Bayliegh C

The themes explored in the first black panther: the conflict between the cultural and economic harms caused by colonialism. What is the appropriate respone? Retribution and violence (killmonger) or generosity and willingness to make amends and contribute to the world despite it's many wrongs (t'challa) is deep and hugely relevant today. Black panther, wakanda forever? Basically a poorly done rehash of the exact same themes except now instead of Africans it's Mayans, who mind you were not exactly sweet and innocent (lots and lots of human sacrifice and slavery, kidna ironic that Namor is so mad to see his people enslaved when the Mayans were kidna known for being especially cruel to their slaves). Namor is exactly killmonger and Shiri is (kinda) T'challa except more grief stricken and less wise. Killmongers motives we're already contrived in Black Panther 1, but Namor's? I mean come on. Oh and I think grief is also a theme? I mean there's grieving in the very beginning and then again at the end... But not really any sign of healing or coping? I guess advancing the plot is the same as developing your character? No, it's not. Also please note the intense atheistic undertones, basically Shuri rejects the astral planes existsince and is proven right (killmonger says "I'm only here cause you chose me" or something like that) and no resolution with her and her mother besides the brief random comment about "show him who you are!". Her prayers in the begining go unanswered, and she never makes any amends with bast after this. It's all just a construct to make you feel better, right Shuri? Also the blue fish people looked like just worse versions of Avatar the way of the water, similar blue people riding dolphins except the CGI actually looks decent in that one. Marvels CGI has gone down exponentially since it peaked in infinity war (definitely not endgame). Additionally the movie was long, mostly boring with little development, very poor lighting when they're supposed to be showing us the "beautiful" Mayan city (I couldn't even tell what I was seeing) and just more soft worldbuilding. Good fantasy stories rely on building a consistent world where we can expect things to work in a certain way and not just any random thing can happen at any time. In Wakanda Forever, anybody can literally do anything for any reason. Immortal fish people who can survive stab wounds? Sure that's fine. Another god with another herb but it's fish this time instead of cats? That's fine. Underwater vibranium utopia? Oh that's fine too! How did they get their technology and electronics to work underwater? Don't know! Who cares, right? Wrong! This is not good writing! Why are there two cultures of highly advanced people who claim to be frustrated about colonialism and racism whose response is just to hide and ignore that when they very clearly could do something about it? DONT KNOW! That being said, the acting is actually pretty good especially at the beginning and end when they're reflecting on T'challas death. But that doesn't make up for the rest of this mess. Ultimately it's a boring and ugly rehash of the first movie except with a little more identity politics. This Disney stuff is messing these movies up,there is a very low chance we will see a good marvel rip off movie From Disney Like thor love of thunder that was a huge disappointment