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 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Some film
critics are calling it the best Marvel movie so far; others say
it's a correction after years of neglecting minority talent in
Hollywood.
The predominantly black cast of superhero movie "Black Panther"
hope its combination of African pride, beauty and kick-ass
adventure will also mark a cultural shift in the movie industry
and beyond.
The Disney movie, opening worldwide this week, tells the story
of T'Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), the new king of
the futuristic, wealth-laden African nation Wakanda, who is
challenged by factions within his own country.
"Marvel has a way of really affecting popular culture," said
Lupita Nyong'o, who plays the Wakandan warrior spy, Nakia.
"Hopefully it changes the general idea of what being an African
is. Too often times we see Africa as a place that is wanting,
and here it's a place that you want to go," she said.
The movie, directed by Ryan Coogler and also featuring Michael
B. Jordan, Angela Bassett, Forest Whittaker and Daniel Kaluuya,
arrives to stellar reviews after years of criticism about the
under-representation of movies, actors and filmmakers of color
in Hollywood.
Analysts expect it to rake in some $150 million at the North
American box office on its opening weekend, and the filmmakers
hope it will encourage studios to invest in more mainstream,
racially diverse films.
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"It's not often that you see two black men in a movie playing a role
of this importance. You see it with white actors, (like) 'Ocean's
Eleven' where it's Brad Pitt and Matt Damon and George Clooney, and
it's like 'why does that never happen with us?'” Boseman said.
"Hopefully the success of this will make it be commonplace. It'll
make Hollywood stop saying 'well, your movies don't travel," he
said.
"Black Panther" also offers a new type of villain through Jordan's
Killmonger, an empathetic former military black-ops agent, who wants
to distribute Wakanda's wealth to arm the world's black population
and help them rise to power.
Wakanda is depicted as a verdant land with stunning waterfalls where
spacecraft designed like tribal masks soar over a modern metropolis.
"The aesthetic of it is so pleasing, and so black and so
Afro-centric and African and modern and worldly and futuristic,"
said Bassett.
"All this brilliance and excellence... It's extremely important.
Especially for our young people," she said.
(Reporting by Rollo Ross; Editing by Bernadette Baum
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