Review: Black Panther (2018) (Does It Deserve To Be In The Billion Dollar Club?)

(SPOILER FREE)

“You are a good man, with a good heart. And it’s hard for a good man to be a king.”

So, Black Panther has joined the billion dollar club! It’s about time I reviewed it, isn’t it? Yes, I saw it the weekend it came out, but I’ve been otherwise engaged since then. And I wanted to see if time did anything to alter my view of Black Panther. It gave me a chance to step back from the hype surrounding Black Panther. Black Panther is yet another film, like Wonder Woman, upon which criticism is focused on the cultural aspect of the film, rather than the inherent quality of it. Let’s be honest, Wonder Woman hovered between decent and mediocre. Having a superhero film with a black person as the titular hero isn’t anything new, is it? Blade came out twenty years ago! Of course, it’s hard not to focus on the cultural aspect of the film when that’s all that anyone talks about. But my feeling for the film is still what it was after I first watched it. I bloody loved it!

Creed (2015) (It’s A Knockout? Or Adrian’s Revenge?)

“What was his name?”

The Rocky franchise, just like its eponymous hero, never seems to give up, no matter how hard it’s battered. The underrated ‘Rocky Balboa’ seemed to signal the end of the franchise, but this is Hollywood; a big money franchise will always be milked. Thus, we have ‘Creed,’ the latest entry in the franchise. You’d be forgiven for refusing to see it due to the abundance of sequels/spin offs/remakes/reboots that flood our cinemas. However, by doing that you’d make a grave mistake and missing a great movie! It’s on a par with the quality of the Oscar-winning original ‘Rocky,’ and that’s some compliment indeed!