Four years ago, Black Panther became a worldwide cultural phenomenon. It was a groundbreaking, monumental achievement in representation that was unapologetically Black. The film proved that predominantly Black films could travel and be successful (it grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide), and it received universal critical acclaim (the film received an 88/100 on Metacritic, and seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and three wins). It depicted a world we rarely ever get to see in film—an African nation that was never colonized and allowed to grow into a global, albeit hidden, superpower.

But what made Black Panther successful wasn’t just the representation on screen, it was the powerhouse team behind the scenes. Instead of Marvel Studios’s usual in-house team, the film had: writer-director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station), co-writer Joe Robert Cole (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story), cinematographer Rachel Morrison (Mudbound), composer Ludwig Göransson (Creed), costume designer Ruth E. Carter (Malcolm X), and production designer Hannah Beachler (Lemonade).

Black Panther was, and remains, the single best MCU film to date, and one of the best superhero films of all time. It was an empowering depiction, and celebration, of Blackness. Everyone was excited to see what was next in this world. Unfortunately, a real-life tragedy changed everything, and what was meant to continue this celebration became a funeral.

Chadwick Boseman, the lead actor who played King T’Challa, the titular superhero, died suddenly in August of 2020 after a long and discrete battle with colon cancer. There were questions surrounding how the sequel would move forward. Will they recast T’Challa? How will the story, which Coogler had already finished a draft of, change? But more importantly, how does this affect the cast and crew, who had just lost a family member. This was such a traumatic loss that Coogler even considered quitting filmmaking altogether.

A mural of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) at his funeral

The answer is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a messy yet still outstanding sequel that stumbles, but never falls, in its attempts to juggle its multiple obligations: expand the world of Wakanda that was started in the first film; introduce new characters; set up future MCU projects; tell a compelling story without its original lead; and honor Chadwick Boseman.

Taking place years after T’Challa made Wakanda known to the rest of the world at the end of the first film, a decision inspired by hope and predicated on global cooperation, things have not gone as well as the Wakandans had hoped. Their King has died (off-screen) from an illness. Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) are still reeling from this great loss. There is no longer a Black Panther to protect Wakanda since Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) destroyed all of the heart-shaped herbs. And now countries from all around the world are trying to get their hands on vibranium, the otherworldly metal found only in Wakanda that enriched the kingdom and powered its advanced technology.

And if that weren’t enough, a new threat emerges in the form of Namor (Tenoch Huerta), the king of Talokan, an ancient underwater civilization that’s Wakanda’s only true equal in both power and origin—Talokan was also founded on vibranium. Namor blames Wakanda’s decision in revealing itself to the rest of the world, and the ensuing vibranium arms race that followed, as a threat to the Talokanil’s discovery by the surface world. Namor’s ancestors have suffered and been killed by colonialists in the past, and he’s willing to do anything it takes to protect his people, even if it means an all-out war with Wakanda and the rest of the world.

The first Black Panther had a great villain in Killmonger, and, thankfully, Wakanda Forever continues this trend. But Namor is not a great antagonist because he has “understandable” ambitions like Killmonger or Thanos, he’s great because he actually challenges our heroes and pushes them to their limits. As great as Boseman’s T’Challa was, his Black Panther never really deviated from the noble king archetype (except for his brief stint in Captain America: Civil War). There was never a moment in which we wondered if T’Challa was going to be swayed by Killmonger’s argument for global massacre. Wakanda Forever is Shuri’s film, and Namor really pushes her to the emotional ringer.

Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Shuri (Letitia Wright)

Shuri was utilized more as comedic relief in the original Black Panther, but Wakanda Forever propels her to lead character, and with the film’s more melancholic tone, it requires the character to have more dramatic heft—and Letitia Wright is more than up for the occasion. From the beginning of the film, Shuri starts to question her worldview. She is a woman of science and doesn’t subscribe to the same faith-based traditions as her mother or the rest of Wakanda. But her inability to save her brother’s life causes her to question her faith in even science. Her journey through this grief, with the addition of Namor’s aggression, leads Shuri down a dark path where her leadership, humanity, and empathy are tested. She makes brash decisions out of desperation. Shuri is angry at Namor, at the world, for the unimaginable losses she’s suffered. The character’s journey from “a child who scoffs at tradition” to a broken and unexpected hero, from a light-hearted jokester to a woman in overwhelming pain, wouldn’t work without Wright’s incredible talent—she’s never been better than she is here.

