Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) * *

Directed by: Ryan Coogler

Starring:  Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Winston Duke, Lupita Nyong'o, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Danai Gurira

The opening of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever pays a stirring tribute to the late T'Challa (and by extension the late Chadwick Boseman, who passed away from colorectal cancer two years ago) who has passed on and is being mourned by the people and royal family of Wakanda.   T'Challa's mother Queen Ramonda (Bassett) has now assumed the role reluctantly as Wakanda's leader and meets with the United Nations (I think), which is harassing Wakanda to share its exclusive rights to vibranium to the rest of the world.   Funny, I assumed that Stark Industries was already using it, as well as Captain America, but no matter.  

Following the funeral of T'Challa, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever mires in another two-and-a-half hours with a plot which is way too thin to spread over the bloated running time.   It appears deep in the ocean is another source of vibranium, protected by the underwater kingdom of Talokan, led by its amphibious king Namor (Huerta), who wants to destroy the surface world and wants to ally himself with Wakanda for reasons mentioned and maybe even fully explained, but I missed it.   Namor is a Conflicted Villain, who is never vicious enough for us to root for his demise, so we wind up ambivalent towards him.   Ramonda's daughter Shuri (Wright) is angry enough at the death of her brother to want the world to burn, but soon she dons the vacant Black Panther costume to lead Wakanda against Talokan. 

I praised the original Black Panther's technical qualities (for which it won three Oscars in 2018) while giving less than stellar grades to its story, which seemed typical of many movies made before it.   Black Panther: Wakanda Forever looks good to be sure, but its plot is far less riveting than its predecessor and moves without much forward momentum or direction.   Other than the tributes to Boseman which are peppered in throughout the film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever doesn't carry much emotional heft.   Shuri dons the Black Panther suit, but not T'Challa's mystique, and we are left with a movie which at its heart didn't need to be made.