Cross stitch pattern of the titular character and alphabet used in Black Panther with the quote “Wakanda Forever”. This pattern is available to my patrons on Patreon in both PNG and PDF formats.

Grid Size: 71W x 170H
Design Area: 4.93″ x 12.00″ (69 x 168 stitches)
Colors: 1

I saw Black Panther and even though it was a pretty good movie, it still had it’s flaws. The best parts are the set design and the characters. T’Challa’s sister has the perfect introduction. She’s set apart from her mother immediately with the way she dresses and her humor. You also get to see the relationship she has with her brother all in one short scene and it’s great. I love how Killmonger gets a moment to talk to his father even though he’s pretty unremarkable other than that. Klaw’s specific brand of snarky crazy is portrayed perfectly. I particularly love the set design of Wakanda and how it blends high tech with traditional African imagery for a unique take on cyberpunk visuals. The costume design is top notch and I can’t find fault in the audio.

However, there are still a bunch of problems. Probably the most glaring problem is the lack of uncertainty, especially in the fight scenes. I found myself rooting for the barking gorilla guy to beat T’Challa and become king, just because I knew that it would never happen since T’Challa is already the Black Panther. The fight scene is completely skipable except for the beginning where T’Challa’s strength is stripped away and the very end with his show of mercy because that actually tells us something about the characters. Everything else you can sleep through and miss no plot or character development. Yeah, the stakes are kind of high, but you already know who will win so there’s nothing to keep you at the edge of your seat. I need to be invested in a fight or it’s just boring.

Black Panther has a bunch of editing issues where important scenes don’t get the screen time they need in order to really bring home an emotional impact. After being crowned King, T’Challa meets with his council and decides to go after Klaw. This should be a big scene. He’s making his first major decision as a new king and he’s going against the wishes of most of the councilors. This could have easily been a reason for some of the tribes to revolt and could have tied into the final battle, but no. It’s cut like a filler scene and all that potential is lost. Towards the end of the movie there’s a scene where Michael B Jordan talks to his dad. Even though this is my favorite scene in the entire movie because yay for humanizing villains, the editing is sloppy as it cuts between the adult and child actor. I think the worst instance of bad editing comes from T’Challa’s first journey into the spirit world. This should be big. He’s meeting his dad for the first time after his death and at a major changing point in his life, and yet the scene ends so abruptly that the audience isn’t given a chance to cry at what should be a touching scene.

There’s a bunch of small problems too like Wakanda being isolationist. This opens up a whole can of worms as I can’t help but compare a country whose citizens are purposefully kept secret and away from the rest of the world with North Korea. Do they have internet? Can they buy things off ebay? What about imports and exports? If you have a bunch of something valuable but it’s only valuable to people you don’t trade with, then it’s not valuable!

They say they’re worried about other countries getting Vibranium and their technology and yet they leave the little EMPs on the trucks in that kidnapping scene and I’m certain no one went back to get that Vibranium spear that was thrown in the road later in the car chase. Also, Martin Freeman’s character was almost completely useless. His big thing was stopping Wakandan tech from leaving Wakanda, but in the end T’Challa decided to share his technology anyway!

Look, I know I’m ranting, but it’s because I know that this could have been a really good movie if it had a little more polish. As it it, it’s just an ok film that you might only check your phone once or twice in. There’s a lot of potential here, but it doesn’t live up to the hype.