Ironheart and the Eyes of Wakanda

Continuations of Wakanda...

Ironheart

This six episode series focuses on who I currently believe is the worst hero to date. Riri Williams (played by Dominique Thorne) is a girl genius who rivals Tony Stark's tech using what is basically salvage and has already had some "hero experience" abroad, but upon coming home she just can't help herself and her need for money. To this end she does illegal stuff just short of becoming a ho and joins a gang of crooks and ends up accidentally making the most annoying AI person available but then is unable to operate without said AI person. Maybe she grows/arcs out of it.... nope! She's still the same selfish ass hat at the end of the series. Weak acting doesn't really help the case. Not recommended. 

Eyes of Wakanda

This animated series with four episodes is much better than the above, despite the "kiddy" style art the stories and violence within are quite enjoyable as we follow various Wakandan spies out in the world throughout many points in history - usually trying to retrieve their own tech that's gotten out in the world. Short enough to be worth a try. :)

Black Adam and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

The king is dead!

Black Adam

In a fictional Middle Eastern place oppressed by Intergang (mercenary goons who apparently never flee), a dangerous artifact and a powerful being (the titular Black Adam, played by Dwayne Johnson) with the powers of Shazam are discovered and released into the world. While Adam is viewed as a savior by the locals, internationals forces feel he is a threat and send other heroes to apprehend him. Violence ensues because he's one tough cookie.

While the plot is mostly predictable here, the action scenes are a great spectacle and there are lots of them (though almost all are just of the CGI variety). I also do find it refreshing for this superhero protagonist to be super violent to the extent that he goes out of his way to kill people. Alas the main child actor is a bit weak in the acting department and suspect his "cool" skateboarding skills were meant to make up for it. Nope. At one point he tries to sneak quietly ON A SKATEBOARD. Expect silly things like that. Also the female hero was unnecessary and could have been cut from the film. Still an enjoyable flick if you turn your brain off.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

In an attempt to continue to hold monopoly on their space rock, the recently kingless Wakandians (futuristic spear wielding Africans) find themselves in conflict with the ocean city state of Talokan (futuristic spear wielding aquatic Mexicans) who happen to have space rock of their own. This results in ridiculous unnecessary pursuits, poor decisions, some flat comedy, stupid CGI battles (seriously, Black Adam's were better but at least here the are non CGI fights which are great) and a lot of bloodless violence. Did they really try make this movie for kids while also including numerous languages that you'd need to subtitle for?

The worst part is I didn't care about the characters at all. The antagonist is a moron, protagonist Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) is a whiny know it all who doesn't obey orders and so obviously she gets along with student genious Riri (Dominique Thorne) who is introduced here to setup Ironheart (As an aside: Why? Is she so weak a character she needs a movie intro? Answer: Yep). But my favorite thing to laugh at here? The aquatic Mexicans were destroying people and buildings with water balloons! 

Terrible movie. Probably better if it had focused on the bad guy as the main character, ditch the Black Panther/Wakanda title, and explained better why he didn't try harder to make friends with the surface world or just Wakanda itself. As it is the entire plot could have been solved with simple diplomacy. Not recommended.