War as an extension of politics – a review of the film “Black Panther. Wakanda in my heart”

Memory of Chadwik

In my opinion, this film has to be considered in two categories. The first is, of course, the theme of the war between Wakanda and Talokan, and the second is an attempt to say goodbye to actor Chadwick Boseman. This truly exceptionally talented artist portrayed the character of T’Challa in four Marvel Infinity Saga films in a unique way – we got the king of an African country who must face his father’s demons, and at the same time follow in his footsteps and become a superhero. Every Marvel fan remembers this outstanding performance, so it’s no wonder that it was hard to replace this actor with someone else who would take the role of T’Challa. Therefore, the theme of saying goodbye to this character is important in this film, and therefore we can observe how individual characters deal with his loss and go through the stages of mourning.

Returning to the war, however, it is the result of Wakanda’s access to vibranium opening up to the outside world, which cannot be fully understood by the ruler of the underwater kingdom, which uses the same raw material – Namor. His character is reminiscent of Thanos and, like him, he wants to realize his ideas at all costs, for the “honorable purpose” – to protect his subjects. Tenoch Huerta as the MCU ‘s new antiheroworks really well, especially since its interpretation is even more interesting than the comic book original. We are dealing with a ruler of flesh and blood, who has two faces – gentle and ruthless. Well, I think it’s a much-needed film in these times when we have an armed conflict just around the corner. Thanks to such images as this one, we can stop for a moment and give an account of the enormity of evil that this cataclysm does.

Hispanic representation

Just as Wakanda is the embodiment of the indigenous culture of Africa, Talocan is a representative of pre-Columbian cultures. However, I do not suspect that suddenly all Latinos will go out on the streets and greet each other with gestures of Talokan residents, as African Americans did with the T’Challa sign after the premiere of Black Pantherin 2018. Why? Well, Ryan Coogler didn’t do his homework on Mesoamerican culture and we got a big mix-up with a tangle that can hurt in places. We got a mixture of Mayans, Aztecs and Toltecs, where even the language is not uniform, because you can hear Nahuatl and Maya. It’s a pity, because a more interesting device was used in Wakanda, where the population, apart from English, uses Bantic xhoso. Certainly, the inconsistency of Talocan cultural identity takes away the joy of communing with this world. However, that’s not all!

When the underwater kingdom is presented to the viewer, in the background there is … horror, Spanish music, and a few minutes earlier Namor outright condemns the Spanish colonizers. Yes, also in this film the subject of colonization and destruction of old civilizations by the white man is mentioned quite often, but in a slightly bad tone. After all, it was the Spanish conquistadors who were angry, or maybe not, because their grandsons make great music. Little consequence. On the other hand, the Talocans are blue and look like the inhabitants of Pandora from Avatar. Is it cost cutting at Disney?

It is also worth noting that the entire film was set in a rather dark aesthetic characteristic of DC. Sam Talocan – the underwater city is shown as cold but intriguing. Also on the surface, many camera shots play with the darkness. Sometimes it was very disturbing because there was little to see. The same can be said about the script – the main plot, which is war, can’t be anything sweet. There is also little room here for such characteristic jokes for Marvel. The brutal attacks of Namor and the new Black Panther show how hatred drives people to make often ill-considered and tragic decisions. I was secretly hoping that the name of the ruler of the underwater kingdom would be translated as in the comic book – “Vengeful Son”, but here the creators played with the Spanish language – Namor as an abbreviation of“El niño sin amor” , or the child without love . An interesting, albeit slightly far-fetched concept.

Light and dark sides

My review of the latest MCU movie is certainly not as outstanding as the first part, but it remains perhaps the best part of the fourth phase for me. And although the picture itself could be wordy in places like Star Wars prequels , the scenes of friction between the Wakandians and Talocans were truly impressive, matching the clash with the Avengers with Thanos in Infinity War.The almost three-hour screening passed in the blink of an eye. On the other hand, there was no catchy musical theme and development of some characters. I get the feeling that introducing Riri Williams was just to make her the McGuffin of the whole screen story. In fact, that’s what her whole role boiled down to, which is a pity, because she played the first violin in this story. The same goes for Namor’s allies Namora and Attum. While the latter had a purpose in the whole story, the heroine’s story brought practically nothing. Even better came the appearance of secondary characters from previous films, also only a few minutes old. They played a truly pivotal role in shaping the future of the film franchise. It is worth noting, however, that Letitia Wright shows off the best acting game,

Summing up the anniversary (thirtieth) title of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is needed for its further development and will certainly satisfy the hunger of viewers who have had the opportunity to complain about poor productions over the past few months.

For the movie Black Panther. Wakanda in my heart, we invite you to the Cinema City cinema chain !