Here I'd like to give my look at two of the great movies of all time- Black Panther and the original Wonder Woman, from just a few years ago (as of 2022).
Here are two great fun blockbuster movies, great action adventure movies.
How high do they rate all time?
Do they rate among the best fun blockbusters of all time?
Are they as well-paced as the most legendary action thrillers of all time?
I don't know.
But they are great fun movies.
They are great fun action movies with good memorable characters and an interesting plot.
But they are more than that.
How many fun blockbusters have carried as much serious thought as Black Panther and Wonder Woman?
How many fun blockbusters have looked deeply at as many serious, meaningful things as these two movies?
Wonder Woman not only represents women and feminism, and through Steve Trevor shows that men have a place in a feminist world, it sends Wonder Woman as a symbol of hope against the biggest, darkest crisis in human history, World War I, as a living symbol of hope against all the despair of the World Wars.
Black Panther not only represents 'Black' people, and shows that there is a place for 'white' people in a 'Black' man's world, and shows strong woman just like Wonder Woman, it discusses racism and poverty, it denounces the dangers of radical revolutionary politics, and it shows sympathy for a villain who is really a victim trying to be a hero.
All along the ride of a great fun action adventure movie.
What is more, both movies are great visually, with beautiful or striking visuals that not only look good, but reinforce not only the fun side of the movie but its serious side as well, both emotionally and intellectually.
The beauty of Wonder Woman's island home reminds us later on in World War I that we have a world of beautiful things to fight for.
And when we see T'challa coming in a craft that looks like an alien spaceship from a Steven Spielberg movie, the visuals scream out 'Yeah! Black people can do great things!'
These things, put together, put these two movies in the select pantheon of great masterpieces alongside James Cameron's Avatar, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the original Star Wars trilogy, Apollo 13, E. T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Disney's Pocahontas, and the first four (for me the first five) Star Trek movies.
In other words, with the greatest masterpieces of all time.
And Wonder Woman has some beautiful scenes in it.
Wonder Woman has some emotionally passionate, visually striking scenes in it.
But the scenes of Wakanda in Black Panther rank alongside the finest visuals in James Cameron's Avatar, Steven Spielberg's E. T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Don Bluth's The Secret of NIMH and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy as the most amazing visuals that Hollywood has ever produced, and our era's equivalent of the masterpieces of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
Two of the great movies of all time, both as fun blockbusters and as serious idea movies, and as amazing visual movies.
And that's what I have to say about Wonder Woman and Black Panther.
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson