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You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Movies / Open Thread: “Black Panther” (With Hidden Spoiler Discussion Zone)

Open Thread: “Black Panther” (With Hidden Spoiler Discussion Zone)

by Betty Cracker|  February 27, 20184:00 pm| 77 Comments

This post is in: Movies, Open Threads

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I was going to wait until I’d had a chance to see “Black Panther” myself before doing a post on it, but it’s looking like that’s not going to happen this week, and as valued commenter Mnemosyne pointed it, the movie is a hot topic now. How hot is the movie? Esteemed commenter lamh36 points us to a Variety piece with some facts and figures:

“Black Panther,” directed by Ryan Coogler, has caught on with moviegoers this month in a way that few other titles have in Hollywood’s recent history — blowing past last month’s tracking that showed it would open in the $100 million-to-$120 million range.

It’s notched an A+ Cinemascore, only the second Marvel film to do so (after “The Avengers”), and has dazzled critics with a 97% “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film also stars Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, and Letitia Wright. “Black Panther” has also grossed $304 million internationally.

lamh36 also recommends this review of “Black Panther” by Awesomely Luvvie. I was going to do an excerpt of it, but I quickly realized that’s not possible without encountering spoilers before I’ve seen the movie, so I’ll just drop a link here.

So, you remember the drill: Non-spoiler discussion about the movie (or any other topic — it’s an open thread) can take place in the regular comments section below. To reach a hidden spoiler discussion zone, click the photo at the top of the page (in desktop mode if you’re on a mobile device). That will take you to a secret thread (title: Black Panther Spoilers Thread) where you can freely discuss the movie without worrying about spoiling it for those who haven’t seen it yet.

Have fun!

Image courtesy of @KFoleyFL on Twitter, by way of Dr. Silverman here.

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Previous Post: « “If not for you meddling kids…”
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Reader Interactions

77Comments

  1. 1.

    Miss Bianca

    February 27, 2018 at 4:05 pm

    Wah! Wanna see this movie NOW! And it looks like to do that, I’ll have to drive a couple hours to the big city! POUT.

  2. 2.

    Mary G

    February 27, 2018 at 4:08 pm

    @Miss Bianca: It’s worth it. I haven’t gone to a movie in the theater since Harry Potter 5. I went Sunday to Black Panther and I want to go back.

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne

    February 27, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    Thanks, Betty!

  4. 4.

    Lapassionara

    February 27, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    I am glad the movie is doing well. It will be a while before I can go see it.

    I spent the last two days driving across Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and my goodness, there are lots of religious radio stations.

    For some reason, I started thinking about early Bob Dylan, and how prophetic his music was and how it captured the zeitgeist. The Times were “a changin” for sure, and we all knew it.

    What I wonder is if there is a Bob Dylan for this age. Who is capturing the zeitgeist today, or is the zeitgeist too effed to be express in music.

  5. 5.

    Mnemosyne

    February 27, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    Note for peeps on mobile devices: you may need to switch from “Mobile” to “Desktop” mode to see the spoilers thread.

  6. 6.

    Steeplejack

    February 27, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    “Does this spoiler make my ass look fat?”

  7. 7.

    Miss Bianca

    February 27, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    @Mary G: btw, Mary G, could you please send that link about Black Panther spurring all those black cat adoptions to AL to front page it, or re-post it here? I just thought that was so cute!

  8. 8.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 27, 2018 at 4:13 pm

    Open thread?

    Somebody who just got a 30-day mute from me posted a meme on Facebook saying “all these kids are moved enough to walk out for gun control. But can’t be bothered to stand up for the weird kid in class getting bullied and fucked with daily.”

    The only reason she didn’t get a permanent mute/unfollow is because it’s way out of character for her, but ugh, wtf.

  9. 9.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 27, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: One of your leftier-than-thou progressive BS worshiping friends?

  10. 10.

    germy

    February 27, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    Statement from Jared Kushner appears to be in violation of law: https://t.co/SGzNAaVkML— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) February 27, 2018

  11. 11.

