Separate from the "early reactions" thread regarding what the critics thought of it, we should discuss OUR reactions.
Saw it this morning at 10am. Given that it was Friday morning, the theater I was in was pretty filled. This bodes very well for all the lofty box office predictions that the film had.
As for what I thought, I liked it at around a B+ level. It was more serious than most recent Marvel movies, and that's a good thing. I hate the goofy, self-indulgent crud that has crept into every damn Marvel movie, so I was glad to see that kept to a minimum. It wasn't completely absent such as the scene where Klaw is singing for no reason other than market research has found that millennials like it when characters randomly sing and dance like idiots, I guess.
Anyway, as much as I liked the action sequences and the cast, I do have a couple of problems with the movie. First, it was kind of talky. The runtime was about 2 hours 15 minutes. Only 15 mins longer than Justice League, but it felt a LOT longer.
Second, I understand that this movie was important to the black community and that they wanted the characters to be represented respectfully, but EVERY character was so "strong and proud" that there was no vulnerability in any of them, so it made it hard to care about what they were going through. What I loved about Wonder Woman, even though it had much the same purpose in representing a minority population respectfully, was that they allowed Diana to be vulnerable. Seeing World War I through her eyes really emotionally centered the movie for me. Having so many characters be so stoic all the time made Black Panther a little hard to connect with emotionally for me.
Overall, Black Panther was another win for Marvel, and I'm sure it will continue to do well at the box office. I'm really curious as to how far it can go.
Only 8 comic book films have made over $400 million at the box office (4 of them being MCU movies: Avengers 1, 2, Civil War, and Iron Man 3). Will Black Panther be one of them? I think it has a great shot at doing just that.
As I said, I'd rate Black Panther a solid B+. What would YOU rate Black Panther, and how much do you think it will gross at the domestic and overall box office?