Fortunately for me, I saw the movie before I saw the trailer because I would not have gone based on the trailer. I am shocked that the director agreed to the trailer because the trailer was a classic trailer with quick clips and CGI, providing no sense of what the movie is about or how brilliantly the movie was shot, assembled and edited. In fact, I will go as far as to saw that the movie was the single best movie I have seen in my 68 years.
To best understand my reference points regarding this movie, I did not read comic books other than Archie's during my early teenage years. I do not like superhero movies and while I think that Black rights issues are very important, I tend to stay away from movies on that front. So one would think that a Black superhero movie from Marvel would be something that I would avoid like the plague. Quite honestly, I do not know why I went to see it, other than some TV commentators who seem quite conservative loved it, suggesting that my reflex impressions of the movie might be off-base. I chose to see it in IMAX, which I do only on special occasions, because Thor Raganok had such good CGI, that I thought that the CGI I expected in Black Panther would look better on a big screen. While I am so happy that I went to see it in IMAX and the CGI was the best I have ever seen, it was totally different than every other CGI enhanced movie I have seen because it is so believable.
I do not want to give away too much because the best way to see this movie is knowing little about it and just sitting back and taking it in because it is striking new territory with every frame, much like you had no choice to do if you saw the original Star Wars when it first came out. Within minutes, I knew that I was seeing something truly special, AND it was continually becoming more special by the minute. Yes, it started with a fictitious African country hit by a meteorite with a special metal with special properties that the country chose to keep a secret to preserve their ancient tribal traditions. And of course they used these special properties to secretly become the most advanced country in the world, although no other countries were aware of this, but that is where this movie and typical Marvel themes end.
Very rapidly I was reminded of how I cried when we took my kids to see Lion King musical in 1997 because of how brilliantly Disney wove the African tribal themes into musical without it being at all racial, helping me better understand these themes without the politics of the Black Pride movement. These themes were woven into Black Panther with its predominantly Black cast with little to no sense that you are watching a story about African American tribes, but rather a movie about people and the succession of power within a group of people. I also instantly thought about my reaction to seeing the first screening of the original Star Wars and knowing that this movie was all about uncharted waters with regard to its story and production values. The key difference is I am now accustomed and jaded by what Star Wars generated in the movie world and Star Wars was about the future, where, although based on a Marvel comic, this movie is about the present.
I do not use the word "brilliant" readily, because it sounds like hype and is overused, but I think it truly fits here. The movie keeps getting better as it progresses and does not at any time lose its focus. It is shear entertainment in is truest sense in that I lost total connection with realtime and was transfixed in the movie. When I realized that the movie was about to end, I thought that I must be wrong because it did not feel like 2 hours and 15 minutes had passed. After working in the movie industry helping to design TV spots and trailers for about 300 movies and helping the editors fine tune additional places to edit, I can say without hesitation, that I would not remove one second from this movie. I would however, toss the trailer because it sucks and is totally misleading.
To best understand my reference points regarding this movie, I did not read comic books other than Archie's during my early teenage years. I do not like superhero movies and while I think that Black rights issues are very important, I tend to stay away from movies on that front. So one would think that a Black superhero movie from Marvel would be something that I would avoid like the plague. Quite honestly, I do not know why I went to see it, other than some TV commentators who seem quite conservative loved it, suggesting that my reflex impressions of the movie might be off-base. I chose to see it in IMAX, which I do only on special occasions, because Thor Raganok had such good CGI, that I thought that the CGI I expected in Black Panther would look better on a big screen. While I am so happy that I went to see it in IMAX and the CGI was the best I have ever seen, it was totally different than every other CGI enhanced movie I have seen because it is so believable.
I do not want to give away too much because the best way to see this movie is knowing little about it and just sitting back and taking it in because it is striking new territory with every frame, much like you had no choice to do if you saw the original Star Wars when it first came out. Within minutes, I knew that I was seeing something truly special, AND it was continually becoming more special by the minute. Yes, it started with a fictitious African country hit by a meteorite with a special metal with special properties that the country chose to keep a secret to preserve their ancient tribal traditions. And of course they used these special properties to secretly become the most advanced country in the world, although no other countries were aware of this, but that is where this movie and typical Marvel themes end.
Very rapidly I was reminded of how I cried when we took my kids to see Lion King musical in 1997 because of how brilliantly Disney wove the African tribal themes into musical without it being at all racial, helping me better understand these themes without the politics of the Black Pride movement. These themes were woven into Black Panther with its predominantly Black cast with little to no sense that you are watching a story about African American tribes, but rather a movie about people and the succession of power within a group of people. I also instantly thought about my reaction to seeing the first screening of the original Star Wars and knowing that this movie was all about uncharted waters with regard to its story and production values. The key difference is I am now accustomed and jaded by what Star Wars generated in the movie world and Star Wars was about the future, where, although based on a Marvel comic, this movie is about the present.
I do not use the word "brilliant" readily, because it sounds like hype and is overused, but I think it truly fits here. The movie keeps getting better as it progresses and does not at any time lose its focus. It is shear entertainment in is truest sense in that I lost total connection with realtime and was transfixed in the movie. When I realized that the movie was about to end, I thought that I must be wrong because it did not feel like 2 hours and 15 minutes had passed. After working in the movie industry helping to design TV spots and trailers for about 300 movies and helping the editors fine tune additional places to edit, I can say without hesitation, that I would not remove one second from this movie. I would however, toss the trailer because it sucks and is totally misleading.
Last edited: