Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever was one of the great movies of all time.
This is the Empire Strikes Back of the franchise.
With Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy, the experimental phase of the Marvel Movies began.
The phase where the Marvel movies experimented with doing something different.
This and the Spider-Man movies kept the Marvel cinematic universe alive for me.
Because the 'classic' core Marvel Movies died after Avengers 2, in the awful, awful Captain America: Civil War.
At that point the core Marvel movies took on all the features, good and bad, of a particularly neurotic Comic Book Big Continuing Storyline, something like a Crisis on Infinite Earths, only more neurotic, and less obviously Apocolyptic until the end.
Needless to say, these stories have their fans. I am not big on them.
And I have my reasons for hating the Nazi-like ideas in Captain America: Civil War.
Let's just say that if you were asking Jews to register themselves, it would not be as acceptable an idea.
But two things kept the Marvel Cinematic Universe being still among my favorite things, and that is the way that the core 'classic' Marvel movie was represented so well in the wonderful Spider-Man movies, which were everything the Iron Man and Avengers movies were at their peak, and these wonderful cinematic experiments.
These two things kept the Marvel Cinematic Universe one of the greatest things in the past 20 years of cinema- hell, the past 38 years, even (as of 2024). But as wonderful as the Spider-Man movies were, some of the experiments were even better.
The Guardians of the Galaxy movies, the first Doctor Strange (until they made it a neurotic horror franchise in the second one), and the Black Panther movies are all among my favorite things from cinema from the past 38 years.
These are all doing something a little bit different.
And the Black Panther movies are a worldbuilding fantasy, and a self-contained franchise all their own.
And so while I would rather be at the dentist being tormented than watch any Marvel Movie since Avengers: Endgame that openly refers at all in any way to Avengers: Endgame, I look forward with glee to any future Black Panther movie.
And Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was the Empire Strikes Back of the franchise.
And while the original Black Panther had plenty of time to spend on being a superhero action movie, Wakanda Forever, being the Empire Strikes Back of the franchise, had very little time to spend on being an action movie.
And one thing in particular in Wakanda Forever makes absolutely no sense in an action movie, but a lot of sense in a worldbuilding fantasy.
Which is the decision of the Wakandans to face Namor at sea.
In an action movie you don't care about collateral damage.
In an action movie it only matters that it makes no sense tactically to actually choose to face Namor at sea.
But in a worldbuilding fantasy it's different.
In a worldbuilding fantasy you care if Luke Skywalker's planet gets blown up.
In a worldbuilding fantasy you care if there are battles in Elrond's house in Rivendell.
And in a worldbuilding fantasy you care if there are battles in Wakanda itself.
Which is why fighting Namor at sea makes sense.
Because if you can defeat him at sea, than you don't have to face battles on Wakandan soil.
And in a worldbuilding fantasy, like in real life, you care if there are battles in Wakanda itself.
You care if that beautiful capital city gets blown up.
And that's why facing Namor at sea makes sense.
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson