Finally saw Black Panther now that it's on Netflix. I guess my general response was 'meh'. I mean, I get why people were excited (a mostly black cast! An African country where the focus isn't grinding poverty and human rights abuses! Etc.). But ignoring all of the meta-commentary, the film itself was just okay. The main conflict is pretty weak, the technowizardry is fun but nothing spectacular. I guess it worked in the sense that Marvel is a well-oiled machine that can churn out special-effects laden blockbusters with semi-decent dialogue and plotting. But I wasn't really impressed - and that's despite some pretty good acting.
I guess that with all of the hoopla I was expecting a bit more. The film touches on some pretty big issues; the relationship between Africa and its diaspora, the level of responsibility of technologically advanced and wealthy countries to assist others, colonialism, etc. But it doesn't really dig into any of these issues with any level of sophistication. We're given a stark choice between the position of the 'good guys' and the comically evil position of the villain. When the 'good guys' come around to a different position in the end, we're not given any insight into how the (admittedly complicated) tradeoffs were weighed. If we're going to have a movie with a black cast that focuses unabashedly on issues of great importance to the black American and African communities, then let's lean into it rather than just using it as some window dressing for another action snoozefest.
Also, that's a super-stupid way to pick the superpower-enhanced leader of your country.