'Wakanda Forever' Honors Both Women & Grief Beautifully
Starring Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett, Winston Duke, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Florence Kasumba
Rated PG-13
Action, Drama
Run time: 2 hr, 41 min
Directed and written by Ryan Coogler
In theaters November 11, 2022
Like a lot of people, I’m feeling a bit of the superhero fatigue. Don’t get me wrong; I’m watching everything that comes out, but the level of overwhelming excitement has faded for me lately. Walking into the theater for Wakanda Forever, my mind was doing a confusing battle between semi-ambivalence and bracing myself to absolutely sob at any tribute they include to Chadwick Boseman. The former was eradicated within minutes of the film starting. The second was proven correct at exactly the same moment. A couple of times, I did feel like it was forced in that T’Challa was passing away (tragically unavoidable after Boseman’s untimely death due to cancer), but I can’t fault that. For all the good things I can - and will - say about this movie, Coogler was able to work in tasteful and emotional tributes to the incredible actor behind Black Panther to great effect.
At first, the timeline isn’t evident, but that isn’t what’s important. Wakanda is in a tailspin, with Shuri (Wright) trying frantically to use her intelligence and her country’s incredible technology to save her brother before a mystery illness takes him. We learn very quickly that it wasn’t enough, and Wakanda finds itself without a protector. And while they mourn, Namor (Huerta), a leader of an underwater nation that had flown underneath the radar, makes his way into the country undetected to tell them something shocking: not only is there Vibranium outside of Wakanda, but a young scientist in the United States (Thorne) has made a detector that can locate any deposits of the invaluable element. This discovery not only puts the Wakandans - and their monopoly on Vibranium that provides a degree of security - at risk, but Namor’s people, because the metal was found in the depths of the ocean. Shuri and her mother (Bassett) are torn on how to handle this information, and a lot of difficult decisions have to be made. Granted, there’s a lot more to this than that, but to preserve as much of this movie as I can, I’ll leave it there.
Wakanda Forever embodies something that Marvel does exceedingly well - the grey areas. Despite this being a sci-fi/fantasy world where superheroes consistently save the day, it highlights that rarely are things black and white. It isn’t just good and evil. Namor is a villain in his methods, to be sure, but when he lays out his grievances and motivations….he kinda has a point. And this holds true on the “good” side of the equation. Shuri is - rightfully - deep in grief throughout this movie, and she struggles with the best way to handle it. She teeters between wanting to follow in her brother’s legacy to be a good person who contributes to her country and wanting to burn the world down for all the heartache it has cost her. Her internal struggle takes on so many different forms and despite her being a precocious princess in a comic book society, she’s never been more relatable.
Just as in the first Black Panther, the core cast is almost entirely female, and that tradition is held up magnificently. These women are fully formed - they triumph, they stumble, they mourn and they celebrate. And not to trivialize anything, but they also look incredible - in appearance, of course, but especially in wardrobe. Both style and substance are at full strength, and neither outstrip the other. Moments of true, heartfelt emotions are balanced out by snarky comments and the shocking semi-twists that Marvel films have become known for. Bring tissues, settle in and don’t forget to stick around through the credits - it’s been almost two decades of these things and yet I still shake my head at the people who come to opening night screenings and peace out the second the credits begin. Have we learned nothing?