Black Panther was a fine film. Not the best superhero film ever made, not even the best superhero film of 2018 (Infinity War was much better). The story was really average, it was basically the first Iron Man told again but in a different setting. The cinematography was average, and at times pretty bland (the lighting in particular in some action scenes was far too dim). A lot of just shot-reverse-shots and we barely see any of the Wakandan city in any grande way outside of the first time we enter into it. There are some good elements of Black Panther, however. The portion with Killmongerer, portrayed by Michael B Jordan, was really interesting and well made. I was pretty invested for those 30-40 minutes. That is aided by the really good soundtrack and acting. The soundtrack is probably some of the best in the MCU; it was not cliche or anything like that, it was pretty original for a summer blockbuster film. The acting by Michael B. Jordon was pretty great and I really liked his character a lot. However, past that 30-40 minutes, the rest of the film is pretty bad. The CGI was awful for a 2018 MCU film, and the end battle was pretty boring and bland. Overall, a 6/10 film.
So what gives? Why did this get nominated for best picture? Well, with the mentioning of a most popular film category in the Oscar category, I think the Oscar's are trying to appeal to the mainstream. Black Panther did get the most amount of publicity, both critically and from the audiences. It was also a very diverse film; which I do say that Black Panther did deserve publicity for that aspect since it was really an almost all-star diverse group of actors. Added all up, it can be clear that Black Panther was nominated for two reasons: to make a statement and for the other upcoming Oscar category.
The Oscars did want to make a statement. It wanted to say that we are not just some hippy, old white guys sitting in a room nominating weird films that no one has heard of; we are with the mainstream and we like these action-packed films as well. Some will say that it chose Black Panther because it is a diverse film, and while that could be the case, I think they picked Black Panther to appeal more to the mainstream.
Lastly, that upcoming most popular film category is clearly coming its way and nominating Black Panther might have been the Oscars way to curtail the outrage that will come by many film enthusiasts in the next year or two (whenever it comes out I don't know). I mean think about it, no one was really happy with the popular film category which was revealed last year. Everyone thought it would be a stupid decision; a decision to appease to the masses and that's about it. But, with nominating Black Panther, it kind of shows the direction the Oscars will be taken in the upcoming years; at least, with including common summer blockbusters essentially in the Oscars.
Maybe the Oscars people really liked Black Panther; maybe it really did win their hearts over films like First Reformed, Eighth Grade, or Suspiria. But really, I think that the Oscars want to be more mainstream and get in with the more popular films around. It wants to draw in the large mainstream audience; I mean, why else would the Oscars make a popular film category in the upcoming years? It is clear that they want to take out that idea of the Oscars being old white men film club, and show that it is a film club for all audiences, and nominating Black Panther was probably its first step towards that.
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