Extended, single-take shots are like a magic trick. As moviegoers, our eyes have grown so accustomed to jump cuts and other editing techniques that when a single take goes on for more than 60 seconds, we become a bit mesmerized. For the first time, the film is reflecting what it’s like to experience the world through…
Here’s something we’ve come to realize of late: There’s always a cameo. If you’re watching a modern big-budget movie, there’s a good chance that some A-lister is hiding on the fringes, whether it be Daniel Craig and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in The Last Jedi, Kevin Smith in The Force Awakens, Matt Damon in Thor: Ragnarok, …
Black Panther’s Erik Killmonger has quickly emerged as one of the most fascinating entries in the MCU’s rogues gallery, a group of characters who—with a few notable exceptions—had mostly previously been home to flatly drawn C-listers like Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Ronan The Accuser and whatever Corey Stoll’s deal in …
In Avengers: Infinity War, the longest, priciest, and most-crowded crowd-pleaser ever to roll off the Marvel Studios assembly line, Earth’s mightiest heroes face their most daunting challenge yet: an intergalactic nihilist whose dearest dream is to cleave the entire population of the universe in half. The good news is…
Anyone who’s read Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold Story or Blake Bell and Michael Vassallo’s The Secret History Of Marvel Comics knows there’s a rich background and involving narrative surrounding the creation of some of our most iconic and enduring superheroes. But a new exhibit makes a simpler argument:…
Avengers: Infinity War is the beginning of the end, one of two films (the second coming in May 2019) which mark the conclusion of “Phase Three” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a universe that began a decade ago with the first Iron Man. Marvel has been very clear that these movies will mark a decisive endpoint to…
Some Marvel movies, particularly early on, feel like they were constructed by Marvel Studios going down a list of important bullet points from the comics rather than being a personal work directed by an actual human, but the company does seem good at recognizing the benefit of allowing a filmmaker to put their stamp…
This summer, a Black Panther-inspired convention called Wakandacon is coming to Chicago, with a press release calling it “a first of its kind” event that will celebrate “Afro-futurism, tech, and entertainment” as well as “black superheroes in film, gaming, television, and comic books.” The convention was founded by…
On last night’s Saturday Night Live, it was inevitable that host Chadwick Boseman would have a lot of Black Panther stuff thrown at him. His monologue even teased SNL’s, let’s call it inconsistent, history of host-centric hot-button sketch work. (Thankfully, morning show Wake Up, Wakanda remains unproduced.) As it…
A superhero movie comes out, but it doesn’t look like other superhero movies. The hero is black. So is the villain. So are almost all of the supporting characters. The movie touches on the main superhero-movie beats that we expect: the origin story, the demonstration of powers, the final battle with the equally…
In January, Saudi Arabia celebrated the end of a 35-year ban on movie theaters with a public screening of The Emoji Movie. Considering that the movie has now been granted some historical significance because of this, it was kind of a shame at the time that Saudi Arabia didn’t pick something a little better.…
On The Tonight Show ostensibly to promote his new comedy series The Last O.G. (premiering on TBS on Tuesday at 10:30 Eastern), star Tracy Morgan, instead, spent much of his time complaining to host and former Saturday Night Live co-star Jimmy Fallon that he got to that whole “black superhero” thing long before Black…
After five weeks atop the box office, and a record-breaking gross of $637 million (and counting) making it America’s highest-grossing superhero film, it’s safe to call Black Panther a phenomenon. Which is great news for Seth Carr, whose small but impactful cameo as a young Erik Killmonger is making him the envy of all…
There’s been an increased recognition in recent years—spurred by movements like #TimesUp and #OscarsSoWhite, and also the real, blood-and-sweat work of actual, non-hashtag human beings—for the importance of diversity and representation in the world of Hollywood blockbusters. The need for non-white men, and women of…
Disney and Marvel managed to snag yet another box office record from themselves this weekend, with THR reporting that Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther is now the most successful superhero movie—in terms of domestic box office returns, anyway—of all time. The Chadwick Boseman-starring blockbuster blew past The Avengers …
In the weeks since its release, Black Panther has set or broken all kinds of records. Ryan Coogler’s epic superhero film is still perched atop the box office, raking in $600 million domestic and more than $1 billion worldwide. So not only is it poised to bust up The Avengers’ record, but by spending five consecutive…
Chadwick Boseman has played James Brown and Thurgood Marshall, and recently proved that he could launch a billion-dollar movie franchise with panache. Now he’s going to give sketch comedy a shot: Entertainment Weekly reports that the Black Panther star will host Saturday Night Live on April 7.
The Black Panther movie was full of awesome people doing awesome things, like T’Challa’s cool superhero stuff, Shuri’s cool science stuff, and Killmonger’s cool shirtless scenes, but it’d be tough for any of them to be as badass as the Dora Milaje, Wakanda’s army of female warriors. That team, which was led by Danai…
The winner of this week’s struggle for box-office dominance should surprise no one: It was Black Panther, coming in at No. 1 for the fifth week in a row and becoming only the seventh film ever to gross more than $600 million domestically. Currently only $18 million away from toppling The Avengers as the…
Thanks to the obsession with blockbusters that has preoccupied major studios for the past 40 years or so, there have been many weekends where two heavily promoted tentpole films—sometimes even from the same studio—have occupied the top two slots at the domestic box office. This past weekend, though, marked the first…
