The Black Panther movie is in theaters February 16, 2018.
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Wakanda thrives and stays hidden while the rest of Africa stays a s**thole. Rather selfish of them.
Any good film franchise wants to keep varying the look of its movies. The more different they look from each other, the better. Have you seen any two Star Wars movies that feature the same backdrops? So this look at an advanced African El Dorado will provide a jaunt through yet another different exotic setting for the Marvel Universe.
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Ha, this one ought to arise many mixed feelings.
Wakanda has been depicted in various ways on the comics. From a prosperous but slightly more realistic little known country in Africa (a la Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America” Zamunda), to an African Atlantis with advanced tech but some stereotypical African tropes similar to Asgard. In this one, it looks like they chose the later.
While I have no problem with either depiction (these are movies about men in in flying suits, Norse gods and green radioactive monsters for goodness’ sake), I have the impression showing an invisible yet advanced country on Earth, specially one in Africa, in contrast to one in another dimension (Asgard), would be much tougher to swallow for many, as a matter of suspension of disbelief.
And of course, it will be used as argument to prove all these movies have a leftist agenda or whatever.
I hope the producers are smarter than those of the ill-fated Ghostbusters all-female cast revival, where the movie studio played the muh-soggy-knees card with catastrophic results, because it alienated the majority of the audience it was supposed to cater to (former 80s boys, now grown up and with a lot of nostalgia).
You can only do a few “replace white males with oppressed minorities” movies – too much of a gimmick.
But the all-woman Ghostbusters was a fun little remake, especially with the original-cast cameos.
Not awesomely original and funny the way the original was, but it had its own moments.
I see nothing here that will lose the excitement of Marvel fandom. Besides, Wakanda is afterall an advanced country cloaked in proverty.
It might but be tough to be believe a place like Wakanda existing, but Ethiopia successfully resisted colonization in the 19th century on its own, got occupied for a few years just prior to WWII but then freed itself, and that was without space magic (vibranium). With vibranium, and actual magic, then a country like Wakanda existing, not just independent but fabulously wealthy and advanced, makes more sense than not. Vibranium is wacky and rare enough that it explains extreme force of arms even if used in primitive style, and explains extreme wealth without high level trade.
It does not explain greater than normal technological sophistication, so I hope there is a good explanation. Perhaps they will go with the crashed spaceship angle, or play up the Strange style magic, or both.