Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: A healing tribute to Chadwick Boseman

Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, released on Friday, is the second of the movie franchise since the death of the Black Panther himself, Chadwick Boseman.

The highly anticipated movie pays tribute to the actor, who died in August 2020 of colorectal cancer, with a funeral for the character of King T’Challa.

The movie mirrors the actor’s death as the character is mentioned to have died of health issues, creating an environment for the audience to grieve both the loss of Boseman and Black Panther. 

For the fictional land of Wakanda, the death of their protector and superhero leaves them vulnerable throughout the movie as other countries try to steal their valuable Vibranium resources.

New characters are introduced such as Namor (Tenoch Huerta), a being with winged-feet who shoots up from the ocean, marking the starting point of the film’s core drama.

Before eventually becoming the main protagonist, he asks for help from Shuri and Queen Ramonda to retrieve a scientist responsible for building a machine found in the ocean in his kingdom of Talokan.

Wakanda Forever builds on elements that made the first movie so iconic, guiding fans through mysterious new civilisations, high action scenes, car chases and skilled fights between characters.

Emotion is a key element that drives the audience to keep watching the movie that runs to 2h 41mins.

The film is the Marvel cinematic universes’ second longest movie after Avengers: Endgame which runs to 3h 2mins.

After the killing of other members of her family, in a fight which saw Wankanda invaded by the Talokanians, Princess Shuri is left mourning yet again.

She contemplates her actions built on her anger but then has a realisation that there should be a successor to the previous Black Panther that keeps her brother’s legacy alive.

The first Black Panther, with its tightly coiled plot and craftily directed action sequences, set a standard that Wakanda Forever did not meet this time.

Tasked with redesigning a plot due to unexpected tragedy and real world setbacks, and with developing new characters, moving away from the comics, the film nonetheless does manages to captivate the audience’s emotions.