February 16, 2018, - 4:37 pm
Black Panther: Affirmative Action for Superhero Movies
Unlike most other movie critics, I don’t believe in affirmative action in movie reviews. You don’t get graded on a race scale. And that’s why I’m not raving about “Black Panther,” in theaters today. It’s at best a middling, unremarkable superhero flick. It’s definitely nothing to gush over.
In a rare move for me (I think I’ve only done this twice before), I gave Black Panther a second look. When I first saw it at a super secret critics screening on Tuesday afternoon, I was tired from staying up late, getting up early, and working hard. Sitting in one of those reclining LazyBoy-esque movie theater chairs, I fell asleep quite a few times while watching this. Though I thought my slumber was because “Black Panther” was overlong (it’s nearly two hours and twenty minutes), poorly edited, dragging, and boring, I decided to give the movie a second chance after I’d had more sleep. So, I went to go see it a second time, last night. Same reaction: it made me sleepy because the movie is a bore. It’s overstuffed. And the plot isn’t all that great. It’s not the worst superhero movie I’ve seen, but it’s definitely not the best. It’s average, with some not so vague Black supremacist and anti-American overtones thrown in.
Yes, the gushing and drooling over this, that has been proclaimed by orthodox liberal movie critics and all of the establishment kings and queens of pop culture, is a lie. They are intellectually dishonest. They know this movie is blah. They know there’s nothing spectacular about it. If this were The White Panther, they would pooh-pooh it and give it average reviews. But White liberal movie critics have White guilt. Their hyperbolically effusive reviews of this movie are just like their votes and raves over Barack Obama–they like it because of the skin color involved–the skin color of the superhero, just as with the skin color of the then-Presidential candidate and, ultimately, President. White guilt and Black racism are no small factors in the crazy overhyping of this movie and the long crazy lines I saw for the movie in two theaters last night. It’s their chance to vote for Barack and Michelle all over again.
Black supremacist? Yes, the very beginning of the movie contains a short narration about the fictional nation of Wakanda. We are told that this Black African nation is the most technologically advanced, by far, in the world. They are great, while the Western world of White guys is a bunch of fighting, strife-filled jerks. This is laughable (as is the claim I’ve heard from some media figures, who claim this country that only exists in comic books and a movie, is the response to Donald Trump’s “s–thole countries” comment; um, they do realize this is fiction and the place doesn’t really exist, right?). In real life, as we all know, Africa is mostly Third World, backward, and technologically behind. And all of its technology comes from us–the Western world. But this movie pretends otherwise, and since it’s Black history month, that’s the arrogant and completely fictional history people will take from this movie–“history” created, I might add, by two old White male Jewish guys named Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (the far-left Lee makes his usual Marvel movie cameo appearance in this one). Who knew America would be rushing to see a movie that mirrors Black supremacist Louis Farrakhan’s racist “Mothership” fantasy?
Moreover, the bad guy in this movie, Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), is a Black former Navy SEAL, who wants to start a race war. He says that America taught him to kill the poor people of Iraq and Afghanistan (as if we were the bad guys and so are all the American men and servicemen who served there) and taught him to “kill my brothers and sisters” in Africa. That’s crap. America went to war in Africa, recently (or ever)? News to me. (And please don’t cite Somalia to me. That wasn’t a war.)
It’s funny to see Black America cheer this movie in which the hero tries to stop a villain who wants race wars; when the majority of Black Americans support Black Lives Matter and other groups and leaders (Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, etc.), whose very existence is all about starting and continuing race wars. If only the audience cheered the destruction of race pimps and race warriors in real life. But in real life, they side with the race pimps and wannabe warriors.
I also hated the collectivism of this movie. It’s a kind of superhero Communism. The movie isn’t really about a single superhero a la Superman or Captain Marvel. Instead, the message is anti-individualism. One person never saves the day. The Black Panther a/k/a T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), who comes from Wakanda and becomes its king, has a host of characters in this “It Takes a Village” superhero flick. There are bizarre shaved-head Black women with spears and costumes that resemble a mix between African tribal garb and uniforms of the Beefeaters at Buckingham Palace. They have magical powers and great fighting skills with their spears. (The chief spear woman is played by Danai Gurira, whom I love as Michonne in “The Walking Dead.”) Then, there is also T’Challa’s ex-girlfriend and his sister. They are fighting superheroines, too. Together, they all combine to defeat Killmonger and stop him from using vibranium–the strongest, most superior substance on Earth, which, of course, comes from Wakanda–to perpetrate his race wars and rule the world.
There are a few comments in the movie by the Black Panther, about how he wants to open his country to refugees from around the world and help them. And there are comments against a wall. Um, no thanks. Keep your comments to yourself, comic book king.
As with many Black movies I’ve seen lately, there’s one token dopey White friend here: an inept CIA agent played by Martin Freeman of Bilbo Baggins “Hobbit” fame. He’s mostly an idiot, but he’s accepted and “okay” because he’s on the side of the Black superheroes, so they tolerate him.
There is also the issue of CGI–computer-generated images–upon which this movie relies heavily. Nothing wrong with that, as many superhero movies employ them. But the CGI stuff here was amateurish, obvious, and looked very fake–like it was from 15 or 20 years ago. Not up to snuff. And I hated the fact that the movie seems to play the beat of African drums every single second. It’s enough to give anyone a headache. Even a tribal king needs to watch a movie in peace.
Ryan Coogler, who directed this movie, has a race axe to grind. As I’ve noted on this site before, he attained his stardom by making “Fruitvale Station,” the Black Lives Matter movie which lies about a violent criminal and drug-dealing lowlife who was shot by police. The criminal is portrayed as an angel, the innocent police as scum. Then, he made what I call “Black Rocky,” officially known as “Creed” (read my review). This is the latest in his chain of race-based movies (all of which have involved Michael B. Jordan in the lead or in a major role). And it’s also a strong sign of his conceit: his inability to edit what is an overstuffed mess and cut it down to size. This movie could have been 45 minutes shorter.
There are some things I liked about this movie. I liked that the movie had stark good versus evil and didn’t blur the lines as far too many movies do, these days. Also, the costumes and the jewelry were incredibly cool and interesting (the movie was very high on style, much lower on substance and story though). I also liked that the United Nations has apparently moved out of the U.S. to Vienna, Austria. If only. And finally, I did like that the Black Panther and his gang of co-superheroes killed Islamic terrorists in a scene toward the beginning of the movie.
I didn’t completely hate Black Panther. I just didn’t love it. Or even like it much. After I saw it (both the first AND the second times), I said to myself, “That’s a whole lotta nothin’.”
I don’t give movies better reviews just because the cast has more melanin in their skin than I do. This movie is Exhibit A that everyone else seems to grade on a sliding skin complexion scale.
Don’t believe the hype. Black Panther is more like Slack Panther.
***
PS, the pretend conservatives at Never-Trumper National Review think this mediocre race movie is just fabulous. William F. Buckley is turning over in his grave.
ONE MARX PLUS TWO OBAMAS PLUS TWO MICHELLE LAVAUGHN ROBINSON HUSSEIN OBAMA IDI AMIN DADAS PLUS ONE AL SHARPTON PLUS ONE JESSE JACKSON
Watch the trailer . . .
Tags: Black Panther, Black Panther movie, Black Panther movie review, Black Panther review, Chadwick Boseman, Danai Gurira, Erik Killmonger, Jack Kirby, Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler, Stan Lee, superhero movies, T'Challa, vibranium, Wakanda, white guilt
We need you back on Twitter, Debbie.
guy on February 16, 2018 at 7:17 pm