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Film<br />
Black Panther<br />
Ryan Coogler’s Marvel Comics entry<br />
dazzles with smartly staged action, magnetic<br />
performances, genuine suspense and<br />
a bracing sense of novelty By Todd McCarthy<br />
With uncanny timing, Marvel has taken its<br />
superheroes into a domain they’ve never inhabited<br />
before — and is all the better for it.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s no mistaking you’re still in the<br />
Marvel universe here, but Black Panther sweeps<br />
you off to a part of it you’ve never seen: a<br />
hidden lost world in Africa defined by royal<br />
traditions and technological wonders that<br />
open up refreshing dramatic, visual and casting<br />
possibilities. Getting it right where other<br />
studios and franchises — they know who they<br />
are — get it wrong, Marvel and Disney have<br />
another commercial leviathan, although it’ll be<br />
interesting to see how it plays in certain overseas<br />
markets where industry traditionalists say<br />
black-dominated fare underperforms.<br />
Producer Kevin Feige and the Marvel brain<br />
trust introduced Black Panther into their<br />
superhero mix in 2016’s Civil War: Captain<br />
America with the intention of spinning yet<br />
another franchise around him. This seems<br />
like a natural idea now, but in July 1966, when<br />
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby birthed the character<br />
in Fantastic Four No. 52, he was the first black<br />
superhero to appear in American comics.<br />
Although director/co-writer Ryan Coogler<br />
(Fruitvale Station, Creed) sets his framing<br />
action in Oakland, California, the film’s<br />
heart lies in Africa. In one of the tale’s<br />
beguiling inventions, the land of Wakanda<br />
keeps the world away by posing as one of<br />
the planet’s poorest countries and restricting<br />
visitors. In fact, it possesses advanced<br />
technology and has a gleaming metropolis<br />
that coexists with natural wonders on<br />
par with anything in the world. What makes<br />
this possible is a mined substance called<br />
OPENS Friday, Feb. 16 (Disney)<br />
CAST Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan,<br />
Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright<br />
DIRECTOR Ryan Coogler<br />
Rated PG-13, 135 minutes<br />
vibranium, a source of power akin to nuclear<br />
that Wakanda keeps to itself.<br />
<strong>The</strong> novelties of the society are fun to behold,<br />
the streets full of life, the inhabitants happy.<br />
But this enlightened land remains a monarchy,<br />
and, with his father’s death, T’Challa (Chadwick<br />
Boseman) becomes king in a spectacular<br />
coronation ceremony. <strong>The</strong>re to support him are<br />
his mother, Ramonda (Angela Bassett); sister<br />
Shuri (Letitia Wright), a scientist who’s next<br />
in line for the throne; chief counsel W’Kabi<br />
(Daniel Kaluuya), head of security for a tough<br />
border tribe; mentor Zuri (Forest Whitaker),<br />
the king’s spiritual leader; and the Dora Milaje,<br />
an independent-minded security force comprising<br />
shaven-headed women, notably its best<br />
fighter Okoye (Danai Gurira) and rebellious<br />
Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o).<br />
<strong>The</strong>n there’s M’Baku (Winston Duke), who<br />
is opposed to T’Challa’s technological beliefs<br />
and challenges him to a mano-a-mano slugfest