Since I was the last person on Planet Earth to see Black Panther, I’m not going to worry about spoilers.
The king dies. The rest of the movie was about people fighting over succession. Why? There was a perfectly functional queen. Why couldn’t she rule for 20 years? Why was a successor required?
Maybe the answer is “the queen didn’t like to fight all the time.” But Wakanda never sought to fight wars with other countries and had all kinds of advanced defensive technology that other countries couldn’t match. Why would Wakanda have needed a leader more aggressive than TV’s Mr. Rogers?
What about the ending? The wealthiest and most powerful nation on the planet picks a project that a retiring city politician might undertake? How was it different from Derek Zoolander’s School for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Want to Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too?
Before you answer “It’s a made-up movie, stupid,” consider that my Facebook friends and the media have assured me that this movie offers important Black History Month lessons.
[I saw the movie at Seattle’s Cinerama, restored at tremendous cost by Paul Allen. The $15/hour minimum wage seems to mean that they can’t afford to hire people to clean up popcorn in between shows. Seattle shows that a fair world is a dirty world? (Separately, the city was packed with panhandlers sleeping on the sidewalks. Are there city workers who ensure that they collect at least $15/hour for the hours during which they are actively asking for money?)]
That’s the way succession laws have normally worked in places that have kings and queens to begin with. Queens are only rulers (or figureheads, in the case of the present-day UK) if the previous ruler didn’t have any male children. Even then it’s a child of the previous king who becomes the new ruler, not the previous ruler’s wife.
Yeah, it’s the same reason that when Elizabeth dies (if he somehow survives her) Philip won’t become king. It’s not passed down through marriage. Other flaws in the movie are obvious, that one is not.
Technically, since H-Rod is our defacto ruler, succession is passed through marriage. It’s more of the same that so many self proclaimed millenial feminists proclaimed their love of the movie even though the queen never became ruler & went back to wearing their investment banker husbands on their shirts.
My question: given that a rightful kingship includes both magical herb-based panther power AND magic-alloy nanotech armor, why on earth is “being able to fight WITHOUT these attributes” the key kingly qualification? Surely they should be selecting a king on some OTHER basis than physical strength and attack resistance.
Instead of a fight, challengers to the throne should engage in a chess match! Or pass an ethics exam, or a math test or…anything BUT physical combat. That way, after drinking the lotus potion and visiting Q’s lair you’d have a king who was physically powerful AND smart rather than merely extra-physically powerful.
Phil,
Sorry, you were not the last person in the world to see BP.
I am…fortunately.
Wouldn’t watch such nonsense if I were paid $15 an hour.
Have not seen it either. I have no desire to watch most movies; lots of plot holes and too much CGI. Bring out the unobtanium shields or other superhero guff and I’m gone.
Re panhandling at $15 per hour: I have heard a few times that begging makes VERY good money. Conan Doyle based a Sherlock on that.
I overheard a panhandler in my small town (had his kid along) talking to a buddy. He said he’d made 40$ in 3/4 of an hour and was going to buy some beer and baby food and head home.
Hello it’s me – True story. I worked in northern VA and this one very personable guy panhandled every day at the same place on the sidewalk. He was Mr. Friendly. I never gave him anything since I already knew most of these people are alcoholics or scam artists. One day he inexplicably disappeared for about two weeks. Then he showed up again. Intrigued, I walked up and asked “Ok, I’ll bite. So where’ve you been” as I tossed some coins in his container. He laughed and said with a big smile “I’m house sitting for a friend. He doesn’t have a TV, so I came back out to buy one.”
Phil, I finally saw BP. It was pretty entertaining, but (like you) I thought the ending was pretty lame. An outreach center? And, oh by the way, let’s blow our cover by letting everyone see our advanced technology?
Absolute nonsense and waste of time. I’m really surprised at US adults seriously watching movie made for and by 5 year olds.