BLACK PANTHER Review

When your movie opens in Oakland you automatically enlist this inherent cool factor that appeals to this child of the eighties, especially considering I've watched The Defiant Ones, Straight Outta Compton, and Boyz n the Hood in the last week. Opening the film with a brief history of the fictional nation of Wakanda, its origins, and how the Black Panther came to be a symbol for the monarchy that reigned over it and a hero to the people who resided within it director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed) then drops us into this unsuspecting setting of Oakland, California in the early nineties where we are served a series of events that establish the basis for what will fulfill the drama that occurs in Marvel Studios' Black Panther. This is a smart move on the parts of both Coogler the director and Coogler the co-writer who, along with Joe Robert Cole (American Crime Story), roots the beginning of his film in the zeitgeist of hip-hop; when rap was finding its footing and when the world began to take notice of what was being said within the genre. This is most definitely intentional as Coogler no doubt means to draw the comparison so as to confirm any doubt that Black Panther isn't a movement within itself. Though there have been black super hero movies before (in this analogy Blade would be your Sugarhill Gang) Black Panther is more than a defining moment as there has never been anything this explicitly black in or about a super hero movie before. Black Panther doesn't just star an African-American in the lead role as the titular hero, but it is about black culture, about black heritage, and conveys the highs and lows, the good and bad of this world of which I have no rightful place to really speak and so I will trust that when the many black people I do know who have seen the film say it is a real *moment* for their culture and for society in general I will trust that it indeed is. On the other hand, the question is how does Black Panther rank in terms of being a piece of entertainment despite Coogler inherently making this about more than just entertaining the masses? Well, it's another in a long line of reliable if not completely singular Marvel movies that tend to only break the mold every once in a while. Granted, Marvel has been on something of a hot streak lately mixing up the genres of which inspire their fare (2017 was especially strong) and Black Panther is no different in this regard as it, by default of its source material, feels fresher than anything the genre has had to offer in some time even if the potential of all the positive factors going on within the film never seem to be fully realized.

SDCC: Debut Trailer for Steven Spielberg's READY PLAYER ONE

It seems as if Steven Spielberg has been working on an adaptation of Ernest Cline's 2011 novel, Ready Player One, since it was released, but now that work is turning into reward and reality as the first trailer/footage for Spielberg's big-budget science fiction and utopian/dystopian adaptation has arrived via Warner Bros and San Diego Comic-Con this weekend. Spielberg made his first appearance at Comic-Con since 2011 when he came with Peter Jackson to promote The Adventures of Tintin though this time around it was all about Spielberg and despite the obvious fact that he was once again welcomed with open arms he also made good on what the fans seemingly expected from the adaptation in that this first look at the footage certainly seems to have delivered the goods. If Comic-Con and Disney's D23 Expo have taught me anything this week though it is the fat that I have a lot of reading to do over the course of the next several months between both this and A Wrinkle in Time. Spielberg, along with cast members Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, and T.J. Miller who were also in attendance alongside author Cline and screenwriter Zak Penn (The Incredible Hulk, X-Men: The Last Stand) presented the first footage from his highly anticipated sci-fi adaptation and as I've just stated the response seems to be overwhelmingly positive. As I personally had no expectations walking into the trailer or any real idea of what the story consisted of I was pleasantly surprised by the central idea the film and story seems to be centered around. At first, based simply on a plot description that told me that the creator of a massive multiplayer online game called Oasis dies and posthumously releases a video in which he challenges all Oasis users to find an Easter Egg that allows that player access to his fortune I thought it sounded very much like it would be akin to watching a video game play out on screen, but Spielberg has seemingly focused in on the mystery aspect of the story and the relevant themes of how each individual possesses their own particular version of reality via the ever-popular virtual reality. Spielberg also made heavy use of motion-capture for the film and that has made for what look to be some truly breathtaking visuals. That said, I'm also looking forward to getting a first look at The Papers, which is the director's real-life drama that’s currently in production with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep and will actually be arriving in theaters first. Ready Player One also stars Hannah John-Kamen, Simon Pegg, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance, and opens on March 30th, 2018.