THE LION KING (2019) – My rating: 9/10

The Lion King is a computer-animated musical directed and produced by Jon Favreau, written by Jeff Nathanson, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a photorealistic computer-animated remake of Disney’s traditionally animated 1994 film of the same name. The plot follows Simba, a young lion who must embrace his role as the rightful king of his native land following the murder of his father, Mufasa, at the hands of his uncle, Scar. As with Jungle Book, the CGI characters were spectacular.  There was very little difference in the story, if any, from the original 1994 animated film. I was glad I went to see Lion King in this format.

In the Pride Lands of Africa, in a place called Pride Rock, lived King Mufasa, Queen Sarabi and their pride of lions who ruled over the animal kingdom. Mufasa’s and Sarabi’s newborn son, Simba, is presented to the gathering animals by Rafiki, the mandrill who is the kingdom’s shaman and advisor. As Simba grows older, Mufasa shows him the Pride Lands and explains the responsibilities of kingship as well as the “circle of life”, which connects all living things.

Mufasa’s younger brother, Scar, covets the throne and plots to eliminate Mufasa and Simba so he can rule the kingdom,  as the new king. He tricks Simba and his best friend Nala (to whom it is expected Simba will marry) into exploring a forbidden elephants’ graveyard, where they are attacked by spotted hyenas led by Shenzi, Kamari, and Azizi. Mufasa is alerted about the incident by his majordomo, the hornbill Zazu, and rescues the cubs. Though upset with Simba, Mufasa forgives him and explains that the great kings of the past watch over them from the night sky, from which he will one day watch over Simba. Meanwhile, Scar visits the hyenas and manages to convince them to help him overthrow Mufasa in exchange for hunting rights in the Pride Lands.

Meanwhile, Scar sets a trap for his brother and nephew, luring Simba into a gorge and having the hyenas drive a large herd of wildebeest into a stampede that will trample him. In order for Scar’s plan to work, he informs Mufasa of Simba’s peril, knowing that the king will rush to save his son.

The Lion King is a classic that most people have seen.  The reason to see this version is the CGI technology that makes the environment and animals of The Lion King seem almost real.  In this version, the plot focuses more on the life of Simba rather than his father, Mufasa.  Simba runs into new and different characters and learns new and different ways to eat and survive.  When Simba was finally pulled back into his reality, he resisted but succumbed to his basic foundation, which included the teachings of his father.  I thought The Lion King was beautifully told with special effects that were out of this world.  I am excited about future endeavors pertaining to picture shows.  The Lion King has grossed $1.4 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing animated film, overtaking Frozen, as well as the second highest-grossing film of 2019 and 9th highest of all-time. It received mixed reviews, with praise for its visual effects, music, and vocal performances (particularly Rogen and Eichner) but criticism for its lack of facial emotion on the characters, with many describing it as “soulless” compared to the original film. I think, without a doubt, The Lion King is definitely worth seeing on the big screen.  Check It Out!

Listed below, is a list of celebrity voices that brought “The Lion King” to life:

Simba (Donald Glover):
A lion who is the crown prince of the Pride Lands.
Young Simba (JD McCrary)

Pumbaa (Seth Rogen:
A slow-witted common warthog who befriends and adopts a young Simba after he runs away from home.

Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor):
The treacherous brother of Mufasa, the brother-in-law of Sarabi and the uncle of Simba who seeks to take the mantle of king of the Pride Lands.

Sarabi (Alfre Woodard):
The Queen of the Pride Lands, Mufasa’s wife, and Simba’s mother.

Timon (Billy Eichner):
A wise-cracking meerkat who befriends and adopts a young Simba after he runs away from home.

Rafiki (John Kani):
A wise mandrill who serves as the shaman of the Pride Lands, and a close friend of Mufasa’s. Likening his role to that of a grandfather.

Zazu (John Oliver):
A red-billed hornbill who is the majordomo (someone who makes arrangements for another) to the King of the Pride Lands.

