To the surprise of no one, Marvel’s latest superhero outingBlack Panther: Wakanda Foreverhas beenan absolute smash success at the box office. This is not only par for the course for a Marvel film, but also for the film’s director,Ryan Coogler. At this point in his career, each of Coogler’s films have raked in fat boatloads of cash. For major studios like Disney and Warner Bros., he’s proven himself to be a reliable hand in knowing how to draw in audiences, be it for biographical dramas, legacy sequels, or large scale franchise entertainment.
Numbers aside, Ryan Coogler has more importantly been identified as a director that brings humanity and thoughtfulness to his films that many of today’s most popular filmmakers forget. First and foremost, he’s an emotional artist, a fantastic blockbuster filmmaker second. This puts the recently releasedWakanda Foreverin an interesting place, more so than any other film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise so far. In the wake ofChadwick Boseman’stragic passing, Coogler and company had to act fast and quickly overhaul the highly anticipated sequel’s storyline in order to meet a general 2022 release window. In doing so,Wakanda Foreverhad to walk the wobbly, impossibly thin tightrope of being a tribute to Boseman, while also being an entertaining, crowd pleasing blockbuster, two acts that the film delivers upon with varying degrees of success.
Before directingWakanda Forever, Ryan Coogler had already directed three feature films. His debut feature film tells the devastating biographical story ofOscar Grant, 2013’sFruitvale Station. It’s a film that’s all about its story, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.Fruitvalehas the smallest scale that he has worked within yet and has no exciting moments to lean on like his later films, a project that proved to audiences everywhere what Coogler was about at his core — the story. Everything else comes second. This would be followed by his fantasticRockylegacy sequel/spinoff, 2015’sCreed. Here, he had room to play and prove himself as an artist that not only could tell a compelling story, but also give the crowd an entertaining movie with a weighty heart wrapped in numerous thrills, drama, laughs, and two bang-up performances fromMichael B. JordanandSylvester Stallone. It was his first step into franchise entertainment, something he would dive head first into with his third feature,Black Panther.
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WhenBlack Pantherwas released in 2018, its cultural splash was inescapable. Ryan Coogler managed to juggle fun action set pieces, solid world building for Wakanda, and some of the best character introductions that the MCU has seen even up until today. It’s still Coogler’s least emotional film, but this isn’t a bad thing. It didn’t need to have the weight of his previous films, it’s a superhero movie. That being said, no one would see the death of Chadwick Boseman coming. Those involved with the sequel’s development were unaware of the state of Boseman’s health, so until the day of his passing, plans had been to keep him in the titular role. This brought a gargantuan shift in the film’s story, leading to the unfortunate circumstances of a film whose focus is going in just about every direction possible.
There’s no way anyone would want to beput in Ryan Coogler’s shoes. He was put to the impossible task of choosing whether to move forward in the director’s chair ofWakanda Forever, and after doing so, finding the right way to handle a movie with such terrible circumstances surrounding it. Not only this, he also had the pressures of a giant corporation breathing down his neck as well as the weight of a massive franchise on his shoulders. Given the hand he was dealt, it’s hard to imagine Coogler doing better than he did. His task was an impossible one, and he should be commended for giving the movie everything he had.
It’s A Mixed Bag
Wakanda Foreveris a fascinating final product. It’s a movie that juggles emotional tributes to its flagship actor, world building within Wakanda, Talokan, and the larger MCU in general, passing the torch to Shuri (Letitia Wright) as Black Panther, introducing Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), staging epic battle scenes, setting up future MCU film and TV shows, establishing Ironheart (Dominique Thorne), and somehow, even more. Does that sound like a lot? Well, that’s because it is. While watching the movie, it’s clear where the filmmaker’s interests really lie, and where corporate strategizing was maybe implemented (rather, shoehorned in) to further set up future Marvel projects. SeenIron Man 2? You remember the problems that movie had? For some reason, the sequel to the mostly highly acclaimed film in the entire MCU is the project they decided to sacrifice in order to set up countless future projects. It’s a bummer.
The movie takes no time to jump in to the story that Coogler was clearly more interested in. The film opens in a Wakandan lab with Shuri rushing to save T’Challa’s life as his heart rate is quickly declining, ultimately resulting in his off-screen death. This is followed by a prolonged, meditative funeral segment that allows you to feel the weight of both a fictional and non-fictional passing. It’s one of the very few times that Marvel has given a film the room to unabashedly reflect reality, and in return, delivers the most emotional scene in the franchise. The first act goes on to highlight each of the film’s major players, detailing the various ways that they are individually reeling from his loss. It’s undoubtedly the most effective stretch of the film. With an opening like this, we are led to expect a somber tale that unpacks what it means for a kingdom to lose their king. This is an idea that is revisited in the second and third acts, but unfortunately, gets lost as the film goes on.Wakanda Forevershould be an introspective epic, but like a lot of franchise entertainment, ends up planting more seeds for future installments and killing off more hoards of nameless soldiers than it takes time to let us know how its titular nation continues to be affected by its king’s death.
