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BLACK PANTHER MINUS ITS HERO STILL AN ALL-ACTION SLICE OF MARVEL MAGIC
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER (M)
Director: Ryan Coogler (Creed) Starring: Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta, Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Martin Freeman Rating: ★★★★k
A king departs, a legacy arrives and a people move on
Not only was the original Black Panther a game-changing, trailblazing, rip-roaring superhero action movie.
It also rapidly became a true cultural phenomenon, and undoubtedly one of the best things to have ever carried the Marvel Comics logo.
Audiences couldn’t get enough of the noble heroism of Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa and his female-dominated fighting force of Wakandan warriors, the Dora Milaje.
Four years later, the second Black Panther arrives in a radically different movie world without its charismatic star to lead the way (Boseman will no longer to be seen as T’Challa after his death from cancer in 2020).
While Wakanda Forever never quite hits the dynamic heights scaled by its predecessor, there is no way this epic excitement machine can be tagged as a letdown. There is just too much raw energy and genuine emotion coursing through the production for it to be deemed anything else but a rousing success.
Fans of the original Black Panther will appreciate the tastefully moving way in which the charismatic Boseman has been farewelled by the franchise.
As for those Marvel devotees who have noticed the studio’s once-impeccable standards slipping in recent times, Wakanda Forever will mark a return to the top-notch fare Marvel has been generally renowned for.
As the story begins, the sudden death of T’Challa has left several nations sniffing around Wakanda’s vast and exclusive reserves of vibranium, the mystery mineral that powers the kingdom’s technical and tactical superiority.
The discovery of a new, nonWakandan source of vibranium leads to the emergence of a new enemy that will not be so easily dispatched by traditional combat.
The undersea nation of Talokan is in many ways the equal of Wakanda when it comes to great leaps forward in technical innovation powered by vibranium.
The Talokan can also protect their interests with a fighting fury that the Wakanda brains trust – led as always by the brilliant scientific mind of Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) – initially find impossible to counter.
A prime example of the Talokan’s watery warmongering ways is their leader Namor (Tenoch Huerta), an Aquamanlike demigod who is one of the most formidable and unpredictable adversaries to ever hail from the Marvel stable.
If you like your supervillains on the super side, then you will be plenty impressed and often intimidated by Namor’s work.
Speaking of being impressed, those who loved the first Black Panther will be stirred by the motivated manner in which established cast members band together to fill the sizeable void left by Boseman’s departure. Wright steps it up in an expanded role for the redoubtable Princess, and the likes of Lupita Nyong’o (as the undercover specialist Nakia), Danai Gurira (as Okoye, head of the Dora Milaje) and impressive newcomer Dominique Thorne (as Riri, a talented student inventor) all rise to the occasion in similar fashion. On a production level, Wakanda Forever is a triumph, with elegantly composed visuals and genuinely pulse-pounding combat scenes never failing to captivate the viewer throughout. While the filmmakers of Wakanda Forever had the movie’s change of storytelling direction thrust upon them, the fresh momentum generated here all but guarantees the Black Panther effect will continue to prowl and pounce for some time to come. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is in cinemas now
ENOLA HOLMES 2 (MA15+) ★★★jk Now streaming on Netflix
The first Enola Holmes might have been a touch on the gimmicky side – look, everyone, it’s Sherlock Holmes’ kid sister – but its allimportant murder-mystery business was top-notch.
The obligatory sequel has smoothed out most of the wrinkles and refined the formula to draw more power from Millie Bobbie Brown in the title role.
The Stranger Things star does not let anyone down, particularly when engaging in many of the movie’s direct-to-camera asides to the viewer. The new case afoot here is also a cracker, set against the atmospheric backdrop of London’s Matchstick Girl strike of 1888.
Enola just happens to be in the throes of opening her own detective agency when a young factory worker goes missing. As the case develops, Sherlock (Henry Cavill) is always in the background keeping a watchful eye, while snarky Scotland Yard investigator Superintendent Grail (David Thewlis) is always getting in the way of a crucial clue. Both entertaining and engrossing for the most part, and more than worthy of warranting a third instalment. Co-stars Helena Bonham Carter, Louis Partridge.
THE VELVET QUEEN (M) ★★★★k Selected cinemas
A nature documentary that wants to please your eyes and squeeze your brain, and succeeds completely on both counts. On the high Tibetan plains, we join one of the world’s great wildlife photographers, Vincent Munier, as he patiently awaits a glimpse of a difficult-to-snap snow leopard.
To make the time pass by that little quicker, Munier has invited along writer Sylvain Tesson to provide some poetic running commentary on what is happening all around them in this remarkable part of the world. The absolute stillness and quiet they encounter are not what they seem. This remote and largely uncharted plateau is teeming with life and activity. The point is not knowing where to look, but when to look.
While this award-winning doco can get a little pretentious at times, a genuine reverence for maintaining the delicate balance of nature pours off the screen at all times. Wonderful stuff.