Nala (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter):
Simba’s childhood best friend and future love interest.
Young Nala (Shahadi Wright Joseph)

Mufasa (James Earl Jones):
The King of the Pride Lands, Sarabi’s husband and the father of Simba. Jones reprises his role from the original 1994 animated film.

Shenzi (Florence Kasumba), Kamari (Keegan-Michael Key), and Azizi (Eric Andre):
Three spotted hyenas who are Scar’s henchmen.

Sarafina (Penny Johnson Jerald):
Nala’s mother.

(Amy Sedaris), (Chance the Rapper) and (Josh McCrary):
voice a guinea fowl, a bush baby, and an elephant shrew, respectively.

 

BLACK PANTHER (2018) – My rating: 10/10

Black Panther is a Black superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. The film is directed and written by Ryan Coogler,   and produced by Kevin Feige / Marvel Studios.  By now Black Panther has become a phenomenon surpassing all expectations for this type of action comic book hero with a predominantly Black cast. In Black Panther, the main character returns home as king of Wakanda and finds his sovereignty challenged by a new adversary, in a conflict with global consequences.  Now in it’s 6th week, the film has grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 2018, as well as the seventh highest-grossing film ever in the United States and the 14th highest-grossing film of all time as well as the biggest debut by an African-American director.

Centuries ago, after being hit, in Africa, by a meteorite containing a powerful metal called vibranium, five African tribes go to war over rights to own this metal. One warrior ingests a “heart-shaped herb” affected by the metal and gains superhuman abilities, becoming the first “Black Panther”. He unites all but the Jabari Tribe to form the nation of Wakanda. Vibranium enabled the Wakandans to develop advanced technology, including the ability to cloak, thus isolating themselves from the world by posing as a Third World country.

As a result of placing spies all over the world, in 1992, a young King T’Chaka (Atandwa Kani) visits his brother N’Jobu (Sterling K. Brown), who is working undercover in Oakland, California. T’Chaka accuses N’Jobu of assisting black-market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) with stealing vibranium from Wakanda. N’Jobu’s partner reveals he is Zuri (Forest Whitaker), another undercover Wakandan, and confirms T’Chaka’s suspicions.

In the present day, following a much older King T’Chaka’s (John Kani) death, his son, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns to Wakanda to assume the throne. He and Okoye (Danai Gurira), the leader of the Dora Milaje regiment, extract Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), T’Challa’s ex-lover, from an undercover assignment so she can attend his coronation ceremony with his mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and younger sister Shuri (Letitia Wright). At the ceremony, the Jabari Tribe’s leader M’Baku (Winston Duke) challenges T’Challa but looses in ritual combat.

After Klaue and Erik Stevens (Michael B. Jordan) steal a Wakandan artifact from a museum, W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya), T’Challa’s friend and Okoye’s lover, urges him to bring Klaue back dead or alive. T’Challa, Okoye, and Nakia travel to Busan, South Korea, where Klaue plans to sell the artifact to CIA agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman). A fight erupts and Klaue attempts to flee but is caught by T’Challa, who reluctantly releases him to Ross’ custody. Klaue tells Ross that Wakanda’s international image is a front for a technologically advanced civilization. Erik attacks and extracts Klaue. Ross is gravely injured protecting Nakia. Rather than pursue Klaue, T’Challa takes Ross to Wakanda, where their technology can save him.

While Shuri heals Ross, T’Challa confronts Zuri about N’Jobu. Zuri explains that N’Jobu planned to share Wakanda’s technology with people of African descent around the world to help them conquer their oppressors. As T’Chaka arrested N’Jobu, N’Jobu attacked Zuri, forcing T’Chaka to kill him. T’Chaka ordered Zuri to lie, saying that N’Jobu had disappeared and left behind N’Jobu’s American son, Erik, in order to maintain the lie. Erik became a U.S. black ops soldier, adopting the name “Killmonger”. Meanwhile, Killmonger kills Klaue and takes his body to Wakanda. He is brought before the tribal elders, revealing his identity and claim to the throne. Killmonger challenges T’Challa to ritual combat; after killing Zuri, he defeats T’Challa and hurls him over a waterfall. After ingesting the heart-shaped herb, Killmonger orders the remainder of the herb incinerated, but Nakia extracts one first. Killmonger, supported by W’Kabi and his army, prepares to distribute shipments of Wakandan weapons to operatives around the world.

