Why does there have to be some politically correct thing in there at all? Why can't black people can be depicted doing high-tech advances and cutting edge technology without trying to layer something else on top of it? The movie was revolutionary in how it depicted black people having these advanced weapons and super special effects without the Stepenfetchit stereotype eating watermelon. It was revolutionary for showing a strong black leader, and strong black lesbian figures among the all female bodyguard. No such characters have ever been seen before on the screen. And yes it did give the Panthers props. So what? They were the strongest most advanced black group in the 1960s, which is why J Edgar Hoover had to take them down, like Wakanda and Killmonger, a threat to the establishment. All this is revolutionary on the screen, which upsets those who want 'respectable' jig and wig fare from the likes of Tyler Perry.
I can't see the much touted "revolutionary" character of the film. If by "revolutionary" you mean
that an African country has never been portrayed in a major American movie like Wakanda, high technology
versus the standard primitive place with refugee camps, in that sense maybe, but many pundits were talking
much broader than that. A TIME reviewer gushed that Wakanda is
“what America looks like when it’s allowed
to be its truest, freest self.” Huh?
ANd I didn;t see the special effects as all that- solid action but effects so-so. The flyover in the Wakanda aircraft
wasn't that special- lots of scifi movies do that better- and you never get to see the super-weapons that Killmonger
is supposed to start shipping around the globe to help the oppressed. A majority of the Wakanda weapons seem
passive/defensive type, like Tchalla armor and SUri Kimoyo beads compared to the big firepower of other characters
in other Marvel movies like Guardians of the Galaxy have. Even the Avengers Infinity war alien invasion scene,
the Wakandan warriors go into battle with low-tech spears while Buckie and the Racoon guy get the big firepower
and Thor gets the big blaster of Mjolnir. Iron Man and/or pals has all kinds of cool firepower in their flying
armor sets, and even Bruce Banner gets HulkBuster armor. But all Wakanda shows up with is stabbing spears and swords.
Yes there had to be some hand to hand- that's a Marvel thing on the comics, but where are the high tech weapons
you talking about?
Need higher tech.. whud up y'all?
And the movie repeats a number of stale stereotyped tropes. FIrst you have the "naive black militants" trope
represented by Killmonger, with crazy world domination plans, killed off or smacked down by "responsible" negroes
represented like T'challa. Second how come the white guy, a CIA agent of all things, Everett Ross, gets to save the
day by shooting down the missile at the last moment? In the print comic he sometimes seems like the Black Panther's
"handler" as the Panther shows up like a good corporate functionary at the UN and so on. Tchalla seems like
a "handled" corporate non-profit manager in the globalist order in the end. Given negative CIA histories in the
Congo and elsewhere in Africa, including support of the apartheid regime, the white CIA guy gets to be the hero
but the revolutionary black nationalist guy gets killed off by another soul brother?
And as far as the "outreach" program of Wakanda, wIth so many other better possibilities and scenarios, Tchalla
gonna go to Oakland to do Boys/Girls CLub type youth basketball? WHy not build a high-tech factory in the black
areas providing hundreds of jobs? Or academies of Wakandan martial arts and weaponry? Now that would have been
something different.
Speaking of technology how come the mystery super weapons t help the oppressed are first being shipped to Asia rather
than being deployed right there in Africa where there are plenty of oppressed people to liberate, and corrupt regimes
to clean up? But they goona go to Asian Hong Kong first thing? Scratch head.. And Grace Jones pioneered the strong black
lesbian type years ago in film.
A much more interesting scenario is in the Black Panther animated series Reginald Hudlin did back in the Bush
Admin which shows an INDEPENDENT Black Panther, unhandled by anyone, defying the US, kicking Captain America butt,
taking on racists in the US defense establishment, and handling their own business with loads of tech. But a movie
along those lines would really have shaken things up too much. See below- a super series BET ran back in the day. A
truly kick ass Panther visioning.
