Black Panther

Wait. Hang on a minute. You mean, a superhero film with black people in it can be just as good as the ones with white people. Well, bugger me silly!

The Partially Educated Review

I don't think there'll be a more important film released this year than Black Panther if only from a point of view of the impact this should (I don't trust the industry well enough to write “will”) have on blockbuster cinema as a whole. In the end though, the biggest trial facing Black Panther was always going to be the same as any other film. Making sure that it was actually good. 

Box office returns are all well and good, but if you're churning out the next Ghost Rider, then the fan reception is always going to overshadow any financial successes and those reactions can sometimes be brutal enough to derail a franchise. God knows that was the last thing we needed here. Not much need to worry there though, because Black Panther is one of the absolute best Marvel films released to date.

The key thing here is the cast. All of them are outstanding; from Chadwick Boseman to Michael B. Jordan and those who I had no familiarity with such as Danai Gurira and Winston Duke. If those names aren't being used as marquee names over the coming years; Hollywood, you have officially f**ked up! I feel kind of bad for not mentioning the rest of the cast, but cast lists are what iMDB is for. Safe to say, everyone pretty much kills it here and they do that whilst experiencing all the same emotions that white people do.

There's one more name that definitely needs mentioning though. Ryan Coogler. A man who I love and hate in equal measures. I love him because he has become one of the most deservedly respected directors working today. He's done that by knowing that the key to any great film is making sure that you put your performances at the forefront and create around them. I hate him because he's only a year older than me and has already released a film that's set the box office alight. Which kind of outweighs it for me. This one's for you, Coogler!

That aside; the world of Wakanda that he has created feels rife with possibilities. It's inevitably the culture change that makes Black Panther stand high when you realise that the plot isn't straying that far away from the Marvel template. You know the action sequences are going to be spectacularly brilliant, just as much as you know that Stan Lee's going to appear at one point (and let's not be mean to a 95 year old man having a bit of a laugh). With the amount of these films coming out seemingly increasing every year, it's always the ones which give you something different that will rise to the top. The real test now is whether they can keep this going.

EIGHT out of 10