    Miss Bianca

    February 27, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Dude, that’s f’d up. I mean, way to go out of your way to miss the point, lady.

  12. 12.

    Naedre

    February 27, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    Strangely, I didn’t LOVE it when i saw it. I just liked it. I felt like the action sequences were weak except the car sequence in SK. I also felt like T’Challa was more interesting in Civil War, and was strangely muted in his own movie.

    However, the all the female characters were compelling, the villain was interesting, and there were some genuinely deep topics that were explored pretty well for a 2 hour movie. Honestly, I wish the action had been reduced or cut entirely, in favor of spending more time on the political drama and social commentary. I want to see it again, and see if I enjoy it more the second time around.

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack

    February 27, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yeah, I can’t get to it from the mobile version on Android/​Chrome. But not a problem for me, since I haven’t seen the movie yet. Seriously thinking about hitting a matinee this week.

  14. 14.

    germy

    February 27, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    There’s a nice breakdown of the casino fight scene on youtube, with Ryan Coogler pointing out details I missed the first time. He demonstrates how much thought went into every detail, from the color of their clothes to how they got the camera from the ground floor to the balcony in one swoop.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    February 27, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: I would be beyond disappointed if anyone I cared about or even thought highly of said something like that.

    On a happier note, the vet called to say that my little Henry made it through surgery and is doing really well. Huge sigh of relief from me. He comes home tomorrow afternoon at 4. At that point, the 6-10 weeks of being in the crate commences. Darn vet, he is giving me sedatives for Henry if he needs them but nothing for me! :-)

  16. 16.

    Rob Lll

    February 27, 2018 at 4:18 pm

    Partner and I saw Black Panther this weekend at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood — our go-to venue for blockbuster movies. We both loved it.

    It accomplished something I haven’t experienced in a commercial movie in years, maybe even decades — taking me into a completely new and coherent visual universe We’ve never seen this world in mainstream cinema before and the production design here is just stunning (down to Wakanda having its own alphabet!).

  17. 17.

    Mary G

    February 27, 2018 at 4:20 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Here is a copy & paste of the whole post on Tumblr, because if you can embed them like Twitter, I don’t know how. Turns out the writer lives in your state!

    Unexpected Benefit of Black Panther: my local pet shelters went from having something like 50-60 black cats between them to having NONE, becuase they’ve all been adopted out and named after the characters. “T’challa” is the most popular, but there are a fair number of “Okoye”s and “Shuri”s as well.

    …and one very confused Elderly Humane Society Volunteer wondering why someone would name such a sweet cat “Killmonger”.

    For everyone in the comments worried about the cats being abandoned after the ‘fad’ fades:

    I live in Durango, CO and the shelters are SUPER small so they do thier best to make sure people are really ready to take a pet home for good. In order to adopt, you have to:

    Fill out a questionaire about what facilities your home has and how you plan to take care of this aimal. If the shelter sees something amiss (Trying to keep a nervous dog in a house full of children, not knowing jack about repitle husbandry, etc.) they won’t let you adopt that animal.
    Everyone is given a “Get Ready For pet!” Checklist of supplies, houseproofing, and medical procedeures that will be needed for an animal before you can adopt. Seeing the full checklist and cost tends to weed out people who weren’t terribly serious about keeping an animal.
    All but one of the local shelters is no-kill, and the kill shelter doesn’t let people return animals to them, instead sending them off to one of the five no-kill places.
    According to Mary who runs the cattery, these cats are mostly being adopted to people who were looking to adopt *A* cat in general, then see the black kitties and go “LIKE BLACK PANTHER” and take them home, so for once, black cats are being adopted first.

    Also, cat adoptions are up in general, so that’s also great

    ETA: That’s from gallusrostromegalus on Tumblr.

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    February 27, 2018 at 4:20 pm

    @germy: I watched that, even without having seen the movie. No wonder WAKANDA seems so real to everyone; he clearly thinks through all this quite deeply and loves that world and its characters.

