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11, 2018

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movies

A hero
Fanfare

for our
times
In ‘Black Panther,’ ing, that played on the themes in
the film,” Coogler says, choosing
his words carefully, while speak-
T’Challa has super ing by phone from Los Angeles.
It’s hard to fault his caution,
skills — but inner given that a Facebook group
moderated by a self-described
member of the white national-
strength may be ist “alt-right” staged a
campaign to lower the film’s
most powerful of all Rotten Tomatoes audience
rating. Rotten Tomatoes has
since blocked the group, saying
BY FRANK LOVECE in a statement, “While we

H
Special to Newsday respect our fans’ diverse opin-
ions, we do not condone hate
umanity began in speech.”
Africa, so we are
all ultimately THE STORY SO FAR
Africans, one The film itself is anything but
character cautious. Following the events of
suggests in “Captain America: Civil War”
“Black Panther,” (2016), in which T’Challa be-
opening Friday, the next install- comes king when his father is
ment of Marvel Studios’ elon- killed, “Black Panther” finds the Chadwick Boseman,
gated epic of serialized films. new monarch trying to intercept left above, is
Starring the character created by a sale of vibranium, a miracu- T’Challa and
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966 lous metal found only in his Michael B. Jordan is
— comics’ first black superhero country. In his ceremonial super- Erik Killmonger in
— the film takes place almost hero guise (the result of a “Black Panther.”
entirely in Africa with an almost shamanistic ritual that gives him At left, Lupita
entirely black cast, pitting the panther-like enhanced strength Nyong’o, Boseman
newsday.com

king of a hidden technological and agility), he ventures to and Danai Gurira

wonderland against an anti- South Korea with his military round out the
imperialist revolutionary with chief, Gen. Okoye (Danai Marvel cast.
MARVEL STUDIOS

apocalyptic aims. Gurira), and his top spy and \ Read a review of
Director and co-writer Ryan ex-lover, Nakia (Oscar-winner “Black Panther” at
NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2018

Coogler (“Fruitvale Station,” Lupita Nyong’o), with remote newsday.com/

“Creed”) demurs when asked
about the explicitly political
conflict between T’Challa, aka
Black Panther (Chadwick Bose-
man), king of Wakanda, and Erik
Stevens, aka Killmonger
(Michael B. Jordan), the usurper
who would use the nation’s
next-gen defensive weapons to
conquer pretty much everything
that isn’t Africa. “We wanted to
make a conflict that was interest-
support by his sister and chief
scientist, Shuri (breakout star
Letitia Wright). His confronta-
tion with South African arms
dealer Ulysses Klaue (a scene-
stealing Andy Serkis, reprising
his role from 2015’s “Avengers:
Age of Ultron”) and CIA agent
Everett Ross (Martin Freeman,
from “CA: Civil War”) helps set
off a chain of events that eventu-
ally puts Killmonger in power.
“The spectrum of action,
and the way it speaks themati-
cally on politics, religion, the
relationship between men and
women, and all the other
things . . . [Coogler and co-
screenwriter Joe Robert Cole]
put in there — it’s great,” says
Don McGregor, who with artist
Rich Buckler created Killmon-
ger and many of Wakanda’s
locales in Marvel Comics’
1970s Black Panther series.
“What I always saw about
T’Challa is the quiet dignity he
has, and the burden of leader-
ship. He’s a king, he can do
anything he wants, and he
wants to represent his people
as best he can. I think that’s
movies
why . . . [audiences] love the
character, because don’t we
wish we had leaders who cared
about all the people in the
country without it being at
some people’s expense?”
“In the [comic-book] canon,
his victories always come at a
personal cost, yet he consis-
tently chooses the greater
 newsday.com/movies C7

Fanfare
FRANK MASIM
Will Smith played an alcoholic superhero in 2008’s “Hancock.”

Those who came before

‘B
lack Panther” may be
Marvel Studios’ first film
with a black lead — and
its second on-screen, after TV’s
“Luke Cage” — but black
superheroes have long starred in
movies.

ABAR, aka ABAR, THE FIRST

BLACK SUPERMAN and
IN YOUR FACE (1977)

USA NETWORKS
Blaxploitation meets sci-fi in this
tale of a black scientist whose
serum turns his bodyguard
into a superpowered
crime-fighter. Robert Townsend shot into
view in “The Meteor Man.”
THE METEOR MAN (1993)
Writer-director Robert Townsend SPAWN (1997) Antihero Spawn
stars as a teacher who gains (Michael Jai White) is the reluctant
powers after being struck by a leader of hell’s army on Earth in this
MARVEL STUDIOS / MATT KENNEDY

meteorite. critically savaged adaptation of

good,” says co-screenwriter
Cole. “His nobility, and the
idea of someone willing to
sacrifice for someone who may
not even deserve it because it’s
the right thing to do — that
really attracted me to him.”
Cole, a member of a Marvel
MARVEL EXPERIENCE
“My experience with Marvel
was a great one,” says Coogler.
“They were very honest with
me and upfront, and I was very
honest with them about how I
wanted to make this movie. It is
a collaborative experience.
BLANKMAN (1994) With
no superpowers, but with
jerry-rigged robots and a
bulletproof costume, nerdy
Damon Wayans fights mob
boss Jon Polito in a
comedy written by
“Pretty Woman”
interesting what he said. He screenwriter J.F.
said, ‘You look at any of our Lawton.
films and you will see the stamp
of the director on them.’ And I STEEL (1997)
thought about it and I can’t Shaquille O’Neal
disagree — all their films have plays DC Comics’
the DNA of the filmmakers.” costumed,
There’s some James Bond non-superpowered
Todd McFarlane’s Image Comics
character.
BLADE trilogy (1998, 2002, 2004)
Less a superhero than a supernatu-
rally powered vampire hunter,
Marvel Comics’ Blade
(Wesley Snipes)
nonetheless proved to
be at the vanguard of
successful comic-book
adaptations.
HANCOCK (2008)
Will Smith’s
non-costumed,
drunken slacker of a

writers program that recruits
playwrights and filmmakers, got
the script assignment in October
2015. Coogler signed on three
months later after Ava DuVer-
newsday.com
There was a lot of communica- DNA here as well, thanks to gadgeteer in a superhero is a
tion back and forth during the things like a car-chase se- less-than-riveting revisionist take on
process, but I prefer to make quence that includes super- Warner Bros. the archetype.
movies like that. There are really hero moments never before picture. — FRANK LOVECE
smart folks over there who have seen in a car-chase sequence.

NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2018

nay (“Selma,” “A Wrinkle in
Time”) dropped out of talks to
direct — telling Essence maga-
zine, “Marvel has a certain way
of doing things . . . and we just
didn’t see eye to eye.” Film-
makers such as Joss Whedon
and Edgar Wright similarly have
expressed frustration with the
studio’s hands-on approach —
which, to be fair, has resulted in
both critically and commercially
successful blockbusters.
a lot of experience making
projects like these, and it was
great to have them in the battle,
in the trenches.”
And “Black Panther,” with its
well-defined racial and politi-
cal anger tempered by hard-
won wisdom and inner
strength, carries the Coogler
stamp.
“That is something I talked
about with Kevin [Feige, head of
Marvel Studios], and it was
Yet the most fantastic ele-
ment in a movie filled with
sonar gliders, underground
maglev trains and energy-
absorbing super-suits may be
the concept of a caring, com-
petent leader.
“It’s something we really Wesley
wanted to show,” says Coogler, Snipes
“that people look to T’Challa starred in
to make the right decisions — the “Blade”
the best decisions to represent trilogy.
Wakanda well.”
NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS / DIYAH PERA