What you may need to know.
1. Look, I know it must seem like Marvel movies are the only trailers I actually write up here, and you’d be right, but it’s hard not to when they’re knocking them out this fast. If you don’t like the look of them, you should see the absolute tripe that comes and goes. Transformers 5? Cars 3? Ain’t nobody got time for that.
2. That said, I am looking forward to Manchester by the Sea 2: Electric Boogaloo.
3. Anyway, here comes Marvel, making it look easy again. Every trailer they roll out, whether it’s Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: Homecoming and now this, is met with near-complete enthusiasm. In contrast to blockbuster rivals DC’s ongoing woes, that is. Wonder Woman has been very well received over there but the upcoming Justice League looks like another hyperactive, adolescent, CGI overkill snore festival.
4. While the format and formula looks largely to remain unchanged something-teen movies in, they key to that enthusiasm is the studio’s sharing and rotating creative contributions with appropriate directors. In the role of Thor, Chris Hemsworth has shown an unlikely comic talent, so the reins to Thor: Ragnarok were handed to What We Do in the Shadows’ Taika Waititi. And Black Panther being Marvel’s first black superhero (est. 1966), who better to direct than one of the most talked-about young African American directors of the moment, Ryan Coogler.
5. Coogler is currently two for two, having made his debut with Cannes-prize-winning indie Fruitvale Station (2013), and the improbably excellent Creed (2015), his hip-hop hymn to Rocky Balboa. Both films, and this one, star The Wire alumnus Michael B. Jordan. Coogler was tapped for the Black Panther job just as Creed was being released, but it was too late to cast Jordan in the title role, since Chadwick Boseman was already filming the character’s debut in Captain America: Civil War (2016).
6. Alongside Boseman and Jordan, you’ve got Lupita Nyong’o, Forrest Whitaker, Angela Bassett and Marvel regulars Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman.
7. Strong use of Legend Has It by Run the Jewels, currently the toast of hip-hop and of whom Marvel Comics are big fans. Their fist/gun symbol has featured on more than one Marvel cover in the past couple of years.
8. Now. Black Panther was Marvel’s first superhero and it’s not insignificant that the Studio is now putting up the cash for an Africa-set, black-cast, black-directed blockbuster. Relatively few black actors have fronted mega-budget blockbusters (Will Smith is the only one I can think of off the top of my head); for an unknown like Boseman to lead one is unheard of. Combine that with the recent feminist success of Wonder Woman this month, and it’s apparent that attitudes are changing in Hollywood. Who said Blockbusters don’t matter?
9. Not linking to it, but racist dicks on 4chan and Twitter are having their say all the same. Something about a liberal agenda, you can guess the rest. It will be interesting to see how the film will address racism as it exists in the world today.
10. On the topic of “#OscarsSoWhite and the steps taken by the Academy to revise its imbalance, read this excellent New Yorker article.
11. That remarkable Afro-future costume design comes from another Coogler collaborator Hannah Beachler.
Verdict: Panther like a Panther
Release Date: February 9, 2018
Wonder Woman is a great flick :)
The infighting among feminists on WW is fun too watch… too white, too skinny, too pretty, abd she’s ex-EDF which has them chewin’ the faces off each other.
All v entertaining.
I was, as Sameer says in the movie “both frightened and aroused”
hah!
The ladies I went to see it with were disappointed there wasn’t enough cheesey lines, or as one said… “where’s her whipping off her glasses before twirling into her super hero costume?”… and… “what about the invisible plane?”… the fun questions for a fun movie, worth the trip to the big screen :)
Ah here them ladies you went to see Wonder Woman with sound like great ladies. Real great, classy ladies. Proper ladies that know what way ladies ought to be.
Ladies
They are that :)
They sound like normal ladies that live in the actual world and not hysterical tumblr types seeking out offence everywhere it lurks
Rotide calling someone else hysterical and easily offended? LOL!
You’re right man. Proper normal ladies that know how to behave ladylike like ladies. Real ladies. Normal great ladies that are real ladies
+infinitey Bitterness towards women is always a massive red flag.
Or as someone on Twitter said.
Liberation through corporate celebrities? I don’t think so. DELETE THIS.
Don’t know about that. Obviously we’re not in a position to say how anyone or everyone should react to the above, but like…is she saying that the only black cinema that can be effective and affecting should be harrowing drama about social problems, violence in the community and slavery?
Looked up the tweet – the article she’s reacting to says that exactly thing.
This looks like it’s gonna be a good watch.
Great review, Doug. I always enjoy them.