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Black Panther


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Just took my son to see Black Panther this weekend. It's pretty good. I'd rank it next to Iron Man 1 and Wonder Woman as a solid tier-2 superhero film. For reference, I'd put Man of Steel, Ant Man, and Thor films at tier 3, and then it gets precipitously worse after that [the less said about films like Catwoman and Batman vs. Superman the better]. Tier 1 for me would be films like The Dark KnightGuardians of the Galaxy 1 and Captain America: Civil War and Avengers 1.

 

The music in the trailer is pretty dire and doesn't do the film justice.

Anyway, I could recognize inspiration taken from all across Africa for the Wakandans. Most interestingly, I saw these shields in the movie:

kush_hex_wicker_e_01.png.75e9e35797b098118a0e1982d37038d3.pngkush_hex_wicker_e_02.png.ea53c6daf7f966fc2d3f43146e0e270b.pngkush_hex_wicker_e_03.png.533601d8875a69c492042880005c5d9c.pngkush_hex_wicker_e_04.png.d5be2661bd4323a1b98ab51e8ba38acc.pngkush_hex_wicker_e_05.png.e81b5e2315dc54408928da849ec91849.pngkush_hex_wicker_e_06.png.026a6af60cef4e85ab96f370bacd9364.pngkush_hex_wicker_e_07.png.51ca9263918912ec0bc43b2e823fa48c.pngkush_hex_wicker_e_08.png.e73d65f2a2217177db0a8d7426a9c6d5.png

 

VERY BRIEFLY, near the beginning when Tchala is being initiated as king, there is a flotilla if ceremonial barges with dancing women on them heading toward a waterfall, attached to the sides of one of the barges are these shields above. I said, AHA! out loud in the theater. lol I was also the only one to laughed out loud at the "colonizer" quip toward Bilbo Baggins from Tchala's feisty sister, but that's irrelevant here. ;) 

Tchala's shield during the ceremonial challenge fights looked very similar to the stick shields @Sundiata suggested for the Nuba units. It also looked similar to Zulu stick shields such as this:

DSCF8548.JPG

 

Lastly, I'll say Nupita Lyong'o was extremely hot in the film. Wish I could make her my queen! :blush:

eb17fd2ed09f83faa7bcf4107ffd7ad1--lupita

Edited by wowgetoffyourcellphone
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Yeah, I didn't want to classify every single superhero movie and franchise. ;) For instance, I didn't mention Logan, which is my all-time favorite superhero movie largely because it mirrors my own relationship with my own daughter, minus all the gunfire.

 

 

Edited by wowgetoffyourcellphone
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I haven't seen the movie yet myself, but I will at some point.

4 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

I saw these shields in the movie:

Lol! Dem Azande shields... 

I'm honestly not the the biggest Marvel or DC guy... I always prefer history over fantasy :P, but the production value on Black Panther seems through the roof, looks gorgeous and everybody seems to love it... It's also an interesting premise for a movie and it kind of reminds me of Coming to America with Eddie Murphy taking the role of Akeem, the crown prince of "Zamunda"(totally different movie, but you get me...).

It's nice to see a technologically advanced Africa for a change. We're used to the image of an underdeveloped starving, warring continent, but there's so much more... In Ghana for example, we have a lot of problems, but we also have a lot of cool stuff going on. Kind of reminds me of some "corporate" friends I have over here who are totally in to tech and gadgets. I saw my first advanced drones in action here years ago, when my friends in Belgium barely knew it was even possible for a private individual to own one. Using it for digital surveys/mapping and HQ promotional videos for tourism. Kantanka Automobile has been producing quality Ghanaian cars (4x4 ,SUV, Sedan) for a few years now. The first Ghanaian built satelite was launched in to space (by space X and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency :P) last year. Just yesterday I was watching a news-piece about a Ghanaian video game company in Accra :D. One of the chief robotics engineers at Nasa and "the leader of the team that designed the Mars Rover robot that landed on the red planet", the Ghanaian born Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, has established the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation to inspire and teach young Ghanaians how to build and code (simple) robots. These are just some example from Ghana, and It's difficult to keep track of all the developments continent wide but it's an exciting time..

So I should watch Logan huh?

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  • 2 weeks later...

@wowgetoffyourcellphone

So I finally watched Black Panther... I enjoyed it though it's not really my genre... Totally worth the watch!

"Don't scare me like that, colonizer!"... I died...  

I saw dem Azande shields! The pattern is almost the same as one of our own, lol!

5a9fd26550166_BlackpantherAzandeshields.thumb.jpg.c3173e270174cb3b28ab9a111790a37b.jpg

 

Of course, as an Africanist, I have my pet peeves. As a huge mashup of everything African, from North, South, East to West, they still managed to underrepresent African art and culture... lol. For example in the museum:

The "Edo Mask" from Nigeria looks absolutely hideous compared to the real Edo Mask it was modeled after:

5a9fd26cbd78a_Blackpantheredomasknigeriavsrealone.thumb.jpg.16935b85bb79a66a7aeedb57c98a43d6.jpg

 

There is no such thing as the "Bobo Ashanti tribe" from Ghana. "Bobo Ashanti" is an order, or mansion in the Rastafarian movement. The Ghanaian tribe is simply known as "Ashanti" or "Asante". They're not known for their mask-making either, but of course there are exceptions, and the golden mask of the Asantehene (King/Emperor of Ashanti) Kofi Karikari is the most well known metal mask from Ashanti. Note the striking difference between the rather hideous Ashanti metal mask in Black Panther:

5a9fd2730e582_blackpantherAshantimaskvsrealone.thumb.jpg.9a46ff3474209e83d73124b014bfac8c.jpg

Many more examples like that, but what can you expect from Hollywood :P 

Anyway, good movie!

 

 

Edited by Sundiata
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