After a two plus year hiatus from actually going to the movie theater to see a movie, my wife and I decided to check out 'Black Panther' on opening weekend. I had heard only good things about the movie and I saw that the cast were all top notch actors, etc. So, by now I don't have to tell you that the movie was phemnomenal. Its currently breaking countless box office records, probably going to win a bunch of awards....yadda yadda yadda...the whole nine yards. Outside of talking about the actual movie and plot points (seriously....go see this movie), I wanted to type this up to let everyone know how important the film was not only to me personally, but my family. I will also add this: it's possibly my favorite movie of all time. Yes, for all of you that are (hopefully) reading this and know me, you KNOW that my favorite movie of all time was 'The Last Dragon'. I mean, look at the title of this blog....its named in part because of my obsession with Bruce Leroy's redemption in the movie and him finally getting 'The Glow' aka the best version of himself!
Anyway, the whole experience of this movie has been inspirational, not only the quality of the movie (which is excellent), but by how the stars of the film are going around and doing press for the film. They are all super impressive in just the way that are accepting that this magic event is bigger than them and their roles in this movie. Its a popular view/opinion that everyone tends to talk about how awesome Michael B Jordan was as Erik Killmonger, or how funny Letitia Wright was as Shuri, and how they stole the show and I definitely agree that they had the most fun in their roles. The actor who was my favorite Chadwick Bozeman, the Black Panther himself. Casting him as the Black Panther has been perhaps the best casting move the Marvel universe has made when deciding who should portray the superhero. In the film, he immediately know that he's the King. His vibe, demeanor, and even the steady way he talked to everyone was awesome to me. Even more awesome has been seeing Chadwick doing the press rounds to promote the film. Again, the WHOLE cast has been good, but I really have been pleased with the way Chadwick is grasping the moment. One of my favorite press moments in is the video below where talk show host Jimmy Fallon has people talking to a poster of Chadwick and telling it how much the movie meant to them while the real Chadwick was listening behind a curtain. Just the warmth he shows when busting out on the people was heartwarming. I know if I had that same chance to tell him my story about Trey, I probably would have been a crying mess.
It didn't really dawn on me how important this movie and the actors within the movie were until I saw it effect......yep, my son Trey. I'll explain. A couple of months ago, I watched Trey play with a few of his friends. Someone shouted out 'Let's play superheroes!' So each one of them shouted out who they were during the game. 'I'm THOR!' shouted one little boy, another said 'I'm SUPERMAN!', when it got to Trey, he said 'I'm BATMAN!' and one of the little boys, who by the way in NO WAY meant this to be mean, said 'Hey, you can't be him because Batman is white....' Trey himself didn't really care about the statement and shrugged it off (like he usually does....I have a lot to learn from him). Fast forward to a week before the movie actually comes out and Trey and I are watching TV and a trailer for 'Black Panther' comes on and he sees Chadwick Bozeman wearing the suit and saying 'I never freeze' before putting the helmet/mask on. He then is like 'OH! I can't wait to play superheroes with my friends again....I can be the BLACK PANTHER now!' I'm a super sensitive dude, so I have to say that emotion came over me and it wasn't really until then that I understood how big of a movement this movie was. I know everyone like to point out other movies like 'Blade' or 'Meteor Man' (HA!) or 'Blankman (HAHAHAHA!) but this is completely different. It has a movie director in Ryan Coogler that is becoming maybe THE BEST director in the movie game today. It features breath taking scenery and costumes that should be winning every award in the 2019 awards season. Just all around awesome.
Please remember to take care yourselves
John