  19. 19.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 27, 2018 at 4:21 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: she mostly posts BLM stuff.

    @WaterGirl: oh hooray!

  20. 20.

    germy

    February 27, 2018 at 4:21 pm

    Now that Jared’s security clearance is “downgraded” how will he fix Mexico/the Middle East/etc.?

  21. 21.

    VFX Lurker

    February 27, 2018 at 4:21 pm

    Saw it. Loved it. Wanna see it again.

  22. 22.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 27, 2018 at 4:22 pm

    @germy: with the cloud.

  23. 23.

    Lapassionara

    February 27, 2018 at 4:24 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Did she give a specific example of one of the Parkland teens failing to stand up when someone was getting bullied? Or is she just making something up?

  24. 24.

    ruemara

    February 27, 2018 at 4:25 pm

    It’s an amazing movie and if you haven’t seen it, go see it. Twice. So much to see and digest, both visually and via story.

    @VFX Lurker: I’m going again. and I’m reading that fight breakdown. I have an action script I want to do this summer and I need all the help I can get. Plus I really need to comprehend how they do so much with the VFX. It’s not that I can’t mentally comprehend what needs VFX, I just don’t know how to put the script, the previs and the final together.

    @Lapassionara: They’re saying the shooter was bullied. Let’s ignore his abusive past and pretend he was a victim.

  25. 25.

    germy

    February 27, 2018 at 4:26 pm

    I love the actual black panthers in the ancestral scene. I’m sure they were computer generated, but I loved how they silently watched the actors as the scene unfolded.

    It was also very moving to see Kilmonger’s ancestral scene, taking place in the Compton projects. Father asks the child why he isn’t crying and he replies “Everyone dies here” but then we see him as an adult, with a tear on his face.

    I was impressed with the script; how everything came together. All the plot elements worked, rather than being a confusing mess (cough cough Batman V Superman).

  26. 26.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 27, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    @Lapassionara: It was somebody else’s meme, which conveniently means you don’t have to show your work.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    February 27, 2018 at 4:34 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: BLM stuff in a good way, or in an all lives matter kind of way.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    February 27, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    Movie theaters here and me don’t play well together (it’s a health thing). Maybe will try to watch it after it becomes available to do so at home. If so, it will be the first made for big screen Marvel super-hero movie I’ve seen.

    Meanwhile am experiencing it vicariously through youse guys.

    @germy

    Exactly as knowledgeably, adeptly and successfully as before.

    :)

  29. 29.

    guachi

    February 27, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    Overall I thought the movie was good, not great. The poor CGI at the end was a real failure, I think. It’s another consistently fun entry from Marvel, which has only really two missteps, I think – Iron Man 2 and Incredible Hulk – and those are movies are two and three in the Marvel Universe.

  30. 30.

    Mike J

    February 27, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Does your friend often complain about moose and squirrel?

  31. 31.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 27, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    I’ve been noticing even before Obama was elected the heroic president who saves us all in a movie is typically played with by black actor. Now it seems to be spreading to action heroes. Is disgust with mediocre white guys and their fake heroics turned audiences off to white male heroes so only a black man has the sincerity to believably play one now?

    If so, oh the irony.

  32. 32.

    debbie

    February 27, 2018 at 4:39 pm

    I love that it’s breaking records worldwide!

  33. 33.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 27, 2018 at 4:40 pm

    @WaterGirl: Extremely pro-BLM.

    @Mike J: Heh.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    February 27, 2018 at 4:40 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Not to mention it’s untrue.

  35. 35.

