Black Panther (2018), dir Ryan Coogler

#WakandaForever pic.twitter.com/CmJySoHFjB

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) February 21, 2018

Reading this great interview with Winston Duke, who plays M'Baku (who, btw, has the best lair in the movie, the interior decorating is insane, never mind the gorilla-supported cantilever the throne room is in), I need to know if DJP is okay with the fact that half of the cast went to Yale.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/02/winston-duke-black-panther-mbaku-interview

I mean, Yale has a bomb acting department. If I’d realized this in high school, I would have tried to go there.

Another good interview with Duke

https://www.gq.com/story/black-panther-winston-duke-interview

WARNING -- he says nice things about martin freeman

SO WEIRD.

So excellent. Just hit so many bullseyes from the start through to the end. My favorite Marvel film to date and just a damn good movie. It didn't hurt that I was part of an enthusiastic audience. Biggest applause came when T'Challa pointed out his real estate investments ( rhino hitting the brakes was the next biggest lol).

Kind of surprised nobody has pointed out that T’Challa is being another example of an overseas rich person snapping up urban US real estate and turning desperately needed affordable housing into what amounts to a massive consulate building. and in the Bay Area no less.

That is a spicy take

Searing

Am gonna check if raggett has retweeted it yet

From the Root article:

Would they use that generic African accent overused in Hollywood films?

It isn't actually answered in the article, but a friend who saw it in Addis Ababa said there was laughter the first time that T'Challa opened his mouth, as it's a mix of East and West African accents.

If we sat through Kevin Spacey in ordinary decent criminal (NB we didn't) then it's bearable

I had to look it up, but I guess the African dialect they sometimes speak is real, one of South Africa's many, and specifically the language Nelson Mandela spoke. I had just figured they made it up.

Yeah, "nearly" was a bad choice of wording, I was on my phone and had just finished donating blood platelets, sue me.

This is a good piece: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/02/black-panther-erik-killmonger/553805/

N’Jobu is killed by T’Challa’s father T’Chaka for his insubordinate attempt to end the centuries of isolation that have kept Wakanda safe.

This is an odd thing to get wrong, tho.

(in that replacing 'killed' by 'silenced' or 'nullified' would not have affected the rest of the excellent article)

i didn't really enjoy this at all. it's not particularly bad, a kids movie that didn't do much for me. i haven't seen any recent marvel movies so maybe my bar wasn't sufficiently lowered (+ expectations raised by hype)

Give it time. In the week since I saw it, it's only gone up in my estimation. It's a grower, not a shower.

The only one of these Marvel movies of the last couple years I've wanted to see a second time might be the most recent Spider-Man, and perhaps Thor Ragnarok.

Am gonna check if raggett has retweeted it yet

Tsk.

But I will share this, which rules.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-internet-s-favorite-black-panther-fans-talk-about-f-1823190395

It's all <3 but I have considered blocking u for a month maybe

Patience. I'll be talking more about Drag Race soon enough. (Like tomorrow.)

Two months, maybe

I've not seen this yet, am not even sure I will see it anytime soon, but it's been a long time a film resulted in so many interesting written pieces.

This is an interesting counterpiece to all the praise, from AfricaIsACountry.

Where all these takes lose me is that they start off with the idea that any meaningful iterations of Pan-Africanism can even exist alongside the concept of Wakanda, which by necessity must erase the reality of "Africa" even as it amalgamates and emulates it.

Black Panther comics, for that matter, have never been about the African experience - at least not to an African. Hasn’t stopped me loving them over the years but, that is loving them with an understanding of how limited the premise is as a vehicle for broad, political and cultural allegory.

https://qz.com/1210704/black-panthers-african-cultures-and-influences/

How does it erase the reality of Africa?

I'd guess in the same way that Captain America boils my country down to one tall, built, blond dude, supposedly from Brooklyn, but with no discernible accent or stereotypical Big Apple provincialism.

