Wakanda is forever

The official Ukrainian teaser trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever from Marvel Studios has been released. The film will be released in Ukraine on November 10, 2022.

The sequel was directed by Ryan Coogler, who directed the first Black Panther.

The main roles in the film were played by Angela Bassett (Avengers: Endgame), Danai Gurira (Avengers: Infinity War), Martin Freeman (Sherlock series), Letitia Wright (Death on the Nile), Winston Duke (Black Panther), Tenoch Verta, Daniel Kaluuya, Lupita Nyong’o and others.Black Panther: Wakanda Forever tells the story of Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (notably Florence Kasumba). After T’Challa’s death, they fight to protect their nation from superpower interference. But while the people of Wakanda strive to start life from scratch, the heroes must unite and pave a new path for the kingdom. In this they will be helped by the fighting dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman).

Thor: Love and Thunder movie review

The film Thor: Love and Thunder – the fourth chapter of the adventures of Thor Odinson and the new part of the Fourth Phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – was released in Ukraine.

The film was directed by everyone’s favorite New Zealander Taika Waititi. He continued to deconstruct the myth of the God of Thunder in his usual ironic manner (as it was in Thor: Ragnarok), which, as before, will only benefit the myth itself.

The problem in the film Thor: Love and Thunder is different. It has an extraneous character and concerns the Fourth Phase itself – a group of blockbusters, which show how powerfully the Marvel universe has developed and how, along with this development, meaning has begun to be squeezed out of it.

1. The plot

Thor’s last appearance was in Avengers: Endgame. In that picture, the God of Thunder did not appear in the best form: he was enveloped in depression due to the death of all relatives, friends and half of the population of the universe.

However, as it becomes clear at the very beginning of the movie Thor: Love and Thunder, the victory over Thanos brought the Asgardian to his senses. He lost weight, teamed up with his old fellow Guardians of the Galaxy, and continued to do what he loved: wandering the universe and helping the suffering in military fashion.

However, the pain of loss and the fear of experiencing it again did not go away. This becomes clear when New Asgard is attacked by Gorr – a mortal who has taken possession of a terrible artifact – the Necrosword. In revenge for the death of his daughter, Horr made it his goal to destroy all the gods. Thor is no exception.

To help Odinson come Valkyrie and the former Jane Foster, who unexpectedly for everyone around became the temporary superhero Mighty Thor.

2. Execution

Thor’s path has always been one of the most detailed and “confusing” within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the very first, not too successful film of 2011, the hero of Chris Hemsworth appeared as a young man spoiled by privileges and won battles, before whom the throne of Asgard loomed and for whom, in order to meet the title of ruler, it was time to grow up morally.

In the second tape of 2013 (even less successful), he is no longer a young man, but a man who understands all the complexity of the world seems to have fully prepared to take the place of his father. But in the third (flawless Ragnarek) he lost his father, his throne, and Asgard.

Oddly enough, the more tragic trials befell Thor, the funnier and more intense the films about him became. After all, the first two films are standard, old-fashioned blockbusters, where there is no author’s intonation, or anything that could catch the eye (except for Lore, of course, and more precisely the chosen Hemsworth). But with the arrival of Taiki Waititi, a completely different story began: aimed at deconstructing the irony of the New Zealand director’s ego, his ability to turn pathos on its head and make expensive jokes of pop culture, which quite fell on petrified Scandinavian mythology.

Hemsworth looks good in both approaches, but Waititi’s Thor has become closer and more human. You care about his suffering.

And in the film Thor: Love and Thunder, the director continues this line of suffering through the lens of irony. Although the God of Thunder here has lost weight and destroyed several armies of alien villains, he still lives with a wormhole in his soul. He has to come to terms with numerous losses and move on. To become a meaningful god.

In this he is “helped” by two people at once. This is the main villain of the movie Horr, who lost his daughter, sold his soul to the Necrosword and set himself the goal of revenge on the empty, inactive “higher forces”. His godliness is a mistake from the inability to accept the inevitable: people die, one must rely only on oneself (or loved ones, but not on the gods). Bale, playing the role of Gorr, convincingly grinds his teeth, behaves, but through the grimaces, the main thing that was required of the Oscar-winning actor is visible: before us, first of all, a person who has lost his way, suffers from mental pain.

And Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), whose story arc in the film Thor: Love and Thunder was successfully revived and ended touchingly. Both secondary characters seem to inform Odinson that loss is not hatred and depression, but the strength to move on and love for those who have left.

There is also Valkyrie, who continues to miss her sisters who died many centuries ago (and, it seems, her lover) and also drinks. But one feels that she somehow turned that page. Tessa Thompson’s character is a stand-up, plus she’s responsible for many of the jokes. According to the script, she is told not to miss a lot.

Therefore, in an ideological sense, the film Thor: Love and Thunder is about understanding one’s independence. After all, if there is a brain, then there is no need for gods.

If we talk about form, about morphology, then Waititi strengthened his presence. Went all in. In the film Thor: Ragnarok, it was clear which shots he shot and which “collective Marvel”. In Love and Thunder, the director shot everything.

At less than two hours, this relatively compact film, where someone has either died or is about to, sparkles with jokes and levity. Of course, at the same time, the director will also pinch your hearts (for which Waititi is loved), but the crying goats, which are given to Thor for another feat and which he harnesses to his cart, the overfed and selfish Zeus (an amusing performance by Russell Crowe), Thor’s long relationship with with his weapon (the ax here is jealous of the hammer) — a working shell for the emotional heart of the picture.

In general, watching how easily the New Zealander deconstructs a myth and replaces pathos with humor, as before, is a pleasure.

Another issue is that this talented effort (film) is thrown into murky waters (Phase Four). The problem with the latter is that what initially seemed to be a series of films and TV shows about PTSD, later turned into just a set of film productions without a purpose. Hangover lingers.

Works like WandaVision, Eternals, Loki, In the Multiverse of Madness show that Marvel is ready to experiment. At the same time, a bunch of other passing projects and the lack of a meaningful core drag this whole story to the bottom. This multiverse is growing too uncontrollably.