No one would have blamed Marvel and Ryan Coogler for buckling under the pressure that a sequel to 2018 smash Black Panther offered. Not only was it a huge success critically and commercially, garnering a Best Picture nomination along with truck loads of money, but it set the bar high for what films with predominantly Black casts can do all while having a serious message at it's heart. Couple that with the untimely and tragic death of Chadwick Boseman and that's a legacy most people would be terrified to touch.
Coogler, faced with the loss of his leading actor had a choice, recast the role or rework the story to be about the loss of T'Challa. Coogler opted for the harder option in order to give the world an outlet for our grief, and to honour the legacy of what Boseman did. Picking up following the death of T'Challa, Wakanda is in crisis, we find out that the world is searching for more vibranium and that Wakanda is ready to stop them. From this comes an underwater nation lead by a man named Namor who demands Wakanda join his side or face consequences.
The first film had a very interesting conversation about the legacy of colonisation and it's impact on the world at large. Wakanda's vast resources could have helped their fellow Africans and yet they hid away, the story was about T'Challa's realisation that tradition could ruin the world. This time we get a story about people who fear the involvement of others, when you have something others want they're desires will always encroach on yours.
Letitia Wright does well carrying the film with a steady emotion, her inner turmoil is nicely played as she is less stoic than her older brother and forced into a position she feels guilty for not stopping. Around her the cast are uniformly good, though Winston Duke as M'Baku and Angela Bassett as Ramonda get the strongest moments.
The introducing of Tenoch Huerta is also a strong one, he is an imposing antagonist and one that Coogler imbues with the same respect for his point of view he did Killmonger. This is less a villain than an antagonistic force. It appears that Coogler learned from the criticisms of the first film, so the third act showdown between two characters is allowed to have emotional resonance and a sense of the physical and the big cgi battle is still filled with a sense of character. We know who is who and what they are doing.
The entire film aches with a melancholy at the passing of Boseman but it feels like a film that wants to embrace him and move on in his memory rather than wallow in the sadness of the loss. It's a film that accepts grief comes in many forms and offers us the hope that if we honour those we have lost then we can become stronger, better people.
Chadwick would be proud. Wakanda Forever!