I have taken you through most of the characters and given you a lot of the story.  As usual, I have to stop here in order to keep the story in tact.  If you haven’t already seen this awesome movie and to find out what happens next, give it a try as it is one of the best films I’ve seen in some time.  In particular, the plot is “on the money”.  The acting is brilliant and the special effects are sensational.  There is also lots of trivia so I added an entire section on most of the actors, actresses and characters for you to read about.  I enjoyed Black Panther so much, I’ve seen it twice.  I highly recommend it and I congratulate Marvel and Disney for a job well done! Check it Out!

[Black Panther is Oscar nominated for BEST: Picture, Production Design, Costume Design, Original Score, Original Song, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing]

Actors/Actresses/Characters:

• Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa / Black Panther:
  The king of the African nation of Wakanda, who gains enhanced strength by ingesting the Heart-Shaped Herb. Ashton Tyler plays a young T’Challa.
• Michael B. Jordan as N’Jadaka/Erik “Killmonger” Stevens:
  The son of N’Jobu, and a U.S. black-ops soldier who seeks to overthrow his cousin T’Challa. Executive producer Nate Moore said Killmonger “has his own opinion on how Wakanda has been run and should [be] run”. Seth Carr plays a young Killmonger.
• Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia:
  T’Challa’s former lover and a War Dog, an undercover spy for Wakanda placed in other countries to complete missions. She is from the River Tribe. Nyong’o called Nakia a “departure” from her comic counterpart. She begins the film fighting for enslaved women in Nigeria; Nyong’o learned to speak Hausa for certain scenes in the film. She also trained in judo, jujitsu, silat and Filipino martial arts.
• Danai Gurira as Okoye:
  An “extremely proud” Wakandan and traditionalist from the Border Tribe, who is the head of the Dora Milaje, the all-female special forces of Wakanda, who serve as T’Challa’s bodyguards. When looking to cast Gurira, director Ryan Coogler had not seen The Walking Dead, in which Gurira portrays the popular character Michonne, and instead wanted her for the part because of her performance in Mother of George. Gurira said that the fighting skills she learned playing Michonne complemented the skills of Okoye, but that “there’s a lot of ways that they’re extremely different …
• Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross:
  A member of the Central Intelligence Agency and former liaison of its Joint Counter Terrorism Task Force. Freeman said that Ross “has an uneasy peace with T’Challa”, and that he “goes on a strange journey, an enlightening journey to Wakanda.” Unlike his comic book counterpart, who mainly served as comic relief, Freeman and the filmmakers sought to turn this version of Ross into a more capable agent in terms of diplomacy and combat.
• Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi: A confidant to T’Challa and his best friend, who is the head of security for the Border Tribe, serving as the first line of defense for Wakanda.
• Letitia Wright as Shuri:
  T’Challa’s 16-year-old sister and the princess of Wakanda who designs new technology for the country. Wright described her as “an innovative spirit and an innovative mind” who “wants to take Wakanda to a new place… [and] has a great fashion sense”. Wright also felt Shuri was a good role model for young black girls.
• Winston Duke as M’Baku:
  A powerful, ruthless warrior who is the leader of Wakanda’s mountain tribe, the Jabari, who are in protest to T’Challa being the new king. Duke described the Jabari as people who “strongly believe that to move forward, you have to have a strong adherence and respect for the past. As a result, they have a deep moral conscience.
• Angela Bassett as Ramonda:
  T’Challa and Shuri’s mother and Queen Mother of Wakanda. Boseman noted that Ramonda “is one of the advisors that [T’Challa] would look to… for some of the answers of what his father might want or might do. She may not be exactly right all the time, but she definitely has insights.” Bassett wore a silver, waist-length wig for the role that was made from 120 pieces of hair hand-rolled into dreadlocks.
• Forest Whitaker as Zuri:
  An elder statesman in Wakanda, and the keeper of the heart-shaped herb. Coogler called Zuri a religious and spiritual figure, and a way to reference the spirituality within Wakanda from the comics. He also added that Zuri “is a major tie back” to T’Chaka for T’Challa, and is “Black Panther’s version of Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Denzel Whitaker, who is not related to Forest, plays a young Zuri.
• Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue:
  A South African black-market arms dealer, smuggler and gangster, who is allied with Killmonger. He uses a piece of advanced Wakandan mining equipment as a sonic disruptor arm-cannon, replacing his left arm, which he lost in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Boseman described Klaue as a threat to Wakanda, one of the few outsiders to enter the country, and someone with access to vibranium, comparing him to Osama bin Laden. Serkis added that in addition to his desire for vibranium, Klaue is motivated by a “personal” vendetta against T’Challa, and “to expose what he thinks is the hypocrisy of Wakanda.”

