I want to breeze through most of this review to complain about a comic book movie trope that bugs me. This movie features that trope in vast amounts.

Black Panther tells the story of a country, Wakanda, that from the outside appears to be a poor farming nation, but in reality is powered by a metal called vibranium that basically can do anything. It can create optical illusions, cure disease, make invincible suits and powerful weapons, save spinal columns, and probably tastes good, too. Traditionally, even though Wakandans are far more advanced than any nation on Earth, they choose to not help or hinder any other country as a mode of self-preservation. The conflict comes in when the villain, Killmonger, lays a claim to the throne. The cousin of Black Panther, he’s seen the real world, and wants to help the oppressed peoples rise up and crush the imperialist nations that have exploited them by giving them unstoppable vibranium weapons. This is a much more nuanced motivation than we see from comic book films, usually. What are the obligations to help people that are in need? Shouldn’t a country with means help those without those means? Obviously, his solution of violence is not the right answer, but it does cause the people of the country to eventually re-evaluate their obligation in the world. It’s a worldly grounded problem, and it works well.