Last week, I wrote a blog about how bad a sequel can be regardless of how good the original or the director was. Thankfully, Wakanda Forever does not fall into that category. After seeing the film, I updated my top MCU movie rankings to slot Wakanda Forever into third.

• Avengers: Infinity Way

• Spiderman: No Way Home

• Wakanda Forever

I find it particularly amazing that almost 30 movies and 8 are streaming into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and 2 of the last few entries hit my top 3. This is not a recency bias, either, because Thor 4 and Doctor Strange 2 are recent entries, and neither of them ranks anywhere near the top. Thor: Love and Thunder ranks in my bottom 3.

Fresh Entry in the Genre

In 2017, Taika Waititi took on Thor 3. The first Thor was a decent entry into the early MCU films, but Thor 2 was not a very good movie and consistently ranks at or near the bottom of all MCU movies. Thor was on life-support, and Taika saved the franchise by injecting comedy into the film in all the right places to deliver a fast-paced, funny, and action-packed superhero film that brought new life to the Thor character. This was important to the Marvel story-telling because Thor was an essential character in the upcoming Infinity Wars saga.

The point of all this is that the MCU has stayed relevant for 14 years by reinventing itself through new directors and great scripts. Contrast that to the Star Wars franchise, where they have managed to figure that out only once in the movies with Rogue One. Luckily, they have had better luck with their streaming shows.

This film, however, falls into that re-inventing the genre category. It might be an exaggeration, but I felt like this movie had only about 30 minutes of its 2.5 hour+ runtime that fell into the traditional superhero movie, good vs. evil battle. Whether that number is high or low is debatable, but what isn't is that there was more time dedicated to the memory of T'Challa. The movie's opening sequence lasts a little over 10 minutes, which is crazy emotional, and then ends in a moment of silence that brings out quite a few tears in the theater. It's very reminiscent of something you might see in New Orleans, and if I had gotten my wish of T'Challa being recast we never would have gotten this fantastic piece of filmmaking. The fact that this was pulled off so well in Act 1 of a Marvel movie is a testament to Ryan Coogler and his vision. It does set up the story in a typical Act 1, but the finality of the opening scene is just different from anything else we have seen.

Replacing T'Challa

Amyway, back to Wakanda Forever. Ryan Coogler has a crazy hard challenge with this film. Chadwick Boseman embodied the Black Panther. If you look at interviews from the first installment or any of the looks back, you will see that he also was a driving force in how Wakanda appeared and sounded on film. In short, he was the true King of Wakanda. After his tragic passing, the MCU head quickly said they would not recast his character because he WAS the Black Panther. I admit that up until I sat in the theater, I thought that was a big mistake. I thought that a fitting tribute would be to carry on the T'Challa character with another powerful actor. Wow, I was wrong. Not only did Coogler successfully memorialize T'Challa, but he also memorialized Chadwick Boseman and gave him the credit he deserves for bringing such an important character into our lives.

This movie wasn't about replacing the Black Panther. It was about defining the spirit that made the Black Panther so powerful and harnessing that to create a better version of yourself. Yes, the heart-shaped herb gives the Black Panther powers, but as we saw in the first installment, that power does not make one the Black Panther. That plays out again in this installment, but with an emotional rollercoaster that you identify with and feel deeply. It is set up much like Thor's arc in Infinity Wars.

That's a Wrap

All I can say is go see this movie now! If you are prone to crying in movies, take some tissues. Make sure and stay for the single mid-credits scene, which will have you leaving the theater with a full heart and wondering when Black Panther 3 will come out.