by Imani Carroll
The Marvel movie Black Panther was released Thursday, February 15, 2018. The movie is something millions of people were looking forward to– especially black Americans.
Black Panther is one of the first big time movies with an almost completely black cast for many younger people. It is also different because despite having a mostly black cast, black people are not depicted in a thug or slave narrative.
Along with having a majority black cast, the director is also black. Ryan Coogler also directed Creed and Fruitvale Station. Michael B Jordan stars in both Black Panther and Creed.
Marvel’s Black Panther is topping office box records.. According to “’Black Panther‘: All The Box Office Records It Broke (And Almost Broke) In Its $242M Debut” by Scott Mendelson published by Forbes, Black Panther “earned… $201.8 million” just between Friday to Sunday. Between Friday and Monday, Black Panther earned $241.9 million! In addition to this, “it earned around 52% more than Deadpool and 148% more than Fifty Shades of Grey.” The movie broke countless amount of records.
When I saw Black Panther the night it was released, I was expecting a great movie and a great cast. What I got was much more. It had such a great storyline, I was literally unable to speak or express my excitement like I thought I would.
Diving into the world of the Black Panther, his beautiful kingdom of Wakanda, located in Africa, is full of beautiful culture and advanced technology. It breaks the stereotype that Africa is only full of poverty and savannas, but life and culture!
The movie starts off with our main character, T’Challa, being crowned the new king of Wakanda after his father is killed in Marvel’s previous movie Captain America: Civil War. Wakanda has been off the map since the beginning of time, and the rest of the world knows nothing of their advanced civilization, but instead they only know Wakanda as a third-world country.
T’Challa is faced with the conflict of keeping him and only his people of Wakanda protected and isolated or using his extensive resources to help the rest of his people around the world.
The plot is very intense and action-packed. I thought it would never end, and when it did, I knew that I would definitely be seeing T’Challa’s character again. There is no way they won’t make another Black Panther movie, and there is no way I’m not going to spend my money to see this movie again and again until it’s on DVD!
I am not the only one who absolutely adored Black Panther. Recent tw have portrayed the thoughts of many who have seen the movie and how well they believe it was executed. Robert Iger tweets that Black Panther has “powerful storytelling that touches hearts, bridges cultures, opens minds.” The 12,800 people who have liked his tweet seem to agree. NowThis even calls Killmonger “Marvel’s Best Villian” and I couldn’t agree more!
All in all, if you haven’t seen this movie, definitely go see it. Even if you aren’t a Marvel fan, this one will definitely go down in history!
Side note: Marvel always leaves a nice teaser at the end of the credits, so be sure to stay!