Black Panther (2018, Ryan Coogler) (Patreon)

Barely feels like it belongs to the MCU (despite Civil War flashbacks), and is all the better for it. Indeed, I enjoyed this not so much as a superhero movie—T'Challa is arguably its least interesting character—but as a potent counterfactual vision of Africa, re-imagining that plundered continent as a secret technological powerhouse that regards "developed" nations with something approaching pity. Mythmaking should mean something, and Black Panther, unlike most of its predecessors in this franchise, dares to dream big, granting unimaginable power not to a single dweeby individual but to an entire people. Plus, it offers a villain whose agenda, while repugnant, is rooted in justifiable outrage at centuries of mistreatment (though there's also a strong personal angle that kinda dilutes the political one). Unfortunately, the film falters significantly when T'Challa "dies," since there's zero doubt of his survival; much of the third act amounts to a waiting game, culminating in a chaotic battle sequence that's no less visually incoherent than the usual Marvel finale. (Coogler, like everyone else who directs these things, is largely at the mercy of the F/X teams; it's difficult to truly direct a sequence that's destined to be heavily computer-massaged.) By the end, I did feel as if I were watching Part 18 of Hollywoo Stars and Celebrities: What Can They Punch? Can They Punch Things? Let's Find Out! But if that's what it took for us to finally get a big-budget fantasy in which white people are at best an afterthought (we even get Martin Freeman's Ross as the token white guy), it's a worthwhile tradeoff. Just Letitia Wright as Wakanda's Q was good enough for me.

OH NO MORE BUCKY. I really wanted him to be comatose for a long time.