‘Black Panther’

Honestly, Black Panther is just amazing. There are so many things this movie does incredibly correctly. This might be one of the greatest superhero movies of all time!

The story is about T’challa, prince of the secluded, incredibly advanced nation of Wakanda, who struggles to defeat an enemy wanting to take his throne. He teams up with some phenomenal females to secure his role as king.

This film is just visually incredible, especially the city of Wakanda. The city looks so amazing. All the buildings and creations are so cool. But that’s not all. The designs of the weapons and spaceships look very realistic and straight up awesome! Kudos to the visual effects team! I also loved the Black Panther suit. I love the idea of the suit absorbing hits into stored kinetic energy and using it as a shock wave-like blast.

The movie starts with a retelling of the creation of Wakanda, which was made out of sand. It looked so cool. In general, the aesthetic nature of this movie is just marvelous.

The nation of Wakanda also has a very interesting culture. I like that it blends futuristic technology with a tribal feel, in terms of the fashions, locations and culture. It may seem like an odd blend, but it works well. Even the music reflects this combination. Speaking of which, the music is also fantastic.

The characters in this film are multidimensional. I really enjoyed Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and Black Panther himself (Chadwick Boseman). Plus, Sterling K. Brown — one of my favorite actors — is also in it and, while he has a small part, it is a key role.

Hands down, the best characters are the female leads.

The future is female! This movie has some wonderful female characters that everyone can look up to, such as Danai Gurira, who I already love from AMC’s The Walking Dead. She plays the highly skilled warrior Okoye. Letitia Wright plays T’challa’s tech-savvy little sister, Shuri, and Lupita Nyong’o plays Nakia. I love these women, and I’m sure many young kids will, too.

This movie also has very interesting messages. The whole movie presents engaging thoughts on whether or not you should enter into other nations’ affairs and the possible consequences of doing so. This is a pretty intriguing and well-done storyline.

I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 11 to 18. It opened in theaters Friday, so go check it out!