    Aleta

    February 27, 2018 at 4:41 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: At least one of the activist kids has spoken out against bullying and ridicule.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    February 27, 2018 at 4:49 pm

    @Lapassionara: The Parkland teen who gave the amazing “We Call BS” speech the weekend after the shootings, Emma Gonzalez, alluded to criticism about how Cruz was treated by his classmates. She quotes Trump’s tweet in the excerpt below:

    There is one tweet I would like to call attention to. “So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities again and again.” We did, time and time again. Since he was in middle school, it was no surprise to anyone who knew him to hear that he was the shooter. Those talking about how we should have not ostracized him, you didn’t know this kid. OK, we did. We know that they are claiming mental health issues, and I am not a psychologist, but we need to pay attention to the fact that this was not just a mental health issue. He would not have harmed that many students with a knife.

    And how about we stop blaming the victims for something that was the student’s fault, the fault of the people who let him buy the guns in the first place, those at the gun shows, the people who encouraged him to buy accessories for his guns to make them fully automatic, the people who didn’t take them away from him when they knew he expressed homicidal tendencies, and I am not talking about the FBI. I’m talking about the people he lived with. I’m talking about the neighbors who saw him outside holding guns.

    I don’t know if Cruz was bullied or not, but it sure sounds like the other kids were afraid of him.

  37. 37.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    February 27, 2018 at 4:52 pm

    @germy: A Hatch Act violation (which governs politicking on the taxpayers’ dime)? And this is the first one they could come up with? Hell, this administration has been a walking Hatch Act violation, along with violations of the Emoluments Clause and every conflict-of-interest rule ever written, since Day One.

  38. 38.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 27, 2018 at 4:52 pm

    @debbie: Sure, I figured that went without saying.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    February 27, 2018 at 4:53 pm

    @germy: Will the NYT devote as many resources to endlessly speculating how the dozens of people who were handling the most sensitive information on the planet without security clearances were a bigger threat to national security than Hillary Clinton’s private email server? Haha, no!

  40. 40.

    Matt McIrvin

    February 27, 2018 at 4:54 pm

    @Naedre:

    I also felt like T’Challa was more interesting in Civil War, and was strangely muted in his own movie.

    I noticed that too, but I think it does make sense. In Civil War, though he’s not at home, T’Challa is actually more in his element–he’s been knocked for a loop by his father being killed but he’s clearly been superheroing for some time. In Black Panther, he’s trying to act as king for the first time, and gets hit with an unexpected succession crisis. He’s in a bit over his head.

    I liked that this was an ensemble piece to a much greater degree than its title would imply. My wife complained, correctly, that huge science/engineering R&D projects aren’t plausibly done by a lone genius, but that applies equally well to Tony Stark–it’s the way they do things in the comics.

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    February 27, 2018 at 4:57 pm

    The Black Panther demographics are interesting. From Hollywood Reporter, etc, for the most recent period

    Black Panther continues to play to an ethnically diverse audience. Caucasians made up a bigger share of ticket buyers this time out, with 37 percent, compared to 35 percent on the film’s opening weekend, while the African-American share went from 37 percent to 33 percent, according to comScore/Screen Engine. Hispanics remain unchanged at 18 percent, followed by Asians (7 percent) and Native Americans/Other (5 percent). No other marquee superhero tentpole has played to such a disparate audience….

    Meanwhile, adds Hollywood Reporter, women made up 40% of Black Panther’s audience—about 35% to 40% women is typical for superhero films on their opening weekend, it said.

    According to data(.pdf, pg 18) from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Caucasians typically made up slightly over 50% of all movie ticket sales in 2016, while African-Americans made up 15%, and Hispanics made up 21%.

  42. 42.

    ruemara

    February 27, 2018 at 4:59 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: *looks at you*

  43. 43.

    Steeplejack

    February 27, 2018 at 4:59 pm

    @germy:

    Jesus, take it to the spoiler subthread. People who haven’t seen the movie yet probably don’t want to hear any details, even if you’ve deemed them non-spoilery.

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    February 27, 2018 at 5:04 pm

    @guachi:

    Overall I thought the movie was good, not great. The poor CGI at the end was a real failure

    There’s a very good article here on the CGI problems with Black Panther and other movies.

