What Makes Black Panther Work So Well

I watched Black Panther again and found I enjoyed it more the second time around.

What caught my attention the first time I watched it was the world building, the character development and the themes explored. What made me appreciate it more upon second viewing is how the themes work in so many ways.

Starting with the world building, co-writers Ryan Coogler (who also served as director) and Joe Robert Cole do a great job laying out how Wakanda came to be and how its society has developed. It doesn't take much for viewers to understand how everything is Wakanda, how aspects of African culture combine with technological advancements that the nation has developed, thanks to its access to a material called vibranium. What I liked the most is that Coogler and Cole find the right ways to let everyone know what Wakanda is like by utilizing a lot of "quick hits" that clue you into certain aspects, yet focusing more time on those parts of the culture that bear the greatest importance to the story.

The characters, combined with the themes, are what really sell the film and make it one of the best installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It does focus on issues regarding what blacks face in the United States -- and rightly so, because it helps drive some of the themes explored.

At the same time, most of the themes are ones that could be applied to any race or culture and they remain relevant. Throughout the film, questions are raised regarding how a technologically-advanced nation should build relations with other countries, to what happens when a nation does open its doors to others, to the question about what people with advanced technology should do to make the world better.

Most of all, the lead character, T'Challa, must consider what is the right thing to do when he learns his own family played a part in the primary antagonist, Erik "Killmonger" Stevens (aka N'Jadaka), and how he views events and what Wakanda should do to influence world affairs. It makes for a complex narrative in which determining who is "in the right" is not as easy as it appears upon first glance.

It goes back to what I've discussed the past few weeks about making characters relatable, as people you can empathize with, though you may not sympathize with them. And this goes back to Coogler and Cole, who put a lot of thought into the script and how to portray the characters. For example, they make Erik Stevens somebody whose motivations are easy to understand, even if you may not agree with his methods. The same applies to nearly every other character -- their motivations are clear, and the beauty of it is Coogler and Cole often do that with a character reciting just a few lines.

Black Panther is one of those films that's not just a great superhero film, but a great film, period. Coogler and Cole showed how good they are at laying out a complex theme (and, yes, one that touches upon political issues) but doing it in a way that anyone can relate to it, while writing characters who are multi-dimensional. It's the type of film that can make you think as much as you root for the hero to save the day.