In 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expanded on a tradition that it had in place since 1927. It increased the number of potential Best Picture nominations from the normal five to a potential maximum of 10. It was a move to inject more blockbusters into the Oscar mix and to give movies like Avatar, Inception, and Toy Story 3 the recognition of Best Picture that they deserved. But in essence, this was The Dark Knight rule. This 2008 film most incredible superhero movie ever made, was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two (Best Supporting Actor – Heath Ledger, Best Achievement in Sound Editing). Still, it failed to earn a Best Picture nomination. While 2008 produced five excellent Best Picture nominations (Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, The Reader, Frost/Nixon, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), it still felt like The Dark Knight belonged, either in addition to one of these five or as a replacement. And the Academy changed its rules after that year. Instead of the top five vote earners being selected as the nominees, if a movie received a certain threshold of votes, it would be nominated for Best Picture (up to 10 nominations). I don’t believe we’ve had 10 movies selected yet in the last decade, but we have had nine on multiple occasions. This year there were eight. And while the last decade resulted in many movies earning a Best Picture nomination that they wouldn’t have received before the rule change, the first superhero to benefit from The Dark Knight rule was Ryan Cogler’s (Fruitvale Station, Creed), Black Panther, a film that made history by becoming the first-ever superhero to receive a Best Picture nomination.
I’ll start by saying that I didn’t love Black Panther. Still, I am glad that this film will forever be recognized as the first Best Picture superhero nominee since the expanded rules, which unjustly eliminated The Dark Knight from receiving this recognition. While a nearly flawless film, it is not The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight was dark. It was gritty. It developed multiple characters in a way that no other superhero movie ever had. It was unique. It did not follow a formula. Black Panther was none of those things. It followed the same cookie-cutter recipe that dozens of Marvel and DC superhero movies developed, tested, and perfected before it. When you really take a look at it, Black Panther is no different than Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Thor, heck, even Ant-Man followed this method that has been tried and true. To me, there was nothing unique about the origin story, the character development, the conflict, the action scenes, the resolution, the score, the acting, etc. Before this 2018 release, more than 20 movies in the last decade followed this same blueprint and were successful in doing so. However, that doesn’t take away from the merits of Black Panther. I probably look at it a little more negatively because I have seen all of these other movies. But if you take the handful of movies that I listed above and 15 or so others out of the equation…meaning you either pretend you never saw those or you actually never saw those, you get a near-perfect movie. Because I see so many movies, it’s hard to separate Black Panther from the others regarding originality and the other considerations listed above. But this is a fine film. It also features the first black superhero to have a feature film based around their story and that, in itself, is really, really cool. And, it is really cool to say that the first movie ever nominated for Best Picture is also the first movie to feature a black superhero at its core. Really, really cool.
There are categories of films that I won’t review because I feel like I don’t have anything intelligent to say about them. Really there are two categories. Well, I suppose there are more like live-action and shorts but I don’t even really watch those movies so they wouldn’t necessarily fall into that category. Animated movies (that I watch with my nephews) and documentaries are two movies that I feel I can’t say much about. I like acting and character development and plot. Documentaries don’t really offer that and while animated movies do, my brain is greater than that of a nine-year-old and I find myself bored by just about every single animated movie I see. Sorry to Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, etc. But I was never, nor will I ever be their intended audience. I watch animated movies with my nephews (just like I did with my, now, 30-year-old nieces) to instill the love of movies in them. One day, I will watch movies with them that I actually enjoy. But that is a different story for a different day. In any case, my reason for mentioning that I don’t feel like I have much to say about animated movies or documentaries is because I’ve kind of gotten to the point where I feel like I don’t have much to offer superhero movies. They are SOOOO similar and, frankly, not much fun to write about. I’ve probably reviewed ten superhero movies and they don’t include my three favorites The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, or Iron Man as those came out before I began reviewing movies in 2010 and I haven’t yet found the desire to go back and review those ones. The three best superhero movies I’ve reviewed are Captain America: Civil War (amazing), The Dark Knight Rises (amazing), and Logan (great).
Black Panther tells the story of T’Challa (the excellent up and comer Chadwick Boseman – Draft Day, Avengers: Infinity War), who at 41 years of age is still getting into the movie portion of his career yet as already portrayed Jackie Robinson (42), James Brown (Get on Up), Thurgood Marshall (Marshall), and Black Panther. What’s better than that that you might ask? He crushed each of those rules. In Black Panther, T’Challa becomes the somewhat reluctant king of the hidden African nation of Wakanda after his father is killed. Much like other superhero movies, there are obviously protagonists and antagonists. And in this case, we have an extremely excellent antagonist in Erik “Killmonger” Stevens (Michael B. Jordan – Creed, Fruitvale Station), a ruthless black ops soldier who intends to become the king of Wakanda himself. The challenge for supremacy goes far beyond these two men, who are actually cousins. We learn that T’Challa’s father actually killed Killmonger’s father, obviously making the feud even more intense. His plan to dethrone T’Challa is to distribute Wakandan weaponry to operatives and mercenaries around the world. He takes down T’Challa, but T’Challa is revived in the form of Black Panther, and that’s when we get the action that we crave from our superhero movies.
Coogler gives so many of his characters the depths that they need to succeed. In a way, Jordan’s Killmonger might be the most complete antagonist since Christopher Nolan’s Joker (Heath Ledger) in The Dark Knight. It certainly helps when you have the acting prowess of someone like Jordan. We were able to see Killmonger in all of his glory, his reasons for his anger, his deception, his rise to power, his influence. He makes T’Challa all the more likable. Unfortunately, in a year when the Best Supporting Actor category was particularly weak, Jordan was snubbed of an Oscar nomination. Black Panther got nominated for seven Oscars total (I think it will win two), but none for acting. Boseman and Jordan were definitely the two best but weren’t the only two standouts. Oscar winners Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland, The Crying Game) and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens) and Oscar nominees Angela Bassett (What’s Love Got to Do with It, Boyz n the Hood) and Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Widows) join an amazing ensemble.
It’s a fun movie. The action is great. The music is top-notch. The costumes are fantastic. And, most importantly, it digs into the heritage of an, albeit fictional, African nation. One scene in particular, near the start of the film, where the leader is openly challenged, and a physical confrontation occurs while many other major players watch from the side. To me, it showed how Black Panther showed the cultural roots that most, if not all, other superhero movies either neglect entirely or do a poor job of displaying. Superhero fans will love this movie. I am glad this is the movie that featured the first black superhero as its lead. Coogler, the cast, and all those associated with editing, production, etc., created a movie that we can be proud of.
Plot 8/10
Character Development 8.5/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 8.5/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
88.5%