Black Panther (2018), dir Ryan Coogler

Is this a spoilers thread now asking for a me

spoiler: Susan B Jordan is sexxy in this film

2 xy for Mike thirst

FUCK i meant michael b jordan
my brain fucks up his name all the time & it sucks bcz i have loved him forever

michael b *jordan* thirst is real

holy shit @ Susan b Jordan

Are you

koogin yr jords

would u say xp

the scene between him & sterling k brown killed me, so good

Danai Gurira flying around kicking ass in that red dress in the casino was stellar. So many great women in this movie!! Ugh. Heaven.

sidebar: my coworker was college roommates with exec producer Nate Moore

theater was packed at our noon showing which was awesome

HUGE cheer for the “Oakland 1992” title card

Yeah when that happened and Too Short started playing, you kinda felt the theater click into place.

yeah that was the cherry on top for sure

This has to be the only time I’ve known exactly what the credits scenes would be, not because I’d heard in advance what they were but because it was well telegraphed exactly what would have to happen...

― mh, Friday, February 16, 2018

yeah the setup for the second stinger in particular was very nicely done

Took the kids tonight, we all had a fine time. At one point the (African-American) woman sitting next to me turned to her companion and said, "This is some groundbreaking shit." Really felt like it too -- as familiar as all the superhero trappings are, it makes a big difference to a.) set it mostly in mythical Africa and b.) have pretty much everybody on screen except Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis be black. Loved Wakanda, it's totally the realization of 50 years of Afrofuturism. Great cast, and Ryan Coogler sure knows what he's doing.

i loved when they'd wake up after drinking the flower juice and they were in herbie hancock album covers. that was dope.

I want Danai Gurira to beat me up.

"This is some groundbreaking shit." Really felt like it too -- as familiar as all the superhero trappings are, it makes a big difference to a.) set it mostly in mythical Africa and b.) have pretty much everybody on screen except Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis be black. Loved Wakanda, it's totally the realization of 50 years of Afrofuturism.

based on comics from 46 years ago

the breakthrough is when sun ra's band switched from fezzes to egyptian headgear

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5_it5HlEe6Q/Uy5yahccQNI/AAAAAAAACBY/aiofmgzVTV4/s1600/Sun-Ra-fez.jpg

In my twitter I have mostly seen negative takes, mostly of the this is US imperialism variety.

This is in that mode, and was one of the more convincing:

Black Panther is a deeply evil film. It dangles the idea of global black liberation in front of you, paints that as villainous, then ends in an orgy of the freest black people to ever walk the earth slaughtering each other to protect whites. That shit turned my stomach.

— L. (@leslieleeiii) February 17, 2018

Yeah there are obvious limits to the radicalism of corporate superhero movies. (And with the movie playing out a cartoon version of Martin vs Malcolm, there’s never any question about its sympathies.) But anti-spectacle lefties tend to underestimate the value of representation.

A reason I warmed to what he was saying is that he also likes Blade

the notion that blade has better politics seems… strained

sorry ur twitter peeps didn’t get the Inglorious Panther they were expecting

the point twitter is trying to make is undercut a bit by the fact that the on-screen characters come to the same conclusion

ie, they realize they're fighting their own community due to manipulation by their new king and immediately stand down.

based on comics from 46 years ago

Which were groundbreaking too. But obv there's an enormous gulf between a comic aimed at a subset of superhero readers -- a niche of a niche -- and a big-bash Hollywood spectacular that has probably already been seen by more people than have read a Black Panther comic in the past 50 years.

I mean, it’s never clearly spelled out but the implication is that Killmonger’s plan isn’t about justice at all, and is purely about revenge and power, is there. And he pretty much acknowledges he doesn’t care how Wakanda or any country ends up, he just wants to destroy the current world

yeah, the multitude of governments he destabilized elsewhere weren't really done in the name of liberation

the more I think about this take the more garbage it is.

bloody revolution isn’t painted as villainous - it’s painted as sympathetic, even justified, and deeply self-destructive

nobody slaughters anyone in the 3rd act bunfight - somehow with all those edged weapons flashing around not a drop of blood is shed, all downed vehicles seem to be piloted by remote, and the fight literally stops short on a sloppy tongue kiss.

If there’s a case to be made that Black Panther is a deeply evil film (and I sympathize with the tweeter’s distress while yes laughing my balls off at the hyperbole) we could look at its explicit valorization of American-style economic and cultural imperialism

lol xpost coulda just said Neanderthal otm

i do think we're obviously meant to sympathize with Killmonger. he was left fatherless in Oakland in a year that was particularly volatile regarding race relations. some of what he says inspires T'Chaka to change his nations non-interventionist politics.

Killmonger's heel turn isn't him wanting to free the oppressed, it's that he let his politics get muddy along the way. he acts more like an autocrat than a liberator, destroying all of the vibranium plant to ensure he'd never be overthrown in a challenge (since now there would be no Black Panther reward).

he also sows division among his own people and inspires the natives into civil war.

*T'Challa

while we’re on the topic of imperialism and revolution, in a weird way I think the museum scene is my favorite thing in this movie

i want to see the welsh exhibit, where all the weapons are made of LEEKS

just got out of this

fucking loved it holy shit

rank it alongside the nolan batmans

i mean it’s no dark knight rises obv

so many performances of nuclear-grade charisma from actors we’d only usually see rationed out to supporting performances here and there

just a delight from start to finish, with a totally compelling central conflict

Flagging whoever mentions Nolan.

they did kinda have incepted dreams

BG otm but also so many worthwhile roles. no one is stock, no one is rote. the care and the *sweat* that went into making each speaking part *worthwhile* for the actor who would play it shames most of the big popcorners of the past idk, 20 years?

Alfred also otm gtfo with nolan

so many great roles for women too, and they play a key role in wrapping up the conflict

yeah the gender politics are as central as the racial, just not stated as explicitly

so the guys at breitbart like this one

i dislike all superhero movies and am only interested in seeing this for kendrick soundtrack in a theater, haven't seen anyone mention it itt. anything?

it's there, but seldom takes center stage

my prediction that it'd barely be in the film was luckily wrong, it's in there! the symphonic score is pretty well-placed, too

so many performances of nuclear-grade charisma from actors we’d only usually see rationed out to supporting performances here and there

Totally otm, loved this.

Also loved hearing a bit of Mozzy's "Sleepwalkin" towards the end. And loved basically everything else

the soundtrack is barely present. Disappointingly so, I thought

I thought this was...fine. It was fun to see all the cast getting stuck into these roles (and I thought Michael B. Jordan's last scene was genuinely moving) but as a film qua film I thought it was just above Marvel standard

the rhinos were a misstep

It made sense as a choice for the soundtrack to be more prominent in the outside world, but give way to the score in isolated Wakanda