I’ll be completely honest, I did not care for the buzz that came with The Black Panther movie prior to its’ release. It was cool watching him destroy Captain America and Bucky in Civil war, but that was about it. When the solo movie was announced I remember thinking, “This should be cool.” But for this post to make sense, you’ll need some background information about me.
I’m a guy who grew up playing a video game called ‘City of Heroes’ for hours. I loved reading comics (still do) and I loved reading up on comic book lore- man... I even wrote my own origin story for my college essay. Superheroes/villains have always been my thing.
Another thing: I’m not the type of person who looks for the ‘deeper meaning’ of things. I’m not a fan of the radically ‘woke’ culture of over-analyzing everything and trying to create nonexistent ties in story plots. Say what you want, but that’s just how I am. So maybe you can understand why the phrase “Black Panther is one of the most important movies of our lifetime” being thrown around had me rolling my eyes at first. Netflix’s Luke Cage got similar hype prior to its’ release, which I believe led to its’ unfortunate downfall. The hype set around this series caused fans to have high expectations… and they just weren’t met.
No, I wasn’t running to the theater to go see Black Panther; I just figured I’d get around to watching it within a couple weeks or so.
Like most blockbuster movies in the past five years, talks of record-breaking box office numbers started flooding all my social media feeds (Side note: does anyone know what any of that stuff means? Reminds me of ESPN with their random NBA stats). After about a week of reading reviews, one thing was certain: this movie may have lived up to the hype, but I still wasn’t convinced. There was one moment that took me from “I’ll watch it eventually” to “I have to watch it this movie ASAP” and that was when my parents came home from watching it a few nights ago. My parents hardly ever go to movies and if they do it’s probably to go see a Tyler Perry movie or something stereotypical like that. The fact that my parents planned a date night to go watch this movie and the fact that they saw a Marvel movie before I did, made me feel some type of way - I wouldn’t say it made me angry, but I was curious to hear what they took away from it. When my parents returned from the movie I asked my mom, “How was it?”. She looked over at me, did the Wakanda salute and said, “Amazing.” ... Dog... this may sound super cheesy and cliché, but at that exact moment I texted my girl and said, “We're going to see this movie this weekend.”
The Black Panther really may be a very important movie for the culture. Not only was it directed by a black man, (shout out to you, Ryan Coogler) the cast was primarily black, and it didn't use stereotypical portrayals of black people as in most films. It wasn’t about a black superhero fighting bad guys in the hood, or African American slaves or a portrayal of black women's anger at men. *Spoiler Alert* It was about a land owned by Africans who were mighty, wealthy, intelligent, and technologically advanced. The outside world wanted what they possessed. It was so refreshing to see us portrayed this way - the praiseworthy, the exquisite. The portrayals of women in this movie were so powerful and they weren’t powerful by means of someone or something else. Their character and moral integrities were ever-present throughout the film.
But the reason this movie really struck a nerve with me is because growing up as a fan of superheroes, it was common that these actors and illustrations never looked like me. As one would expect, they were always white. Sure, I could relate to their morals and character, but I could never fully relate to them as people or their place in society because I couldn’t put myself in the shoes of a white guy – fictional or not.
I truly wish this movie came out when I was child because of how empowering it is. There was one scene that really resonated with me, at the end of the movie, after all the action and entertainment was over. After T'Challa takes his rightful place as the Black Panther and King of Wakanda, he flies back to Oakland, California and reveals his plan to open the Wakanda Outreach Center. A Wakandan ship lands right in the middle of a playground T'Challa and Shuri are standing in. A group of young minorities abandon their basketball game and run up to the ship to see what all the excitement is about. A young black kid, played by Alex Hibbert, walks up to T’Challa in amazement. This kid acted the hell out of that role because on that screen you could see how that moment changed that boys' life forever. It was as if you could tell how inspired this young kid was; the possibilities for him were endless. He could be more than he ever thought he could be.
Ninety percent of black children that watch this movie will be able to relate to this character. So, GO TAKE YOUR BLACK CHILDREN TO SEE THIS MOVIE. GO TAKE YOUR WHITE CHILDREN TO SEE THIS MOVIE. Go take your nieces, nephews, godchildren.... hell, take your neighbors kids.
EVERYONE GO SEE THIS MOVIE. TWICE.