Film

‘Black Panther’ Only Has Three Negative Reviews And Australia Is Responsible For Two Of Them

Well, this is embarrassing.

by Katie Cunningham  13 February 2018
black panther

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This week will see the release of Black Panther, the superhero movie fans have been waiting two years for — and, importantly, the first ever film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to focus on a hero of colour. Hollywood critics been raving about the movie since its premiere, and it’s a Big Deal release that people are very excited about. Most people, that is.

Head over to Rotten Tomatoes now and you’ll see that Black Panther currently has a 97 percent fresh rating, meaning it’s almost universally acclaimed. Of the 102 reviews of the movie Rotten Tomatoes has collated, only three of those are negative. And, we’re sorry to say, Australia is responsible for two of the three.

Only News Corp, Urban Cinefile and the Irish Independent have had anything bad to say about Black Panther so far. News cited the movie’s “unengaging action sequences” and “predictable plotting” in their review, while Urban Cinefile described it as too “dialogue heavy” and a potential misfire for “anyone beyond the fan-base”. (It’s not all bad, though — a different News Corp review gave the movie a positive review, as did the Sydney Morning Herald and Herald Sun.)

International reviewers, by contrast, have called it “the best Marvel film ever”, “riveting”, and “crazy innovative”. Tre’vell Anderson from the LA Times described the film as “a love letter about blackness”, while his colleague Jen Yamato called it “a superhero movie about why representation and identity matters, and how tragic it is when those things are denied to people”.

And Get Out director Jordan Peele liked it, which is all the endorsement I need:

Black Panther is in Australian cinemas from February 15.