Black Panther: Wakanda Forever roars into theaters around the world today, and looks poised to be yet another super-sized hit for Marvel Studios. Ryan Coogler’s hugely anticipated sequel is sitting at 86 percent on the Tomatometer (with a 94 percent audience rating), and early reactions are that it’s both a hugely exciting action movie and touching tribute to Chadwick Boseman.
It also seems to be stacking up very nicely against the other MCU Phase Four movies – and that’s without any multiversal shenanigans to fall back on. Marvel fans on Twitter are naming Wakanda Forever as the best big screen entry since Spider-Man: No Way Home, saying it’s right up there with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and may just pull this much-criticized phase back into positive territory:
This era of the MCU looks to be going out on a high note:
It’s been a long year since No Way Home swung into theaters in late 2021:
Some see this as going way beyond what the other Phase Four movies attempted:
Perhaps even one of the best MCU movies to date (though we’ll wait until the dust settles to officially say that):
Kevin Feige needs to tie down Ryan Coogler for another movie immediately:
Will this consensus last:
It’s been noted that, after multiple multiverse-themed projects in 2022, audiences are getting tired of stories featuring alternative worlds and bizarre takes on familiar characters. We don’t know why the multiverse was suddenly in fashion, because though it’s provided some very fun stories, the criticism that it undermines the stakes of the story to know that there are infinite versions of the same character is valid.
Let’s hope that with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania launching the MCU’s Phase Five early next year that we get a whole new long-term story that carries Marvel Studios into a bright future.
In the meantime, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is guaranteed to dominate theaters this weekend. Go see it now before you get spoiled!