, but the endless, abyssal sea grants them necessary shelter. Their ruler, Namor, a mutant with wings on his ankles, vows to keep that secret guarded. And somehow a young genius stands in the way. He interrupts Queen Ramonda and Shuri’s burial ritual and blackmails them to find a scientist he must kill. 

Riri (Dominique Thorne) helps Shuri in the lab. DP: Autumn Durald Arkapaw.

The humorous elements turn tears to laughter. For example, M’Baku entering meetings chomping (unrealistically) on giant rainbow carrots. The whitest song possible reintroduces Everett Ross— “Can’t Stop” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Okoye (a constant delight in her field work) provides the clipped jokes as she and Shuri approach college student Riri “Ironheart” Williams (with Ross’s help). Seems the military always heavily surveils the super smart people— probably to control or kill in the future. 

Yet, Riri is a young girl deserving to live. Namor shouldn’t be trying to kill her either. 

The Black Girl Magic trio have a wild escape sequence: Ironheart flying high in her ultra cool suit for the first time, Shuri riding solo on a motorcycle, and Okoye driving a hot red car. All seems swell until the blue crew comes through, throwing Okoye into the water (after a awesome fight), and taking Ironheart and Shuri into their undiscovered realm. Must state a million times that the underwater sequences are absolutely beautiful, seeing these gorgeous characters swimming beside epic architecture— a feast for the ages.  

However, the fact that people ship Shuri with Namor leaves room for concern. Yes, it is nice that he gave her his mother’s bracelet and showed her his home in a protective suit, but in that same soft tone, he expresses that Ironheart must die. Surely, no one finds any romance in that demented request. Or in what he later does in the film.

A reactionary Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) could not wait to throw Okoye (Danai Gurira) under a bus— or Wakandan space vehicle. DP: Autumn Durald Arkapaw. 

Meanwhile Okoye is cruelly stripped of her title and forced to live as a Wakanda citizen, leaving Queen Ramonda to trust in one person— the woman who abandoned them to their pain, Nakia. The (widow?) helps in the search for Shuri, posing as a visitor speaking Spanish at the location nearest Shuri’s whereabouts. Nakia learns of the flying man with winged feet and finds his lair; killing a Talokan before saving Shuri and Riri. Despite Shuri’s resentment towards Nakia for not coming to T’Challa’s funeral, the two women still have a very close relationship, one of genuine love and care for the other. If anyone would have saved Shuri, it would be Nakia. After all, they are as close as bonded sisters, poignantly conveyed in their every scene together. 

Namor (Tenoch Huerta) actually makes good on his threat to Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett). DP: Autumn Durald Arkapaw.

The biggest gripe is that Queen Ramonda did not have to be sacrificed in a story jam packed with emotional depth. T’Challa’s death simply lingers too great to add on another casualty. Shuri recently mourned her father and brother almost on top of each other. Shuri may be incredibly smart and technically advanced, but she is still quite young and vulnerable. She is human. Thrusting a heap of responsibility onto her before her tears run dry screams of Black women’s communal duty to hide their emotions, to put others above their sacred mental space. The queen had more to teach and to snuff out her life just to push a revenge angle— to have Erik Killmonger join Shuri’s ancestral plain— seems harsh. Namor equates a subject’s death and Shuri and Thorne’s escape to drowning an actual royalty figure— also a terrible takeaway. 

In the previous Black Panther film, Killmonger spilled insightful truths scene after scene and brought interesting points about Vibranium’s possible impact on defenseless Black people outside Wakanda. Yet fueled by a destructive nature, he killed innocent people in Wakanda that chose not to follow his orders and destroyed the purple herb so that no other Black Panthers would come after him. He would have killed Queen Ramonda herself— and Queen Ramonda’s harbored resentment of his temporary rule explodes in full force at Okoye, who had chosen then to operate as Dora Milaje general than flee. 

Namor lives up to his nickname meaning— no love. DP: Autumn Durald Arkapaw.  

Namor’s villainy mirrors Killonger’s— that bloodthirsty vengeance, the willingness to harm anyone in order to guard his underwater kingdom, eying the wrong enemy. The foe was never Wakanda. The foe will always be the meddling military involvement in all things they have yet to conquer. 

The big fight between Wakanda and the Talokan comes down to Shuri versus Namor. The bigger battle, however, is justice. How will justice be served in the era of superhero fantasy/drama? Can a young woman avenge her mother if not by combat, by law— something that does not seem to exist when two opposing worlds collide? As Namor nearly succumbs and Shuri gains the upper hand, Queen Ramonda’s ghost echoes “show them who you are,” same words she used on T’Challa in the previous film, setting up an early route to forgiveness. It is not to say that Namor should be murdered on the spot at Shuri’s hand, it is to remark on the unfairness of a Black woman’s death, that nothing in this realm can be done to truly punish Namor. Sometimes, Black women are constantly instructed to acquit those that wrong them.  

Furthermore, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever includes even more military presence than before— meaning colonizers gaining more screen time and story than necessary, taking away from the crucial matters at hand. There is the Talokan murdering military personnel, Ross and his annoying ex-wife, and other parts existing off Wakanda and Talokan— as though some screenplay interference happened here.  Even without the element of Marvel comic books, imagine a human picture with two differing cultures both unadulterated by colonialism that can build something remarkable together if only the notion of war did not stand in the way. That essentially is the narrative we should have gotten. 

And without Queen Ramonda’s death. Two funerals in a single film almost three hours long is a lot.  

Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) is the third protector of Riri (Dominique Thorne). DP: Autumn Durald Arkapaw.  

Overall, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s true highlights speak for themselves— Coogler’s direction and screenplay with Joe Robert Cole (still good elements), Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s dynamic cinematography, Hannah Beachler’s Afrofuturistic production design, Ruth Carter’s phenomenal costumes (seriously, where can one get that fabulous dress an unemployed Okoye wore?), and Ludwig Göransson s beat driven soundtrack with the fiery acting ensemble on top! Angela Bassett (first actress in a Marvel film to be Oscar nominated), Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong’o, Florence Kasumba, the late Dorothy Steel, and Winston Duke come back with newcomers Michaela Coel, Dominique Thorne, Tenoch Huerta, Mabel Cadena, and Zainah Jah (a brilliant theater actress who starred in Gurira’s Eclipsed play alongside Nyong’o).

A powerful, understated depiction of all-consuming grief.