The triumph and tragedy of its central conceit is that it has no plausible way of interfacing with the colonial experience, i.e. that which shaped African lives and experiences more than anything else over the past century.

xp

i was looking up black comic book characters on google for future cool franchise ideas and i think i found the worst superhero name of all time: Doorman!

https://pm1.narvii.com/6327/7c196e0841012083a22ce592914a2bcdf15cfa4e_hq.jpg

Coal Tiger pretty bad too though.

http://worldofblackheroes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/coal-tiger1.jpg

Doorman is worse than Arm-Fall-Off Boy as a serious superhero name?

xp iirc he's solar energy tiger now

Clean Coal Tiger

This video of Coogler, Nyong’o, Boseman & Jordan with Eric Nam in Seoul karaokeing “All My Life” is kiiiind of life affirming imo

https://instagram.com/p/Bfg0AizjOWl/

$400 million domestic by the end of the day; I’m presuming it will become Marvel’s biggest standalone success here by the end of its run; even with adjustments for inflation only the original Avengers film will beat it out once BP hits $500 million domestic, and I’m guessing it will do that by next weekend or so. (Original Avengers earned $635 mil, $700 mil adjusted.)

saw this again. in addition to the rich characters and story, it's so damn beautiful to look at. especially the final sunset.

i saw this today (don't see most marvel films but this looked interesting). it had a lot going for it - mostly the scene-setting. kind of reminded me of prester john on krypton (though i guess most people don't know about the prester john myth these days? probably for the best that they avoided specifically mentioning it because it's problematic). just a gorgeous, gorgeous film. pacing wasn't perfect - the third act was just a series of fight scenes, pretty much gave up on any narrative momentum the film had up to that point, and worse i didn't think there was a lot of visual pop to them - the climactic fight between black panther and killmonger just gave me flashbacks to "streets of rage 3". everything leading up to that final fight scene was pretty top-notch, though.

Saw the film yesterday.
Really enjoyed it.
Wondered if there was a canonical history of Wakanda anywhere around cos I wasn't clear on how far ahead of the west they were. & would like a comparative timeline. Or is it intentionally vague.

I hear its supposed to be in East Africa so petty close to where my dad comes from. Nice.

Is that haircut on Killmonger the black equivalent of what is being called Meet Me At McDonalds now that it's been revived by teen hoodies after the same thing denoting Heavenly/Sarah fans like 30 years ago?

Does this map onto existing Black panther comics arcs or is it all new. I know the character for years but haven't read a load of his comic appearances.

Is there a bit in thsi film where people can hear each other speak when they shouldn't be able to or did I misshear a technical explanation given earlier.

https://sunjaguar.tumblr.com/post/171301708712/he-finally-took-her-to-coachella

I thought the description of how vibranium was transported by train involved a device that prevented vibration. Did I hear that right.
Thought it was supposed to be pretty much all inclusive. So does it not include sound.
Need to see that bit again after later events.

Something about not being stable in its native state. So look forward to that in Infinity War

https://gizmodo.com/can-black-panthers-vibranium-ever-be-real-1823226602

vibranium appears to absorb energy transmitted to it via particles much better than it deals with energy from waves, so presumably the sonic pressure waves around the maglev tracks are there to nullify the vibranium ores' more dangerous properties, which has the side effect of also making the black panther armor semi-useless. It's the same principle as noise cancelling headphones, but comic books.

i loved this movie and when i showed my students a clip from Bird tonight in class, I said "this is the same guy from Black Panther!" and it reminded me how much I love Forrest Whitaker.
Loved pretty much everything about this movie (and I know literally nothing about comic books or comic book movies aside from "there is DC and Marvel and they are different")

thing 1): most comic books do not have superheros in them

thing 2): every time someone on ilx says "comic books" when referring to the superhero sub-genre rather than the medium, sic will be there, like when the Cryptkeeper lights up the Archie-signal in comic book "The Walking Dead".

i knew thing one, did not know thing 2 apols for the incorrect terminology. i am not trying to be annoying, i am just this way naturally.

A few stray thoughts on the film, and I wasn't familiar with the comic.

I only said bcz LL noted that she doesn't know anything!

and she lives basically around the corner from Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti and Eddie Campbell and Jeffrey Brown and Jessica Campbell and Conor Stechschulte and Emil Ferris and Anya Davidson and Lucy Knisley and Perfectly Acceptable, could avoid some accidental awkwardness in a coffee shop