I think introducing another young female tech genius in a franchise where Shuri already had that role nailed down did nothing to help Riri's character be established in her own right.

The film was 30 minutes too long and plenty of people wanted the Martin Freeman stuff cut, which is fair enough, but I think adding Riri in was another burden on a film that already had plenty to accomplish anyway in terms of moving on from Boseman, honouring him, and telling its own story while introducing a whole new dimension to the MCU via Namor.

Riri would have been a good fit in the next season of Hawkeye or something more grounded, so she could have stood out more and not just be another new super suited fighter in a film full of them.

Pretty much hit the nail on the head how I felt about the entire film.

Shuri taking the lead was awful, her character motivation and actions brought the film down, and she was a wholly underwhelming lead. Came across like a dislikable, angry child with zero nuance.

Namor was forgettable as a villain. The story was middle of the road, the action was boring and it was too long.

That said, I did enjoy seeing Killmonger, the film looks beautiful, and everyone else in the film outside of Shuri brought their A-game.

6/10, at best.

Shuri's vengeful spirit arc was never about T'Challa. It was about her mother. She spent most of the movie in a state of perpetual anger over not being able to synthesize a cure for her brother quickly enough. She had even given up on it entirely despite it being a high priority for the kingdom. It's a perfectly normal part of the grieving process. If it's not dealt with in a healthy manner, it's gonna reach a climax, at which point you kinda just really want there to be someone or something to blame, so you can take that anger out on them. Her mother dying was that climax. Namor was that person she wished to direct her accumulated anger toward. That is why the vengeance thing didn't show up until the third act. It was allowed to pile up.

We can actually see Queen Ramonda in this stage of the mourning process as well, as evidenced by her absolutely wailing down on Okoye and then firing her, despite knowing she is still the most capable warrior they have, and knowing it isn't her fault that Shuri got kidnapped. This was the climax of her grief, and she chose to direct it toward Okoye.

A common thing between both Shuri and her mother's climaxes is that both of them can be traced back to Shuri's decision to go and get Riri before the fish people. Both characters blame themselves for the events that followed. Shuri likely felt that none of this would've happened if she didn't insist on going to get Riri, and Ramonda likely felt that none of this would've happened if she just put her foot down and prevented Shuri from putting herself at risk.

I agree with the rest though, but in fairness, that's something most of Marvel's more recent movies suffer from, so it's kinda low hanging fruit. I ended up liking the movie though. It's not a high bar, but it does stand as one of the better phase 4 properties.

That’s funny, I literally just finished watching this yesterday and actually thought it was way better than it has any right to be.

Some things I agree with: Angela Bassett did great but honestly I felt the acting was good all around except for the actress who did Shuri. The visual design is fucking fantastic and I thought the sound design was good for the most part too. Shuri and her motivations or lack thereof definitely made it hard to care about her or why she felt the way she did. Also she’s a bad person in real life so I kinda just dislike her period. Every scene with Okoye or Mbaku was fantastic and I wanted more

CGI was a mixed bag with some moments being really bad but I thought others (like the blue suits) looked good. The water bomb explosions seemed cool looking. Some scenes were lit very poorly though.

Some elements I disagree: Riri was fine. She wasn’t utilized properly but she was a cool addition and I don’t think her being there took away anything. T’challa dying from an illness is about the only way I can see them doing it. I guess they could’ve said they died in battle but then you’d have tons of people being like “show us dead CGI Boseman fighting and losing” which isn’t really as respectful of someone who actually died than just opening to a wonderful ceremony. I enjoyed all the action scenes and the story beats were done well enough even though some of them left me scratching my head (Namor attacks, wins, and then leaves to let them get stronger?).

Overall I thought it was like a 7.5 out of 10 and I enjoyed it more than like the last 5 marvel movies other than Spiderman

Other day I was thinking what if it was an HBO show in some alternate universe. At the end when Shuri learns that her nephew is a threat to her throne, she kills him and her mom. Blames it on other countries and starts a world war.

Cue the Game of Thrones music.

Basically, what heart shaped herb showed her was right and she is still filled with anger.

I think it's like a 6/10 but still thought it was leagues better than Quantumania, Multiverse of Madness and Love & Thunder. And when the only other movie I have left that is fair to compare it to is Black Adam, I walked away satisfied enough. It's a Marvel movie after all, I don't walk in with the highest cinematic hopes.

Also, Shuri wanted vengeance in the 3rd act because Namor killed her mother.

This is exactly how I felt when I watched it as well. Every part of this movie was a bust.

I found it a too depressing and I was disappointed by how little we saw of Shuri as Black Panther. 90% of her Black Panther scenes were already shown in the trailer.

Well, i am not expecting much from Riri Williams.

Literally her motivation l being a superhero used to be that her 2nd grade teacher wasn't racist/sexist

Regarding Riri, the actress did an interview for Teen Vogue where she said we'd might see a very different Riri in the Ironheart show so it sounds like they know she didn't work well in WF.

It just comes across as a film where you don't really care what happens, like a lot of the Marvel movies that aren't part of a chain, i.e., The Avengers movies.

The main character was so poor I was starting to wonder if she was actually going to become Black Panther or not, I would have been satisfied if it were someone else and it wouldn't have surprised me.

Get to Kang already and stop releasing this tripe.

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I liked it. Namor is so hot. Angela Bassett is so good. Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong’o, Michaela Coel! Great movie.