Even though it’s the 18th movie from the Marvel Universe, Black Panther is the first one to feature a black superhero with a primarily black cast.
尽管《黑豹》已经是漫威宇宙第18部电影了，但它却是首部主要由黑人演员出演的黑人超级英雄电影。
The film tells the story of the Black Panther, a superhero who takes his father’s place as king of the fictional African country Wakanda. The film came out in Chinese mainland cinemas on March 9, passing the $1 billion (about 6 billion yuan) mark at the global box office and becoming the No 2 superhero release of all time on March 10.
However, Black Panther means more than just the money it’s making. As the Guardian noted, the film is already being regarded as “a positive force for social change”.
The wild success of Black Panther lies in the fact that it gives voices to minorities who are rarely given room in popular culture. “It carries a weight that neither Thor nor Captain America could lift: serving a black audience that has long gone under-represented,” Time noted.
“It makes me feel proud and confident that we made it on screen in that way,” Rasheed Butler, 14, from a black community in California, US, told the Marin Independent Journal.
The superhero Black Panther is inspiring, but the movie also highlights brilliant black women. For example, Black Panther’s teenage sister is a tech genius. She designs gadgets for her brother and develops resources that make the isolated Wakanda wealthy and scientifically and technologically advanced.
“What I love about the way this film represents women is that each and every one of us is an individual, unique,” Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o, who plays a spy in the movie, told the Los Angeles Times. “I think that’s a very powerful message to send to children – both male and female.”
Powerful characters aside, the movie has social implications. While the Black Panther tries to keep his country and people away from the outside world, others want to make use of Wakanda’s advanced technology to fight injustice. “But neither option is truly tenable,” The Verge noted. “It suggests that these destructive cycles may only be broken through guidance, education, and global leadership.”
Instead of hiding away from current issues of race and economic differences, the movie explores what it means to be black in the US, in Africa and in the world. It deals “head-on with the issues affecting modern-day black life”, Time concluded.