 

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016) – My rating: 9.5/10

In my opinion, Civil War is the best Captain America to date. I absolutely loved this movie. It even addressed the over the top destruction I often talk about in these types of movies. In fact, you might say destruction, carelessness, and thoughtlessness are the themes of Civil War.  It also addressed the diversity issue of giving Blacks better roles, although these types of movies are never nominated for Oscars.  This third movie in the Captain America series starts out with Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) trying to displace a blast into the sky using telekinesis.  However, a nearby building is destroyed killing several Wakandan humanitarian workers.  This causes the US Secretary of State, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt) to expedite preparation of the Sokovia Accords that will establish a United Nations panel to oversee and control the Avengers as well as the Superhuman Registration Act. Due to the deaths of innocent by-standers and guilt about Ultron’s creation and Sokovia’s destruction, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) supports the Accords.  Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) however, places his faith and judgement in himself and the team rather than the government.  The Accords causes a major conflict between the two leaders and they end up so divided, they go off in separate directions to fight the good fight.   NOTE:  [The TV series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. makes mention of the Accords as do the coming attractions of the X-men.]  In the meanwhile, at a conference in Vienna where the Accords are to be ratified, a bomb is detonated killing King T’Chaka (John Kani) of Wakanda.  Security footage indicates the bomber is Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), who T’Chaka’s son, T’Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) vows to kill.  Information provided by Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp), who is the niece of Captain America’s deceased girlfriend, Peggy Carter, informs Rogers of Barnes’ whereabouts and the government’s intention to kill him. Rogers decides to apprehend Barnes himself, since Barnes is his childhood friend and war comrade.  Barnes is brainwashed, his handler has been killed and a book containing a series of words that allows one to totally control him is being sought after by the killer. This is just the beginning of an exciting 2 and a half hour movie.  Stark and Rogers really go at it, forming two independent teams.  James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle), Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Scott Lang/Ant Man (Paul Rudd), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Android: Vision (Paul Bettany) and Brock Rumlow/Crossbones (Frank Grillo) make up some other participants of the two opposing teams.  Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl; is a Sokovian Colonel turned terrorist obsessed with defeating the Avengers), Aunt May Parker (Marisa Tomei; plays Spider-Man’s Aunt),  Miriam Sharpe (Alfre Woodard;  is a grieving mother who lost her son and blames Stark.  Howard Stark (John Slattery; is Tony Stark’s father) and Maria Stark (Hope Davis; is Tony Stark’s mother). We learn what really happened to Stark’s parents — it wasn’t very pretty and didn’t make matters any better between the super heroes.  

As usual, I’ve said enough and have to stop at this point in order not to give away any more of this fascinating story.  I can only say there is so much more to come.  I found Captain America: Civil War very interesting and highly recommend that you see it on the big screen.  Even though I saw it in Real 3D, I didn’t really see a need for it.  Your time will be well worth spending to see Civil War.  The acting is brilliant, the story is excellent and the outcome is great.

 

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