Real claws for celebration as Black Panther goes all 007!
Black Panther (12A) Verdict: Simply Marvellous
BACK in 1966, the year that saw the foundation of the Black Panther party of African-American activists and vigilantes in Oakland, California, Marvel Comics gave the same name to their first black superhero.
In this wildly enjoyable, standalone film — the 18th in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and more fun than some of the previous 17 combined — the two lineages are fused.
The action kicks off in 1992 in Oakland (which also happens to be the home town of director and cowriter Ryan Coogler), where a pair of men appear to be planning an armed robbery.
Suddenly, ‘two Grace Jones-looking chicks’ are at the door.
In fact, they are elite female warriors from the secretive but benign African nation of Wakanda, presaging the arrival of King T’Chaka, also known as Black Panther.
He has come to admonish his brother, a rogue Wakandan spy, in a scene that has reverberations later in the movie.
The action shifts to the present day. King T’Chaka has been assassinated, and is succeeded by his son T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman).
The colourful coronation, watched by the new king’s mother (Angela Bassett) and presided over by a wise old Merlin-type character (Forest Whitaker in fine form), is alone worth the price of admission.
As king, and Black Panther, T’Challa’s job is effectively to protect Wakanda from the outside world.
The country’s wealth depends on enormous deposits of the planet’s strongest metal, vibranium.
But T’Challa can’t afford to be reclusive.
Wakandan defences have been breached by a villainous South African mercenary called Ulysses Klaue — gloriously played by Andy Serkis, stealing scenes just as impudently as his character pinches vibranium.
The Wakandans are intent on capturing Klaue, leading T’Challa and his deadliest female sidekick (Lupita Nyong’o) to South Korea, where the villain is due to meet a CIA agent, played by Martin Freeman, in an underground casino.
It’s a treat to see Klaue again, but — spoiler alert — it’s his ruthless henchman Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) we really need to keep our eyes on.
By now, incidentally, there has been more than a nod to James Bond films, especially when T’Challa’s cheeky sister (Letitia Wright) overtly plays Q to his 007.
Yet there is far more going on here than in any Bond film. Longdead African-American leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X would recognise, in what emerges as the film’s main narrative thrust, the challenge to T’Challa’s sovereignty.
It is a manifest reference to the ideological clash between those who preached passive resistance to white supremacy, and those who urged violence.
Moreover, Coogler is plainly intent on subverting the idea that Africans are somehow second-class global citizens, which he does with cherishable style and wit.
Wakanda itself is a beguiling hybrid of traditional African culture and high-tech wizardry.
And there’s a stern warning from one of the country’s tribal chiefs, played by Daniel Kaluuya (who is among lots of talent from this side of the pond in this film) about the dangers of admitting refugees, that might as well come with a caption saying: ‘Thwack! and Pow! to you, President Trump!’