So I just came back from watching this and honestly I think watching One Piece: Film Red again would've been a better choice.
I still don't know who the actual lead in the movie is supposed to be, Namor really didn't feel like Namor even after he says the thing, and Riri Williams is just fated to be insufferable IMO regardless of the medium.
The film did have more levity that most of Phase 4's material excluding No Way Home...so that's a point in its favor I guess.
I just got through watching this and it's easily amongst the top 5 best MCU movies. Pretty much EVERYTHING in this film was amazing, and it really was the greatest possible commemoration of T'Challa the character and Chadwick Boseman the hero. I won't discuss too much for spoilers, but a definite 10/10 cinematic score imo.
Originally posted by Darth ThorJesus guys. Riri William's point in the movie was to be a stealth pilot for her show, just like America Chavez in Dr Strange. There's nothing wrong with finding her boring, of course. But that is what she was "bringing" to the movie.
Well we already saw her in Falcon and WS. Plus a couple of other appearances I think.I found her role in this ultimately kinda pointless though.
Anyway, I found the movie disappointing. I think the actors all did pretty good jobs (Angela Basset deserves an oscar imo) and I was dubious about Namor but I think the actor they got for him was pretty good. The homage to Tchala/Boseman was nice. Spoilers below, too lazy to use spoiler tags.
The plot for this movie was a total ****ing mess. The entirety of the CIA subplot needed to be cut from the movie, I don't give a **** about the Thunderbolts. Namor's casus belli for going to war with Wakanda and the surface world was incredibly weak which is a problem since that's the core of the movie's conflict. Shuri's actor did a great job with the material she had to work with, and I think they did a good job elevating her out of comedy side character status, but I'm still not sold on her as BP at all. She doesn't have nearly enough charisma or stage presence to be an action protagonist. Marvel is continuing to regress in its ability to film decent fight scenes, the final battle was trash (and poorly written) though Namor/Shuri brawl was "okay". Everyone was hyping up the after-credits scene and I'm so disappointed with it. I was expecting to FINALLY get a reveal of the new MCU big bad. What we got instead was lame, and I actually find the idea that Tchala would willfully hide the existence of his son from his own sister (for years, the kid is like 8) to be offensive.
The worst thing for me though, is the portrayal of Atlantis (or whatever they call themselves in the movie). I don't mind the Mayan aesthetic and culture but I am sooooooo tired of these """"advanced civilizations""""" fighting each other with literal sticks. Namor's entire threat as a villain is the supposition that Atlantis can genocide the surface world, but all his ****ing troops are half naked losers using swords and spears. That special forces girl in the helicopter in the beginning killed, what? 4 or five Atlantis warriors using just a tiny handgun in the span of a few seconds? Why does a no-holds barred war between the two strongest countries on earth devolve into a bunch of guys throwing spears at each other? Wakanda is especially bad because if feels like they've regressed technologically since the previous movie (and they weren't really that great their either). Remember when Wakandan spears could shoot laser blasts? What happened to that? That would have really come in handy when they were desperately trying to repel the Atlanteans climbing up the sides of their boat. It boggles the mind that the narrative expects us to believe that Atlantis and Wakanda are existential threats to humanity if provoked, but we've seen nothing to dispel the notion that Warmachine or a couple AC-130s would wipe out their entire civilization. I'm really tired of Disney refusing to allow non-whites to use guns, man. Slightly spicy take here but I think Aquaman's Atlantis portrayal shits all over this film's. Could we have at least gotten a giant cthulu war-beast?
I give the film a 7/10. Excellent acting across the board elevated it, but it's brought down by shoddy writing and bad habits that Disney-Marvel still haven't been able to kick.