Butler's Cinema Scene

“BLACK PANTHER” My rating: B- 

134 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Some films are noteworthy for their artistry.

Others earn a niche in the history books for their cultural footprint, for staking out sociological territory at just the right moment, for tapping into the zeitgeist.

Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” leans heavily toward the second category.

Narratively this is a  typical Marvel release, a superhero origin story that, as all Marvel movies must, ends with an extended fx-heavy smackdown.

But  there’s far more to “Black Panther.”  The first Marvel movie starring a black superhero, featuring a predominantly black cast and backed by with a heavy presence of African Americans in key creative roles,  the picture arrives at a moment when America’s oppressed groups — galvanized by an onslaught of alt-right rhetoric and rampant assholism — are asserting themselves with renewed determination.

Last year  “Wonder Woman” introduced a whole slew of female issues into the superhero universe; in retrospect it feels like a calling card for the “Me Too” movement.

“Panther” does pretty much the same thing for African Americans.  Think of it as Black Pride on steroids.

Based on the character created in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the yarn introduces us to Wakanda, an African nation that to all outward appearances is pretty much your Third World backwater.

Ha.

Thanks to the nation’s supply of vibranium — an element brought to Earth in a meteor — Wakandans live in a high-tech paradise.  The clothing, artwork and architecture may be right out of “The Lion King,”  but behind the scenes vibranium provides unlimited energy, healing power and weaponry. Invisible aircraft, even.

What’s more, in conjunction with tribal spirituality, vibranium imparts to the Wakandan king  superhuman abilities, transforming him into the all-but-invincible Black Panther.

All these wonders are hidden behind a shimmering energy wall which protects Wakanda from the outside world  (also the case with the Amazonian homeland in “Wonder Woman”). By keeping to themselves the prosperous and happy Wakandans ensure that  vibranium never falls into the hands of weapons-crazy Westerners who, it’s obvious, are their inferiors in just about every category worth measuring.

Chadwick Boseman

With the death of his father, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) ascends to Wakanda’s throne — though he first has to prove himself  in trial by combat against the Luddite leader of a dissident tribe.

Danai Gurira

In addition to his newly widowed mother (Angela Bassett, looking pretty regal in iron-gray dreadlocks), T’Challa relies on the support of Okoye (“Walking Dead’s” Danai Gurira),  the no-nonsense head of the all-woman royal guard; the spiritual leader Zuri (Forest Whitaker);  Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), who devotes herself to humanitarian work in Earth’s trouble spots and who becomes the monarch’s love interest; and his bratty but  brilliant little sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), who like Q in the 007 flicks is always creating futuristic gadgets to improve Wakandans’ lives or battle T’Challa’s enemies.

But outside forces are pushing the kingdom to a confrontation.  A band of mercenaries and gunrunners led by the cackling Ulysses Klaus (Andy Sirkis) and the ruthlessly efficient Eric Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) have gotten wind of Wakanda’s great secret and want to seize vibraniam for their own evil purposes.

Much of “Black Panther” plays like a globe-hopping James Bond thriller, with visits to a casino,  a nifty car chase through the streets of Seoul…even a CIA agent (Martin Freeman) who becomes T’Challa’s ally and white sidekick.

Michael B. Jordan, Chadwick Boseman

Midway through, screenwriters Coogler and Joe Robert Cole pull a switcheroo with Jordan’s Killmonger character penetrating Wakanda and sowing turmoil.  Turns out he has a longstanding personal grudge against T’Challa’s family and an equally furious hatred of white world domination.

Basically Killmonger wants to use vibranium to conquer Earth on behalf of the oppressed.

“The world’s going to start over,” he promises, “and this time we’ll be on top.”

We’re talking race war on a global scale.

Now that’s pretty heavy stuff for a superhero movie. Plus there’s the whole issue of isolationism…how is Wakanda’s energy barrier different from Trump’s border wall?  “You let refugees in, they bring their problems with them,” warns one character.

Yes, “Black Panther” is filled with intriguing and provocative ideas.  I just wish it was more satisfying as drama.

Part of the problem is that Jordan’s bad guy hijacks the movie. The conflicted Killmonger is a far more interesting character than T’Challa, who is brave, noble and…well, that’s about it.

Bozeman made a solid impression playing real-life figures  Jackie Robinson (“42”),  James Brown (“Get On Up”) and Thurgood Marshall (“Marshall”), but here he’s stoically bland and unendingly earnest. There’s no edge to the character…certainly nothing as arresting as Bruce Banner’s constant fear of  his own anger or Tony Stark’s capitalist cock waving.

Faring better are Gurira’s shaven-headed, cooly intimidating royal bodyguard and Wright’s irrepressible little sister.

Every now and then “Black Panther” attempts a bit of humor; mostly it falls flat.

Coogler’s earlier movies — “Fruitvale Station” and “Creed” (both starring Jordan) — were small masterpieces. But they were character studies, and their sense of intimacy is hard to duplicate in a sprawling two-hour superhero epic. So many characters and plot elements are swirling around here that the film often loses focus.

Sometimes less is more.

But as a cultural phenomenon, “Black Panther” is a force to be reckoned with.  Years from now it very well may be looked back on as a turning point, when the Hollywood fantasy machine and African American aspirations came together to upend — or at least challenge — the prevailing order.

| Robert W. Butler