I remember thinking this movie was mediocre at best when I first saw it but there was a delayed fervor for this movie that blew up overtime that made me reconsider watching it again. I have to say my opinion hasn't changed. I remember discussing this movie with a friend at the time as he was a big fan of the movie but most of his reasons seem to be in the political aspects of representation. Not really about the quality of the film itself.

There is a decent story in there but the way it was executed was just terribly bland and immature. Like a teen that thinks too highly of himself and considers himself the best at everything. Its like they wanted to portray Wakanda as the perfect civilization with no flaws beyond wanting to remain hidden from the rest of the world.

I was personally very impressed with the Black Panther character when he was first introduced into the MCU in Civil War. Boseman fit that role perfectly but in this movie there wasn't much depth to his character and there wasn't much Boseman had to work with. After his death (RIP), there was a very fanatical uprising where it just seemed to be about representation and nothing much else. Not being an African American or white for that matter, I don't really have the same stock in this film and found it mostly forgettable. Not really sure I care about the sequel as its firmly routed in that political mindset of representation and now that Boseman is no longer available to play the lead, its no longer a film about Black Panther.

Today I feel the bar for quality story telling has been significantly lowered to the point that you need to step back and really read the comments and reviews to see exactly what they are praising. A movie with a high rating doesn't automatically make it a good movie. The motivations behind the fame seems to firmly be routed in political discourse outside the movie itself.