How?
How is never as important as why.

So. How do you fill the giant Chadwick Boseman shaped hole in the MCU?

Apparently… with funeral services, Atlantis (but not), mer-Hermes (the first self described mutant in the MCU), and–eventually–someone new to take up the mantle.

It’s… fine?

There were certainly some pretty spectacular action scenes. The under water scenes are pretty–even if they only sort of make sense. The character and costume design continues to impress. And there are giant piles of funeral services and mourning.

On the other hand, the sudden introduction of an entire (large) underwater civilization feels… weird. And as we’ve had before with the Marvel movies, some of the big battle set pieces don’t make that much sense. They’re going out on a boat to fight water people. All to… limit how many fighters they have to film? And then all but like ten people die and we’re just okay with that?

Overall, it’s about the middle of the road so far as Marvel movies go for me. Pretty good, decent action, but there have been better entries. Pretty high up for 2023, but that’s probably more because I haven’t seen that many movies this year.

Onward!

Other loves:

• M’Baku:

  M’Baku: We should find the fish man and kill hill.
  …
  M’Baku: If we do what he wants now, what’s to prevent him from coming back and asking for more?

  He deserved more though.

• Riri:

  Okoye: [to Riri] You have two choices: you can come to Wakanda conscious, or unconscious.
  Riri Williams: You need to be conscious of the way that you look! Walking around all in here with that ash on your head!

  I’m looking forward to her actually having some room to breathe, assuming that show works out.

• Namor:

  Tenoch Huerta plays the heck out of every scene he’s in. He’s delightful.

Other misses:

• Ironheart / Shuri:

  Neither of them has the slightest training fighting so far as I can tell. So… why in the world are they suddenly forced to fight so dramatically?

  Shuri was great as a science geek / side character. She’s much weaker leading the film.

• Worldbuilding:

  Why exactly can’t Shuri extract DNA from the burnt Heart-Shaped Herb?

  Random underwater civilization doesn’t make any sense. How deep are they? How do they heat / build things? Why do they wear the water patches under water? Is pressure / pressure changes just somehow not a problem?