Grief, and the many different forms it can take, is what the film really excels at. While Shuri buries herself in her work to distract from the pain, other characters struggling with T’Challa’s death have their own ways in dealing with this loss. Ramonda’s solution is through her faith, which believes no one is ever truly gone after death. Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), the former spy and T’Challa’s former lover, resorts to self-isolation. And Okoye (Danai Gurira), the general of the Dora Milaje, Wakanda’s all-women bodyguards, is even more committed to ensuring Ramonda and Shuri’s safety. There have been several MCU projects that have dealt with grief, especially in Phase Four, including WandaVision, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but none have depicted it as well as in Wakanda Forever. While, yes, the latter’s actual loss of its real-life star has a compounding effect on the film’s sadness, the writing and acting are also much, much better than the others. The film is bookended by Wright’s powerful performance as Shuri, with devastating scenes that sit in silence (a rarity for the MCU), that’ll leave you in tears.

Wakanda Forever isn’t a total downer, though. It’s actually quite fun and exciting. There’s still much-welcomed humor, mostly through funny interpersonal jokes between characters rather than the eye-rolling, sardonic and sarcastic humor found in most MCU films. Despite the gravity of the plot, scenes with Shuri, newcomer Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), and even Okoye are among the funniest.

Wakanda Forever stands out from other MCU films because it actually looks good thanks to its dedication to (mostly) practical sets and effects. I get bored easily from third-act battles that include armies of CGI characters, which, unfortunately, is a staple of way too many superhero films (Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Justice League, Suicide Squad, etc.). Even the first Black Panther ended with a poorly rendered fight between two CGI characters. Thankfully, every combatant in Wakanda Forever is played by an actual actor, so there’s some weight and life to the proceedings that you can actually feel.

And because the film isn’t written by committee, the script from Coogler and Cole is much more compelling than the typical MCU film. This is not a film that is concerned with the multiverse or other already-established MCU characters. It’s about the effects of colonialism and overcoming grief. There are actual consequences to characters’ actions that feel weighty. There’s a powerful scene midway in Wakanda Forever that reminded me of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (which I believe is the greatest Star Wars film ever made) because of the way it subverts heroic tropes. Usually in these films, characters are easily forgiven for mistakes they’ve made, or they’re rewarded for being rebels and challenging leadership. But that isn’t the case in Wakanda Forever. One character is punished for mistakes they made in both the first film and this one. It’s a minor thing that helps elevate the Black Panther films from more than just fantastical comic book flicks, but films in which things actually matter.

I appreciate the thoughtfulness that was put into creating Talokan and its people. Because of their shared history of isolationist nations built by vibranium, there’s a risk of Talokan being too similar to Wakanda. The Talokanils even have their own two-handed gesture and nationalistic chant (“Rise Talokan”). But whereas Wakanda is an afrofuturistic kingdom inspired by actual African cultures, Talokan is an underwater society inspired by Mesoamerican civilization and Mayan culture. The production and costume designs by Hannah Beachler and Ruth E. Carter (both of whom won their respective Oscars for their work on Black Panther) are distinct from Wakanda’s. The Talokanil wear elaborate headdresses made of lionfish fins and armor taken from the skulls of marine life. The architecture of Talokan is made up of jade and hieroglyphics. Composer Ludwig Göransson (who also won an Oscar for his work on Black Panther) researched and reimagined Mayan music, which was erased from history, to give Talokan its own unique score, including the use of indigenous flutes, seashells, shakers, and drums.

Talokanil warriors Attuma (Alex Livinalli) and Namora (Mabel Cadena)

This thoughtfulness is also present in the film’s use of language (I counted at least four different languages). The on-screen subtitles are color coded and use different fonts based on the language spoken. At one point, the switch from one language to another also plays a subtle but important role.

Despite the level of talent behind the scenes and in front of the camera, Wakanda Forever is far from perfect, and buckles under the weight of its ambitions. At just over 160 minutes, it’s the longest MCU film after Avengers: Endgame, yet it’s still not enough time to develope all of its various plot points.