Glimpses at the Future of the MCU
As the film moves into the second act, we as an audience end up getting thrown a thousand different directions. There might as well be studio notes pasted all over the screen with the amount of extra Marvel Comics fluff being introduced here. The new character of Ironheart is somewhat fun,Dominique Thorneis pretty fun in the role. Here, scenes feel like the backdoor pilot to her upcoming Disney+ show, simply titledIronheart.
On the other end of the spectrum isJulia Louis-Dreyfus’storyline as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, one that is unbelievably exhausting every time she reappears. What a massive waste of potential. Dreyfus is, usually, a phenomenal screen presence who should always be given the room to chew up a scene, yet only appears just to make a few jokes at the expense of Agent Ross (Martin Freeman) and occasionally make hints at setting upThunderbolts(an MCU film slated for 2024). The Ironheart character can be a bit of fun here and there, but by and large, these two subplots feel super tacked on and outside of Ryan Coogler’s vision. you’re able to feel that his heart isn’t in those parts of the movie. Their sole purpose is to set up future installments in the MCU and not focus on the emotional core of the story, and in doing so, drag the film to a snail’s pace.
In all honesty, once the movie starts to lose focus, it never quite recovers. The film culminates in a large battle between Wakanda and Talokan, with the close quarters fight between Shuri and Namor being highlighted. At this point though, despite Namor being a fairly strong character held up by a solid performance from Huerta, it’s hard to really care because the film has been too jumbled in its 2-hour, 41-minute runtime, and eventually devolves into mindless action in the film’s last 45 minutes. Lots of “woo-ing” as characters blow enemies up and little quips tossed around here and there in the “fun” finale of a movie that, ultimately, is about mourning the loss of a leader and the way a body of people recover from that. It’s just a strange tonal shift to try and end the movie in this way.
Listen, this isn’t a call for a superhero movie not to feature big, fun action set pieces, but sheesh, this is a movie that spends its first hour trudging through deeply somber territory. I like a good uplifting story as much as the next guy, but no one really ends up all that “uplifted” by the time the credits roll, the movie just sort of stumbles into a copy-and-paste default Marvel ending with Coogler seemingly nowhere to be found. It isn’t until the mid-credits sequence in which Coogler’s presence is felt again, perhaps more than any other scene in the film.
Bringing It All Back Together
After sitting through a few minutes of the film’s more stylized initial credits, like many Marvel movies, there comes a mid-credits scene. It’s as though Ryan Coogler came back onto set to put his final stamp on the film and inject the ending with a fat dose of heart. Shuri travels to Haiti to meet up with Nakia (played wonderfully byLupita Nyong’o) and it is revealed that Nakia and T’Challa had a son together. Their son, Toussaint (Divine Love Konadu-Sun), is the surprise highlight of the entire film. Toussaint is only in the movie for a few moments, yet aside from the film’s first few minutes, he’s the biggest takeaway.
Coogler stages a simple scene in which aunt and nephew get to know each other and the audience just rides with it, all while sitting next to the ocean with a beautiful sunset as a backdrop. It’s the easiest, most pleasant scene in the movie to watch, and that’s because it’s one of the few to actually have its filmmaker’s passion behind it. There’s real intent behind the writing, staging, shot composition, lighting, acting. Action set pieces are invigorating if that is what its film’s director’s specialty lies in, but they’re just not really Coogler’s bag. Of courseCreedhas great action, but those aren’t necessarily “capital A” action scenes, they’re boxing matches. Ryan Coogler specializes in the smaller moments. He’s great at telling stories that mean something to him and to the hearts of the people watching, not Disney’s shareholders.
Wakanda Forevershould have been one of the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and at times, it is. When it chooses to focus on the small scale and dial things back a bit, reflecting on the ways people grieve in the aftermath of death, it’s truly special. Ultimately, things seem to fall a bit out of Ryan Coogler’s hands and more into the hands of pre-viz teams who create entire CGI action sequences well before cameras start rolling. Superhero movies should be fun, there’s no doubt about it, but sometimes, if the right story comes along that calls for a more downbeat tone, then so be it. It’s the right story to tell. Ryan Coogler is one of the best young filmmakers working today and has proven yet again that he’s still got it. He just also had an unknown amount of studio notes to work with. Here’s hoping that his next project is a more focused, totally singular work, be itBlack Panther 3or something wholly original.
