Black Panther: Wakanda Forever picks up the story from the first Black Panther (2018) and the aftermath of Wakanda in a world without a protector! Ryan Coogler returns to direct, provide the story and co-wrote the screenplay. The other screenwriter is Joe Robert Cole, Coogler’s collaborator on Black Panther also wrote and directing his own drama, All Day and a Night (2020). Shuri (Letitia Wright) enters her lab saying, “Bast, help my brother.” Wakandan belief has the Egyptian warrior goddess, Bast. Wright is in the drama, Aisha (2022) and also Death on the Nile (2022). We hear the A.I. voice of her assistant, Griot (Trevor Noah) who was also heard in the first movie. She is trying to recreate the heart-shaped herb (which had given the Black Panther his powers) to save the life of her brother, T’Challa.
Her mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) walks down the steps to her lab and says T’Challa is already with the ancestors! Bassett is in the first responder television drama, 9-1-1, and she was in the action movie, Gunpowder Milkshake (2021). Ramonda and especially Shuri step up to take central roles in the movie. Shuri has to struggle with the loss of her brother, her science failed, and Ramonda has to somehow fill her son’s place. There is a ceremony taking the Black Panther casket down the streets of Birnin Zana, the Wakandan capital, one of the pallbearers is Okoye (Danai Gurira). The actress completed her role as Michonne in The Walking Dead in 2020 and voiced the Dora Milaje general in three episodes of the animated series starting with “What If… T’Challa Became Star-Lord?” (2021). Chadwick Boseman’s last performance as T’Challa was in “What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath?” (2021). Okoye is developed at the beginning with a brief character arc.
The family and other members are solemn dressed in a funeral white while the rest of the city dances and celebrates T’Challa’s life. Shuri’s face is almost concealed under her cloak and she carries the Black Panther helmet. Ramonda sees the drummers play above them next to a poster of her son’s face. They set the casket down, Shuri places the helmet next to it, and a Royal Talon Fighter takes them into its hold. I’m not certain where the craft takes the casket to, a royal mausoleum?, is it hidden? The type shows Wakandan Xhosa letters that change to English informing us that it is “One Year Later” at the United Nations building in Switzerland. They are having a meeting about the use of Vibranium held by Wakanda. Present is the U.S. Secretary of State (Richard Schiff) and the French Secretary of State (Gigi Bermingham). Schiff is currently in The Good Doctor and was communications director in The West Wing.
Queen Ramonda speaks and says that the Vibranium needs to be hidden from the present nations. We move to the Wakandan Outreach Facility in Mali. Soldiers break in and then Queen Ramonda continues. A vault is opened at the facility by one of the personnel, Aneka (Michaela Coel). She created and starred in the drama, I May Destroy You and the romance film, Been So Long (2018). Her character was introduced in Black Panther #8 (2009). Inside the vault is General Okoye and the Dora Milaje! This includes Ayo (Forence Kasumba). Aneka removes her lab coat to join them using two energy knives given to her by Shuri. Ramonda remarks about “last night’s attack” and the Dora Milaje bring in the prisoners. They are dressed in black uniforms with gold collars, the new costumes by Ruth E. Carter are brilliant. This moves to the Atlantic Ocean. Two deep sea suits, the operators are Jackson (Judd Wild) and Rita Salazar (Amber Harrington), are dropped by a cargo ship.
In charge of their mission is Dr. Graham (Lake Bell). Poison Ivy is voiced by Bell in the Harley Quinn animated series and also Black Widow in What If…? The divers find a machine that struck Vibranium. This is an interesting complication, the Vibranium meteorite had struck only pre-Wakanda, but that was only in a folk tale and the five tribes didn’t have the technology to detect other sites of Vibranium. The diving lights fade and then a soldier on the cargo ship hears a song. This is similar to the siren song, the mythological creatures that drew sailors to their deaths. I wonder if this is only sung by females. Dr. Graham wants a report from Salazar and asks about Jackson. She turns to see a frayed diving cable and then screams. The soldiers start jumping off of the ship. Dr. Graham realizes what is happening and has ear plugs. She has a whistle disrupting the song from the last soldier, but he is lost to the ambush by underwater people with blue skin.
