Black Panther

The king of a technologically advanced African nation, who is also the superhero Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), is confronted by an embittered cousin and rival for the throne (Michael B. Jordan), who wants to use the nation’s resources to foment a worldwide race war. Writer-director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) and co-writer Joe Robert Cole, taking off from the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby comics, deploy the standard comic-book-movie assets with aplomb and a worthy sense that it’s about time a superhero of color got a big movie of his own. That novel strain of black empowerment, and a powerhouse supporting cast (Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker) are enough to compensate for all the usual cliches and paint-by-number action scenes.