Coco Review - Fear of a panther planet

The latest addition to the Marvel Universe is out... and it is lit!! Black Panther (even the name is cool) is in cinemas now and is a must see for any one over the age of 5. Besides the fact that this Marvel superhero has the baddest name in town, everything about this movie is.... Black. And it’s glorious!! 

Black Panther is King of Wakanda, a land somewhere in Africa that is hidden from outside eyes by technology. So advanced, it makes Tony Starks Iron Man look like a Hologram from Red Dwarf. Wakanda is like Charlie’s Chocolate Factory... for blacks only. A place untouched since time began by the meddlesome white hands of James Cook or Christopher Columbus. Everyone in Wakanda looks like they could walk onto a catwalk or a vogue cover, even the fashion design is light-years ahead. Add to this, Amazonian black sisters who look like they could give Mark Hunt a hiding, you begin to question your Islandness, and if you aren’t really an orphaned child from Wakanda, who your Island parents picked up on a church mission in Africa. I wonder if the people of Samunda are distant relatives to the Wankanda tribe?

Black to the action – The Marvel Universe feels like it has grown in it’s expanse. At a time when many of the superhero stories seemed to run out of puff or just went and got toe jammed, the crappy stone in the ground that sucker-punched us was the heart wrenching Logan, the end of the Wolverine movie proved that the superhero franchise could be saved but it needed writers with heart and directors with vision. Both these elements came together in Taika Waititi’s version of Thor Ragnarok and now Ryan Coogler’s (Fruitvale station, Creed) Black Panther. All three movies were fearless in the story department, unafraid and unashamed to make social commentry within the work, but without trying to lay it on like best foods mayonnaise on a palusami sandwhich.

The triumph of this movie is weaving all these elements (and they are considerable) into a 2 hour laugh, action, drama, love fest. Just like Hibiscus and Ruthless, it’s comforting to see a movie jam packed with colour, talent and something to say.

Go and see this because what you have heard is all true, and is worth the trip to the big screen. Or just go and see it and watch some palagi people squirm in their seats at the “coloniser” references, that turn up time and again.

Black Panther is more Shakespeare than Marvel, there is a timing and poetry that your soul can’t ignore. You too will smile. Enjoy.

8.5/10 taros from me.

By Sione Se’evae Kosokoso