Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/02/23/black-panther-director-ryan-co.html
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With the release of this movie Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan have both risen from “playing the Human Torch in a terrible Fantastic Four adaptation” to “well-reviewed Marvel characters who get to hang out in Wakanda for a while.”
I wonder when Jay Underwood will finally get his turn.
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He already did, but was upstaged by Fred Savage.
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It’s well deserved. Its a good movie and deserves its success.
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Most awesome reaction to Black Panther I’ve heard to far comes from Africans:
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/22/587840019/black-panther-sells-out-african-theaters
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Make sure to view the many and lovely selfies that people have taken and posted to Insta et al. of themselves at screenings in front of the movie poster, standies, etc. You can find them under the usual expected hashtags, #blackpanther and whatnot. Such pure unalloyed human joy is amazing to behold, and a tribute to the film and its creators.
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We call someone classy sarcastically. So I’m dumpstering the sarcasm to say this:
That is classy.
A little faith in humanity has been restored.
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My only problem with her character is that she was so talented (a genius inventor, a surgeon, a stunt driver, a fashion expert AND a warrior?) that she didn’t really leave much for all the other Wakandans to do.
Most formidable Disney Princess ever.
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So like a Mary Sue complex? Eh, I dunno. I think she exhibited core strengths, and just was OK at some secondary skills. Definitely the first 2 things is her core skills. The driving may or not be above average. I mean, if I had a remote controlled car from half a world away, I would think that a lot of the minutia would have to be handled by on board computers due to lag. She is still a pilot who directs the direction, but it would be like a modern jet, which can basically fly itself and indeed uses a host of computers to keep everything stable. Fashion expert - seems like most of Wakanda is styling. Probably a requirement of citizenship (seriously, the costume design was amazing. I want to know how they made the Queens white costume in the beginning of the movie). And warrior - she used her lion gun things (reminded me of Voltron) from a distance, but Killmonger made short work once he closed in. She was supposed to be the ranged support to Nakia’s CQC. I don’t think she showed nearly the warrior prowess compared to say Nakia or Okoye.
ETA - this is the costume I was referring to. 3d printing?
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Looking forward to seeing it this weekend – first Disney Marvel movie I’ve been excited about for a little while.
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Probably, since the dress lupita nyong’o was wearing in that excellent south korean club fight was 3d printed. As the director mentions in that interesting little scene breakdown (about 47 seconds in if it hasn’t linked properly) he did recently.
The fights were great but i found a lot of the cgi to be even more weightless looking than usual in these types of films. Fortunately, that doesn’t really much matter when the rest of the film surrounding it was so superb. Also, they recognised wales as an indepedent (contains spoilers) nation! 
Are white people allowed to start greeting others like this because i really want to start greeting others like this. Fictional-cultural appropriation and all that.
As long as the White person doing it is actually ‘woke,’ I don’t see why not.
Colbert started to do it during his opening monologue the other night, and then joked that maybe he ‘shouldn’t.’
It was funny, but I wouldn’t have been offended if he had finished the gesture.
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Yeah, i saw him do that as i watch most of his monologues on the youtubes but it’s not my place to say whether he’s ‘woke’ or not. I’d be interested in reading some non-white perspectives of this film, particularly in the way martin freeman’s character was treated. Not that i had a problem with it, it was a refreshing change to have a token white character. Or the ‘tolkien white guys’ as i’ve seen written elsewhere, serkis being the other one. The collection of latino critics discussing coco makes for interesting reading, so something like that.
As an aside, i kept trying to place the actress who plays okoye until i looked it up later and found out it was michonne! She was amazing in this.
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I think my favorite line of the movie was “Ha ha, I’m kidding. We’re vegetarians!”
Martin Freeman looking simultaneously terrified and chagrined that he was ready to fall for the “Africans being savage cannibals” stereotype so easily.
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Generic use of the term.
Not knowing him personally, I cannot say for sure that Colbert is either; but in comparison to most rich White dudes with their own nationally televised platform, he seems far more conscious ‘than the average bear.’
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I think that might have been a Donald Glover line. Evidently they brought him in at the 11th hour of the script approval to inject some humor.
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The question is, how many of the audience fell for that stereotype as well? The portrayal of that tribe is interesting in itself given the masks they wear and the noises they make but then the stereotype is broken down.
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I think that’s part of why the line worked so well. I was also momentarily ready to believe that the guy might be ready to feed Martin Freeman to his children, so on at least some level I was able to share in his embarrassment and reflect on my own internalized stereotypes.
And when you think about it the gorilla motif was perfect. Gorillas are noble and intelligent animals that will fiercely protect their own tribes when provoked but are generally just content to be left alone (and are indeed vegetarians).
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