The good stuff:
- reworking Namor to be Mayan is a good idea
- introduction of ironheart/riri williams is good, the actress does a good job with what she has
- most continuity hooks are based on the first Black Panther instead of any other random Marvel movie
- the movie seems interested in actually having character arcs
The bad stuff:
- Killmonger was a much better “well-intentioned extremist” compared to Namor. I just don’t buy his motivation enough. I’m getting tired of these in Marvel movies as well.
- Riri gets a few scenes to actually do stuff and then effectively becomes window dressing for most of the movie. Even when she finally reveals her “real” suit she’s just one of cacophony of CGI characters who do… not much.
- The final confrontation between Shuri and Namor felt like an only slightly better version of the “Martha Moment” from Batman v. Superman
- Shuri’s arc-type thing was… bleh. I kinda see what they were going for, but everything felt super artificial.
- the mid-credits scene in isolation is cool and fine, pretty standard post-death of main character stuff. but in this specific case it really feels like setting up some kind of multi-generational continuity hook. Like, if there’s a movie in 15-30 years called BLACK PANTHER FOREVER with the new T’Challa I’m gonna be mad!