Dr. Graham shoots at them and gets to a helicopter which is pulled back! There is an undersea woman, later identified as Namora (Mabel Cadena). The character is a very early Marvel Comics character first appearing in Marvel Mystery Comics #82 (1947). In the sky is the dark figure of Namor played by Tenoch Huerta Mejía. The actor was known for the Narcos Mexico series and also starred in The Forever Purge (2021). Namor first appeared in Marvel Comics #1 (1939), two years before Aquaman! Namor's people wear the outfits of ancient Mayans. At the Wakandan river border, a boat has reached the barrier, Wakandans bring up pillars with water that they drum to open the gate. At Shuri’s lab, a pod lands with Queen Ramonda. She looks at Shuri’s new armor, the Midnight Angel Armor, they were introduced in Black Panther #1 (2016). The queen wants her daughter to recreate the Heart-Shaped Herb and then takes her away to a camp. The elephants passing by reminds me too much of Coming to America (1988).
Ramonda has taken her there to show her a ritual she used where she felt T’Challa’s hand on her shoulder. It requires her to burn her funeral gown. Shuri says she wishes the world would burn. On the moonlit river, Namor appears, and Ramonda and Shuri have Vibranium spears out. Shuri mentions to her mother that he is wearing Vibranium. Namor offers an alliance with Wakanda against the American military. He lays down a conch to contact him under water. Namor leaves and they turn to find the Vibranium detection machine. M’Baku (Winston Duke) enters the throne room with the elders. Duke was in the action comedy, Spenser Confidential (2020), and of course the Jordan Peele horror movie, Us (2019). Shuri has looked over the Vibranium machine and knows who she can contact. In Alexandria, Virginia, jogging through a forest is Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), when he faces a gnat-like drone. Freeman was in the series Breeders and the comedy, Ode to Joy (2019). Ross follows the drone and gives Shuri the location of the scientist.
Okoye volunteers to go with Shuri to protect her on the mission. Then, Ross meets the new director of the CIA. At a university at Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT, is student, Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne). The actress was in the drama, If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) and of course is the lead in the upcoming Ironheart Disney+ series. Riri is the innocent caught up in the conflict between multiple interests. Her character first appeared in Invincible Iron Man #7 (2016) and became Ironheart in Invincible Iron Man #6 (2017). Shuri goes to talk with her and Riri recognizes her. At her apartment, Riri admits she built the Vibranium detector for Metallurgy class, and then is confronted by Okoye who has brought her Vibranium spear! This is confusing, I thought the Wakandan outreach program was to help develop scientists and Riri was only found by the military? She takes them to a warehouse that stores all of her work including a cobbled together suit, so Stark Industries also didn’t notice her? Stark fully funded the student projects at MIT in Captain America: Civil War (2016). They are surrounded by CIA vehicles, Okoye escapes in Riri’s car and Shuri on a motorcycle.
Riri crashes through the roof window in her cobbled together suit (later her new suit looks almost Mecha-like, close to the comics). Okoye takes care of a pursuing car using her Vibranium spear. Shuri has detected a surveillance drone above them. Riri goes after it, but doesn’t have a breathing mask or system on her suit. She destorys the drone, but falls and manages to make it to a bridge. A whale suddenly appears, the blue people seem to have control of cetaceans, how? Namora confronts the agents while Attuma (Alex Livinalli) battles Okoye. Livinalli starred in the thriller Blind Trust (2022) and was the Shotgun Whisperer in The Walking Dead. Attuma and Namora are not really identified in the movie and no backgrounds. Later, Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) is contacted to go on a mission. Her part is short, but turns out to be very important. Namor has a flashback to his origin and the story of his people. There is some unexpected cameos and story points with only a mid-credit scene, and no end credit scene. The movie has some plot problems and is extremely long, 2 hours, 41 minutes. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever highlights Shuri, Ramonda, and Riri while they deal with the threat of Namor and his people!
Four Kimoyo Beads out of Five!
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