Posted by the Bells on Feb 21, 2018
Black Panther, one of the most anticipated movies of the year, is revolutionizing superhero movies and carving a path for more movies like it.
The film was released into theaters on Friday, Feb. 16, with some theaters showing screenings the evening before to help make room for eager audiences.
African American director Ryan Coogler oversaw the movie’s production, and the movie has a mainly black cast.
Coogler focuses on bringing authenticity to the marvel cinematic universe by incorporating different parts of African culture into the world of the Black Panther.
Coogler brought in consultants who are experts on African history and politics to work on defining Wakanda— a fictional African nation in the film that comes from the real Wakamba tribe of Kenya.
The fighting used inthe film is based on African martial arts.
With the use of real world cultures in a fantasy world, fans were ecstatic when news of the films production was released (IMBD.com).
With preorder ticket sales and box office sales were estimated to be around $218 million in its first weekend (Nytimes.com). It was predicted that this would be enough to make Black Panther the fifth highest opening weekend in the history of Marvel Studios, and could break the current record for the President’s Day box office sales (comicbook.com). According to NBC, the film is now the first highest opening weekend for Marvel movies.
On Jan. 10, 2018, after tickets were made available for presale, Fandango’s managing editor, Erik Davis, tweeted that the movie’s first 24 hours of advance ticket sales exceeded those of any other movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Nytimes.com).
This, however, came as no surprise seeing as how the movie’s teaser—not the full trailer for the movie, reached 89 million views in just 24 hours.
For a short time there was even a “Black Panther Challenge” which was an online fundraising effort to help kids in Harlem see the movie.
Ellen DeGeneres helped push the challenge and it blossomed to include more than 300 fundraisers aiming to send thousands of young fans to the theaters (Cbsnew.com)
People all over America gathered to watch the film’s early release in select theaters nationwide, including Temple’s Cinemark.
Junior graphic design major, Chriscina Lampkin, saw the early showing of the film with a group of friends, having preordered tickets over a month before.
“I’ve seen a lot of Marvel movies and [The Black Panther] was good in many ways,” Lampkin said. “The movie impacted me positively because it is good to have representation.
And the roles are usually flipped in every other movie, having a majority of the major roles being white with a few black people here and there. In this movie it was the opposite.”
Lampkin said she enjoyed how current all the references and issues were and explained that the movie was very reflective of the real world.
“A lot people stereotype Africa to be a desolate wasteland and it’s not,” Lampkin said. “But the movie made it even more of a utopia with such advanced technology.”
“In relation to the [governing bodies] and topics like immigration the characters were very real.” Lampkin said.
Junior studio art major, Danielle East, accompanied Lampkin to the early release.
“It was very imaginative and Afro-futuristic. I felt that it was able to emphasize our roles in society more, and was especially unique because it had a lot of women as the protectors of the Black Panthers’,” East said.
Audience members are sure to agree with the Rolling Stone Magazine’s commentary of the film, which read: “The Afro-punk and Afrofuturism aesthetics, the unapologetic black swagger, the miniscule appearances from non-black characters – it’s an important resetting of a standard of what’s possible around creating a mythology for a black superhero.”
I was also saw the early release on Thursday.
The film is around 2 hours and 30 minutes long and well worth the time spent at the edge of my seat as the life onscreen unfolded right in front of me.
In rating, I give the film 10 out of 10 and definitely recommend it to anyone who was on the fence about seeing it.
The movie’s summary on IMBD.com states that T’Challa (played by Chadwick Boseman) returns home to the African nation of Wakanda to take his rightful place as king after the death of his father.
When a powerful enemy suddenly reappears, T’Challa’s position as king, and as Black Panther, gets tested when he’s drawn into a conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk.
Faced with treachery and danger, the young king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people.
The setting, scenery, plot and characters were all so well developed, I was amazed at how well-put-together everything was. Everything made sense and flowed together perfectly.
I cannot stress enough how good this movie is and how it is such a great step forward for America.
madelines-corner.com 