Oh boy I'll take a stab at responding to this.
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-"King T'Challa": So, in Civil War, T'Chakka dies and his son becomes the king. He has the powers of the Black Panther. In the movie, we find out here's not the king? They take away his powers. Why did he have them in the first place? His dad was still alive so his dad should have still been the Black Panther. Right? |
T'Chaka was definitely too old to remain the Black Panther, and nothing in the movie directly contradicts T'Challa becoming the Black Panther before becoming king. (At least I think)
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-The Ritual: Okay. So the son of the King gets to be King...unless somebody can beat him up. That means the best fighter can be king because we all know being the best fighter automatically makes you a diplomat, wise, etc. But what are the rules?
If T'Challa wins his first challenge, can somebody else challenge? Can he win five fights in a day? If he loses a fight and injures his opponent, can somebody else challenge!?! Can we have a full WWE Pay Per View called "Waterfall Rumble"? |
I agree the ritual is a bad way to decide the king, but it belongs more on a list of why Wakanda is a poorly equipped nation than it does on a list of why Black Panther sucks. This is like saying Hamlet sucks because Claudius becomes the King only because he was related to the former King and not because he was fit to lead Denmark. There's nothing wrong with portraying a nation with this sort of tradition, it isn't unrealistic.
Also, knowing the ritual's rules would in no way make the movie better. It isn't relevant since none of what you're concerned with happens. Maybe it would have made Wakanda more well developed conceptually, but it doesn't matter.
| -Wakanda Tech P1: If Wakanda is so advanced, why are they fighting with spears and weaponized rhinos? Wait. Weaponized rhinos? WEAPONIZED RHINOS!?? In that final battle, a sniper with a good vantage point could have killed everybody. They thought the best was to win a battle was to bludgeon each other to death and trample each other with rhinos. And if those weapons would have made it out of Wakanda, the military would have just nuked the hell out of Africa. Jesus, Killmonger. You know better than this! |
I get this one, but I can provide some rationalizations. There is nothing that makes spears less advanced than guns, except how we perceive them. Technology doesn't go from one invention to the next in a clarified order, and who is to say that Wakandans didn't realize some advantage provided by close range vibranium weapons over their long range counterparts. I still agree for the most part, if a sniper did exist conceptually in Wakanda than that battle would have been very different. Plus, there are a lot of things wrong with the final battle, but Weaponized Rhinos? Nah that's cool and hilarious.
| -Wakanda Tech P2: Holy shit. Vibranium does it all. It's a metal that doesn't break and absorbs impact. You put it in your food. You rub it on your skin. You buy stuff with it. If your back aches, you dip your body in it. The shit is magical (translation: overpowered!)! But, at the same time, the same ship they flew around in in 1992 was the same ship the had in 2018. The same 3D phone tech. Couldn't they evolve a little? |
Yeah Vibranium is pretty weird in this movie. I'm sure it'll be explained by the soul stone being there, but that doesn't forgive the confusion in this movie. I know what you're getting at by saying Vibranium is OP, but that doesn't really affect tension in the fights between Wakandans since, y'know, everyone is using it.
Again, technology doesn't have to progress in any certain manner. Besides, we barely even saw the ship from 1992, and definitely not well enough to deduce that it was the same thing. Same cloaking tech? Sure. They probably perfected that long ago. But we don't even see the inside so we can't make any real comparisons.
| -Wakanda Riches: I could get off on a whole other rant about the Wakandan economic system. Don't get me started. |
I'm sure you could, except what did you even learn about the Wakandan economy from the movie? It's never touched on.
| -We don't know you, Killmonger!: (Pretend I wrote a whole paragraph on how they just assumed Killmonger was telling the truth and let him challenge their king, even when the challenge was over). Not even a blood test? C'mon! Anybody from Wakanda could have a lip tattoo! |
Yeah but Killmonger had the ring. Sure he could be lying, but of course W'Kabi brought him before T'Challa since he brought them Klaue's dead body. After that, all that mattered was whether T'Challa excepted his challenge, and he already knew who Killmonger was, so he did. As for the challenge being over, ¯_(ツ)_/¯. Maybe family member can challenge whenever.
| -Papa Killmonger, a traitor?: What the hell. He came from the richest country in the world. Why did he betray them? What could he gain? And why was he livng in the ghetto anyway? What country would send their King's brother to do spy mission and send a spy to spy on the spy? They should have people trained for this kind of job! |
Nothing wrong with this. N'Jobu being a spy is perfectly fine. It's explicitly said he betrayed Wakanda because of the suffering he saw in Compton. What more reason does a betrayal need? Some people are nice like that, not caring for their own wealth.
| -The heart shaped herb: In the comics, only a member of the Royal family can eat the herb. The movie doesn't say this and if it's not in the movie, it doesn't exist. So why didn't all of the sexy bald women have super powers when they went to confront Klaue (Klaw)? |
Do you want Black Panther to become Exposition: The Movie? It's obvious only the king is supposed to eat the fruit. There's no rule about things needing to be explicitly said. In fact, the opposite is true. Most writers and filmmakers will tout the practice of "show don't tell". The audience isn't filled with idiots.
| -Super speed!: In Civil War, Black Panther ran down a goddam car or motorcycle or something. Why didn't he demonstrate his super speed to catch the escaping Klaue on either occasion? Did he forget he had it? |
Just because he tagged Bucky doesn't mean his top speed is faster than a car's. Plus it would be exhausting to run Klaue down, and he conserved a lot of energy riding the car. (though I don't know how much stamina T'Challa has)
| -Roughing it: Again, as advanced as Wakanda is, M'Baku (The Man Ape) chooses to live in the icy mountains and wear a loincloth? He doesn't like cable TV? Xbox? |
Because that's where is ancestors lived, it's where he was born, and it's where the people he leads live. The Jabari Tribe are extreme traditionalists so it makes sense they don't care for modern stuff.
| -Magical Snow: Black Panther got thrown off of a waterfall and left for dead. M'Baku's plan to save him was to bury him in snow? I don't buy it. That guy was going to eat the Black Panther. Vegetarian, my ass! This medical miracle is right up there with the paralysis healing rope from The Dark Knight Rises. |
Whole heartedly agree, except the eating part.
| - What's in that herb, anyway?: You drink it and you get to go to heaven or something. Talk to the dead, I guess. Whatever religion Wakanda has should be the dominant religion. Just bring that stuff to the United States and let Mike Pence have a sip. God is real and there's life after death! |
It doesn't matter what's in the herb. It serves a purpose, and we're given reason enough for its properties.
There are plenty of things wrong with Black Panther, but a lot of these are just poor attempts at nitpicks. Like come on, if you're gonna make a whole thread about why Black Panther sucks talk about real stuff. The CG, the tension, and the pacing are just a few of the very real issues with the movie you could have talked about.
