God, I miss Chadwick Boseman. I obviously didn't know the man, but his work in the Marvel cinematic universe has been fantastic. He left a hole in everyone's heart when he passed and sadly he also left a hole in this movie that needed to be filled. So, the first step the movie takes is for the characters along with the audience to say goodbye. It's very emotional and powerful beginning that is very well done. As we dry our tears, the movie fast forwards to a year later.
Time doesn't heal all wounds and everyone is still grieving meanwhile the plot begins to unfold. The world wants Vibranium, yet in the wrong hands, it can be dangerous. We see the French government take a crack at stealing some and fail. The American government develops a machine to detect it and they find some in the ocean. Unbeknownst to everyone, the Americans and the Wakandans, the Vibranium is connected to another group, the Talokanil lead by Namor. The Talokanil take out the Americans so now the CIA gets involved. The CIA think it was the Wakandans and they don't know who it was until Namor reveals himself to Shuri and Ramonda. He tells them a scientist is responsible for creating the Vibranium detecting device and he's going to find and kill that person.
The scientist turns out to be a young female MIT student named Riri. The Wakandans find her first and try to bring her back to Wakanda to protect her, but the Talokanil capture Riri and Shuri. Because of her failure, Okoyo is stripped of her title and status. Ramonda turns to Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) for help. Nakia has been out of the game for years now as she's doing good work in Haiti. She agrees to help, finds and rescues Riri and Shuri, and brings them back to Wakanda. Namor and the Talokanil attack and Ramonda is killed. This scene mirrors the beginning of the movie and it was another gut punch where the tears were definitely flowing.
It's now war between Wakanda and Talokan. Wakanda is given one week to prepare by Namor. Shuri is able to recreate the flower that gives her the powers of the Black Panther and becomes the new Black Panther. Riri makes an Iron Man suit and becomes Ironheart (I don't think this name is said in the movie, but I read it afterwards).
Shuri is able to defeat Namor, she spares his life, and they come to an agreement.
There's a whole side plot with the CIA involving Ross (from the first Black Panther film) and his ex wife who is the director of the CIA: Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). That really doesn't go anywhere unfortunately.
The final emotional gut punch comes in the mid-credit scene. We find out that Nakia was with child during "the Blip" and she had a son with T'Challa. She wanted to raise him outside of Wakanda. His name is Toussaint but his Wakanada is T'Challa.
The movie was an emotional rollercoaster. It had to not only had the task of giving us an interesting story, but it also had to pass the baton from T'Challa to Shuri in a meaningful way. The latter was done fairly well, with a few minor missteps, but the former was a little bit of a miss. Assuming Namor and his people have been in hiding for countless centuries, you'd think they'd be a little more subtle in their approach when the Vibranium in the ocean was found. Also, you'd think that maybe they would have partnered with the Wakandas instead of almost immediately becoming their enemy. I didn't like the plot point that the scientist had to be killed. Killing the scientist was not going to suddenly stop the search for Vibranium and keep the Talokanil safe. And even though they hid in the ocean, the Talokanil seemed to be pretty smart and technologically evolved, especially to figure out a way to exist on land.
After learning that this movie was supposed to the a father/son adventure, it had to be shifted to a mother/daughter one. I wish we got more of that instead of the CIA things that really didn't go anywhere which were probably a setup for a future conflict.