Thematically, it’s kind of a mess. Wakanda’s conflict with Talokan, while interesting, doesn’t exactly gel with the film’s overarching theme of overcoming grief. (It’s like two different movies!) And while the film does an excellent job at portraying its characters’ respective journeys through grief, it can’t help but feel like a retread on ideas we’ve already seen from films featuring Black Panther before: T’Challa’s introduction into the MCU in Captain America: Civil War opened with the death of his father, King T’Chaka; the standalone Black Panther film concerned the aftermath of T’Chaka’s death, and even included T’Challa’s fake-out death; then T’Challa died in Avengers: Infinity War from Thanos’s “snap”; and now T’Challa is killed off again due to Boseman’s untimely death (which, of course, was out of Marvel’s control).

And death is not the only thematic retread felt in Wakanda Forever, it’s also present in Namor’s goal of waging war on the surface land. It feels too similar to Killmonger’s goal from the previous film, in which he wanted to arm Black people everywhere and… wage war against the rest of the world. Both Namor and Killmonger are influenced by the impact of colonialism and Wakanda Forever doesn’t have anything new to say.

The underwater world of Talokan (it’s never made clear if “Talokan” is the name of the entire kingdom or just its capital city—maybe it’s like a New York, New York thing) is depicted via a memorable montage (set to Göransson’s standout track “Con La Brisa”), and it’s beautiful at times, but we barely get to spend time with Talokan or its people. And the little that we do see of Talokan is, bafflingly, depicted very murky. I get that maybe this was probably intentional since Talokan is deep underwater, but there are ways to make underwater scenes look great—just look at the trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water, or even DC Comics’s Aquaman! There are many scenes in the film shot by Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Loki) that rival Eternals among the MCU’s best, but even Wakanda Forever can’t escape the MCU’s in-house look, with many beautiful scenes reverting back to flat, gray, and ugly color grading. (I’m thinking about the scene when Namor meets Ramonda and Shuri for the first time, or any time Namor is flying.)

While I appreciate Wakanda Forever for not repeating the same kinds of action scenes we’ve seen before by introducing more aerial and water-based action, they’re shot and edited too hastily to get a proper sense of space and direction between the parties fighting. This is surprising since the first film’s action scenes were executed so well. And speaking of the editing by Michael P. Shawver (Creed), Kelley Dixon (Breaking Bad), and Jennifer Lame (Tenet), there are surprisingly many scenes that feel like they were cut too soon before transitioning to the next. Perhaps it was to help reduce the film’s lengthy runtime, but it’s distracting. And the series of scenes at the film’s conclusion are edited so haphazardly I was literally thinking to myself What just happened?

And despite the film’s excellent title, it never actually lives up to the name “Wakanda Forever.” It feels like we spend too much time outside of Wakanda. Including Talokan, much of the action takes place in Virginia (featuring Martin Freeman’s returning character, CIA agent Everett Ross) and Massachusetts (featuring Riri Williams). It’s a shame because the film would be much stronger without these two subplots. Fan favorite Wakandan characters like Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and M’Baku (Winston Duke) are surprisingly underutilized in favor of newly introduced characters like Namor, Williams, and Wakandan warrior Aneka (I May Destroy You’s Michaela Coel), who’s just… there for some reason. (Riri Williams is an American college student and child prodigy who’s set to star in her own Disney Plus television series called Ironheart.) Nakia was the heart of the first Black Panther, so it’s a bit odd she’s largely sidelined in this sequel, especially when her guidance is exactly what’s needed to help Shuri in her time of grief-stricken vengeance against the world that took her brother away from her.

But even with all of these flaws, this film is greater than the sum of its parts. Everyone involved with the production is at the top of their game. Wright, Bassett, and Gurira showcase the best acting we’ve ever seen in the MCU. It’s amazing how the film is dominated by Black women and celebrates all their strength, beauty, and multifaceted identities. This shouldn’t be taken for granted, as Malcolm X explained, “The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” And much like Boseman helped redefined masculinity on screen, so does Winstone Duke’s M’Baku, who has a memorable role in this film as a wiser, more thoughtful leader as well as surrogate brother to Shuri.

Coogler had the unwieldy responsibility of creating one of the most highly-anticipated films of all time withouts its original lead, to tell a story set within the overbearing MCU without compromising his own vision, and he succeeded, yet again, in delivering the rare blockbuster that’s as thoughtful and well-crafted as it is wildly entertaining, reminding us that the Black Panther franchise is the MCU’s crown jewel. This film is the product of collective grief, as a way for the cast and crew to honor Boseman’s legacy, which makes Black Panther: Wakanda Forever the most special Marvel film ever made.