Letitia Wright

Wakanda Forever

  • Title: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • IMDb: link

More Shakespearean tragedy than super-hero film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wears its bruised heart on its sleeve mourning the loss of King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman). Taking the idea of arrive late, leave early, to extreme, we open with the death of T’Challa (off-camera and from causes never fully explored). After glimpses of his funeral, we advance a full year to look in at the state of his family and his country in the world still mourning their lost hero.

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Sing 2

  • Title: Sing 2
  • IMDb: link

The sequel to 2016’s fun, but largely forgettable, animated musical returns the core cast (Matthew McConaugheyReese WitherspoonScarlett Johansson, Jennifer SaundersTori KellyTaron Egerton, and Nick Kroll) to follow their dreams again, this time to the big city where the execs (Bobby Cannavale and Chelsea Peretti) are only interested in them if they can get legendary rock star Clay Calloway (Bono), who no one has seen in 15 years since the loss of his wife, as part of the show. Joining them this time around are street-dancing lynx (Letitia Wright) who teaches Johnny, an elephant ice-cream vendor (Pharrell Williams) who catches the eye of Meena, and a self-centered yak (Eric André).

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Death on the Nile

  • Title: Death on the Nile (2022)
  • IMDb: link

Writer/director/star Kenneth Branagh returns to reprise his role as Hercule Poirot in this follow-up to 2017’s adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express. The adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile isn’t as successful, in part due to source material not being as strong this time around and in part for some questionable creative decisions.

It takes far too long to get to the setting for our murder mystery, let alone the murder itself. By the time the body has dropped more than half the film seems to have already passed. In a somewhat defiant attempt to justify the character’s look in the previous film, Branagh opens with a flashback explaining the reasoning behind Poirot’s ridiculous mustache. After jumping forward, we are given multiple scenes setting up various characters, both in London and in Egypt, before finally get them all together on a ship sailing down the Nile River.

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Black Panther

  • Title: Black Panther
  • IMDb: link

Black Panther movie reviewWhile ultimately falling into the category of a lesser Marvel film, there’s still quite a bit to enjoy about Black Panther which develops the African country of Wakanda (which is far more advanced than almost anyone in the outside world suspects). Black Panther seems a bit out of place as Marvel gears up for its big crossover cosmic event in Infinity War as it is arguably the least connected film to the larger overall franchise since the first movies premiered a decade ago.

Taking place after the events of Captain America: Civil War, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns home to assume his new role as king. Along with the beautiful scenery and high-tech gadgets, Wakanda also introduces us to some interesting supporting characters including T’Challa’s sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) who acts as a Bond-like Q, Lupita Nyong’o as a female spy and potential love interest for the new king, Danai Gurira as the head of the army, and Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker as the elder generation ushering in the new king. Martin Freeman also reprises his role from Civil War in one of the movie’s few ties to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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