T'Chaka accuses N'Jobu of assisting black-market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue with stealing Vibranium from Wakanda. N'Jobu's partner reveals he is Zuri, another undercover Wakandan, and confirms T'Chaka's suspicions. T'Challa, the heir of Wakanda, must take up the mantle of the Black Panther left behind by his father.
And, in the second post-credit sequence of Black Panther. For example, Shuri is like Q, the casino was reminiscent of Skyfall’s casino, and Everett is the classic buddy CIA operative.

Marvel is hardly known for its progressive filmmaking and cinematic representation. The casting of Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One in Doctor Strange was met with cries of ‘whitewashing’, and last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 boasted a quietly gay protagonist – hardly the stuff that dreams are made of. Alas, the tide turns, and the murmur of African drums can be heard in the shadows. A revolution is coming, and, as the trailer proclaimed, it will most certainly be live.

The city of Busan in South Korea served as location for all the Black Panther ’s scenes in the country. Pictured, the streets around Jagalchi Market, where the car chase sequence begins. But don't look for the underground casino (or any vibranium) here! This local fish market is a famous spot to eat raw seafood. One of the most powerful scenes in Black Panther isn’t an action sequence. It’s a conversation about a wig. Without giving too much away — the Marvel movie blasted into theaters last week.

From the expositionary and sandy outset of Black Panther, Ludwig Göransson’s score strikes up a pulsating rhythm with startling immediacy, the tribal sounds beating away the grandiose sludge churned out by Alan Silvestri or Michael Giacchino. Accompanied by a simple yet rousing brass fanfare, T’Challa is re-proclaimed our hero, now given 134-minutes of breathing space after the nauseating whirlwind of Civil War. Baaba Maal’s vocals bring out something new from the exhausted superhero premise, creating something truly special.

“Imbued with a tremendous conviviality too seldom perfected”

But what is this arising from the depths of the orchestral pit? Electronic vibes pervade the air, and Göransson downplays the joyous chanting for synthesised throbbing. All great heroes need an equally malignant villain, and Michael B. Jordan seethes with a thirst for revenge that hangs on his every word. The influence of America is here, the manifestation of a conflict between racial cultures, made all the more prescient by Kendrick Lamar’s additional songs. It is a war in which neither side can win, a villain so worthy of empathy that the conclusion is one necessarily conciliatory. Harmony rules the day, and it is mostly thanks to power of Göransson’s music.

Black Panther is most successful when calling on past memories, contorting them to cast aside the moralistic binaries so often created. No one is flawless, and while T’Challa will come to judge his father for his mistakes, it is his own that drive the poignancy of this message. Scenes taking place in the ancestral plain do this most effectively, the connection with heritage as important as that inherent to Pixar’s Coco. While seemingly worlds apart, both films borrow from foreign cultures to impart a powerful lesson so often lost on Western civilisation. It is Marvel’s way of telling us to think on and look sharp.

Trailer for Black PantherYOUTUBE

Ryan Coogler has not wasted a shot in bringing these ideas to life, drawing breath-taking scenery from both urban and rural settings. While Wakanda’s sunsets and agricultural landscape will undoubtedly drop one’s jaw, so too do the sleek city streets and neon lights, the black and purple mise-en-scène crafting some of the most remarkable visuals. The action comes in fits and bursts, often against an exquisite backdrop that makes these scenes more palatable for audience members who typically find violence a strain on the genre. Indeed, with its individual sense of undeniably human melancholic wonder, Black Panther transcends its predecessors in both cinematographic and narrative prowess.

One scene does stand out above all else, however, a South Korean casino brawl reminiscent of Skyfall’s Macau set piece. It showcases all of the film’s highlights – a brooding sense of dread wrapped in delicate glamour far more impressive than the Canto Bight sequence in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Chadwick Boseman proves he would make for a magnificent 007, with Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira as the fiercest Bond girls ever seen. Back at Q Branch, Letitia Wright has a blast as T’Challa’s sister, Shuri, delivering Marvel’s characteristically silly humour alongside Martin Freeman’s even funnier American accent. It hits all the right places and is imbued with a tremendous conviviality too seldom perfected.

The cast’s ability to drive the Black Panther uprising is consistently moving, one which draws as heavily from culture as it does from politics. The message is there, a threat delivered by a spluttering Andy Serkis that remains prevalent to the bitter end. Taking on arms deals and international collaboration in its wake, Coogler casts his claws wide, and just about rakes it in. It will be a shame to see it all heaped back into the wider universe again in Infinity War, but for now cinemagoers may revel in its unique majesty; after all, synthesis proved to be its making. All hail the Marvel cinematic revolution – long may it reign

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding, and during this unprecedented global crisis, we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too.

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs at least until this global crisis ends and things begin to return to normal.

Many thanks, all of us here at Varsity would like to wish you, your friends, families and all of your loved ones a safe and healthy few months ahead.

Black Panther Casino Scene Skyfall Review

Science / What does the new SARS-CoV-2 strain from Danish mink mean for future coronavirus mutations?
News / University outlines staggered return for Lent term
15 December 2020
Opinion / The University should not be solely blamed for students’ poor mental health
Science / ‘Scientifically problematic and unethical’ – why the World Health Organisation is wary of using herd immunity to tackle COVID-19
13 December 2020
News / University and colleges prepare for government’s staggered return plan for January

News / Pembroke makes offers without interview
News / Join Varsity’s Lent Term editorial team
15 December 2020
Science / Why our brains need a break from food and drink advertising online
News / University outlines staggered return for Lent term
15 December 2020
Film & TV / 24 reasons to (re)watch 24

While Marvel movies have certainly been commercial successes, Marvel has thus far largely missed the mark when it comes to the meaningful integration of music into their films. Until, that is, the release of Black Panther, the score of which fixed Marvel's music problem.

_______________________________

Guest post by Charles Burchell from Soundfly's Flypaper

Spoiler alert! This article contains spoilers for the movie Black Panther. If you haven’t seen the movie, you may want to stop and bookmark this page to read the article once you’ve seen it.

Marvel’s Black Panther, the long anticipated film about a fictional African king and superhero, was released only a couple weeks ago and has already set box office records. The film has been hailed as one of Marvel’s most socially relevant and poignant films to date. Director Ryan Coogler was tasked with bringing the futuristic Kingdom of Wakanda, the homeland of the film’s various protagonists, to life on the big screen. To do this, he enlisted the help of a stellar cast of actors such as Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyo