Spiritual Warriors 3000

Friday, April 6, 2018

Hunting Black Panther


In order to form a more better union of states and their citizens in this great nation, I decided to become aware of certain merits of a new film doing rather well at the box office.  Black Panther currently sits in third place in box office receipts earning over $500,000 at the time of this writing.  Released almost two months ago, it is one of the few movies making a decent profit these days since celebrities turned into annoying social justice warriors.  Rather recent enlightenment and being black forces a paradox into this situation.  Also, I should want to watch the film so as not to be ignorant of contemporary culture.

Black Panther like Superman arrives to us from a mythical world and we like mythical worlds.  It gets boring here so flights of fantasy to places like Krypton and now Wakanda are often appreciated by us simple humans.  However, Krypton was another planet far, far away.  Wakanda resides on the continent of Africa hidden from the rest of the world by ancient technology.  While this presents a small obstacle to the premise and super hero character, it does not prevent one from enjoying the show.  

Most such fantasy movies require us to suspend cognition and I believe consumers are conditioned to the phenomena.  There is probably even a name or phrase for the dynamic I am not aware of like, jump the shark.  And, a little research on the matter indeed discovered the term, "Suspension of Disbelief."  Nobody believes Wolverine has a super metal infused in his bones but we suspend our imagination enough to enjoy the character.  We do not believe one women dressed like a banana could kill 88 sword-wielding Japanese gangsters alone but we still enjoy watching her.  We have to suspend imagination to believe in technology of Ironman and almost all other super heroes.

Probably should mention here how tough a critic I am so you may want to go see the film yourself.  Any who, there is nothing strategically bad about Black Panther.  Acting is decent to good and there are at least a few interesting characters.  However, I was offended by the idea and sight of bald women warriors.  We can thank Feminism for that; female brutes, killers, and blood-thirsty warriors.  Why should boys have all the fun and in the end, Black Panther is just another Hollywood movie glorifying violence.  I also found the lip mutilation as body-art offensive as well.

Give them credit for fiddling with the idea of empowering downtrodden African-Americans around the world within a plot twist, but the fact of the matter is that such an element could have been central to the plot and vastly more interesting than what was offered.  Violence, chase scenes, weird battles featuring a mix of spears and high-tech weapons, and an ending where the hero and protagonist wage one last fight is just more of the same.  What distinguishes the film from others is an almost 99% African-American cast.


Black Panther stars; Michael B. Jordan and Chadwick Boseman

Black Panther is a roaring success!  Saudia Arabia banned all movies from being shown in their country since circa 1982 and the Panther has changed all that.  It will be the first film screened in the royal dictatorship in over 35 years.  

Did I like it?  Not really but I am tough on movies and do not go often at all.  Is it good for African-Americans in some socially significant way?  Perhaps if it were made 20-40 years ago.  Hollywood pretense is of late becoming unbecoming.  Such movies do not make us smarter.  People are paying attention to celebrities and their pretentious products less and that can only be a good thing increasing the collective IQ of our entire nation.

Movie stars seem to be losing their luster.  We expect The Rock and Vin Diesel to run for public office any day now wanting to make America liberal again.  These are the super hero action stars of today; bald, brutish, muscle-bound social justice warriors wrapped in so much pretense one wonders how they have time to breathe.  Never mind how many kids are killed each year drag-racing mimicking their favorite action stars in their fast and furious cartoons.  Never mind that one of the stars of the film actually died drag-racing.  If I were a star of such a movie, I would go dig up a conscience somewhere and perhaps try doing different films that might even help humanity.

Vin Diesel and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

"The whole point [of The Fast and the Furious] was to diversify Hollywood and in some ways change the face of Hollywood." -Vin Diesel, Forbes 2015

It is hard to like Black Panther with all the other dreadful movies and movie stars out there stinking up our world. Panther Director, Ryan Coogler delivered a film of excellent quality. However, the genre does not have a high bar as seen in films of action heroes already discussed. Jump the shark is a good phrase for describing Hollywood overall mentality and one wonders what they will show us next.  We can expect a sequel and we can only hope Panther producers and writers try to give us something new that does not kiss the butt of feminists or Hollywood politically-correct ideology.


LINKS



Afrofuturist superhero movie Black Panther breaks new ground in more ways than one

Vin Diesel is theTop Grossing Actor of 2017


Black Panther Will Be the First Properly Screened Movie in Saudi Arabia in 35 Years


1 comment:

  1. Director, Ryan Coogler delivers a film of excellent quality.

    ReplyDelete