A heartfelt movie full of action and complex storytelling, as well as honoring an admirable late member of the MCU, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is everything a fan hoped it would be and more, from addressing the passing of Chadwick Boseman, to the overall progression of this story in the “Black Panther” series.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is the sequel to the introduction of the superhero Black Panther to the MCU in 2018’s “Black Panther.” Previous plots and plans for this movie were unfortunately soiled when Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther, or T’Challa, passed away from colon cancer. It was this impeccably sad event that led to the movie taking an entirely different direction. 

The movie instead featured a powerful female-dominant cast with returning characters like Shuri, played by Letitia Wright, Ramonda, played by Angela Bassett, and Nakia, played by Lupita Nyong’o. The film starts with T’Challa’s death and continued to develop through the characters’ mourning of the late Black Panther to the introduction of a new enemy that forced the solving of the lingering question about who would become the Black Panther and capture the essence of his heroism.

There are many strengths to this piece. The presentation of Chadwick Boseman’s very real death in the movie was very heartwarming. The amount of respect they showed to the actor and his character through the use of no music during the funeral ceremony and the many vulnerable moments between characters discussing him was perfectly done. Complete and utter silence was used in this movie often to show how serious his death was and how deeply it affected everyone, both in real life and in the MCU. 

Additionally, the integration of the Mayans and their disappearance as part of the enemy backstory of Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta, intrigues and sparks even more interest in the movie. 

While being sentimental and well-written, this movie includes interesting action sequences and violence that are a classic part of Marvel movies, and it was in this aspect it also delivered. 

It was empowering and overjoying to see a movie so well portray a strong, almost entirely female cast, and it was pleasing to see the empowerment of women throughout the movie, as it clearly and beautifully displays raw feminism. 

One weakness of the film was its length. The film was almost three hours long and there were moments where this author admittedly lost interest or deemed some scenes unnecessarily long. Nonetheless, the story was beautifully carried out and required a lot of work and creative minds to have it be more developed than a random repeat of a classic Marvel plot.

Overall, this movie ranks very high among the others in the MCU, especially in terms of sequels. Its vulnerability, action, and story, along with incredible acting and beautiful shots and effects, make it a high-quality film that this author highly recommends to MCU fans.