    A couple of things, I think. Special effects companies are pushed to the wall to deliver on a tight schedule and unfortunately Marvel and other movies seem to have release dates set without regard to the time needed to really deliver good effects. Here, the studios figure that fans will settle for good enough effects.

  45. 45.

    clay

    February 27, 2018 at 5:05 pm

    @Lapassionara: I don’t think that there’s going to be One Artist that will speak for a generation like Dylan did. The music scene is too fractured today. But you’ll have voices for specific subcultures. A band like Radiohead can really capture the alienation of the modern middle class in a high-tech society. Eminem can portray the anger and bitterness of (forgive the term) poor white trash. Kendrick Lamar represents the voice of the young black man. Taylor Swift is the voice of empowered young women. Etc.

    *You can probably tell my knowledge of popular music peaked about 10 years ago…

  46. 46.

    germy

    February 27, 2018 at 5:06 pm

    Private Twitter messages obtained by The Atlantic show that Roger Stone and WikiLeaks communicated directly on October 13, 2016—and that WikiLeaks sought to keep its channel to Stone open after Trump won the election. https://t.co/Ro9QkKbbES— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 27, 2018

  47. 47.

    Aleta

    February 27, 2018 at 5:07 pm

    Depending on the school, if a kid is acting aggressively the school has to make a report by answering questions. Have his parents been informed. Was he being bullied. Has he been talked to, warned or getting counseling. Etc. End of report at some schools.

    Bullying gives adults a reason to explain aggression or ignore it. I think Cruz knew this and at least once claimed bullying to get police to drop their attention.

    Bullying wasn’t the reason he was a killer, but it seems to have muddied the waters. He seemed able to hide his nature, thoughts and mental illnesses behind excuses like his mother’s death, bullying, and gun rights. And was able to express his obsessions acceptably in the rifle club and because of the normalization of hate groups.

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    February 27, 2018 at 5:09 pm

    @Steeplejack: I thought that was spoiler-ish, too, but figured that if you didn’t read all the way through Betty’s post up top that a person might not realize that this was spoiler-free and you had to click on the image to get the actual spoiler thread.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    February 27, 2018 at 5:09 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Glad you brought this up. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been wondering when (or whether) someone in the mainstream media’s “But her e-mails!” cohort would sort of run the numbers and calculate exactly when scores of employees in the White House without security clearances and at least one un-cleared person (Jared) seeing the PDB would overtake Hillary’s basement server as a threat to the nation.

  50. 50.

    piratedan

    February 27, 2018 at 5:10 pm

    have to admit, the kids just going out there with NFTG and stating what has baldly been evident is really setting both the conservatives and the media that covers their collective asses in a tizzy. It’s getting to be apparent that we’re reaching a crescendo of events, as the “people” continually are calling this bullshit out the GOP goes even more draconian in regards to punishing those that “go along” (see. the State of Georgia and the Delta Air Lines controversy). At one point, a goodly portion of America is being asked to choose between the collective humping of the gun rights advocates and their kids and the NRA and their followers are slowly having it down on them that hey’re losing and if they lose this domino in the culture wars, what’s the next one? Christian Conservatism? Nepotism? Tax breaks for the Rich?

    Nevermind those quaint notions about American sovereignty and ideals of FDR, these fuckers have never given a shit about those… its always been about protecting their own interests and whoever they can leverage to keep that power/control/wealth….

    I’m been raised to believe that this is still the land of opportunity and that while bias exists (boy does it ever) you could still persevere and make it on your own through hard work and intrepidness, nowadays, I think that was essentially a line to keep us ever striving for the brass ring while those in power continue to milk those efforts for their own benefit. That mindset isn’t with our newer generation who believe that fighting for justice and equality and helping others is simply an inherent good and bringing down corruption is their birthright (yay for comic books!).

    I wonder if the rich are evil enough to determine that continuing to move the goal posts will not be enough and what else they might resort to, because it appears to be where we’re heading if they want to stop this movement of empowered youth and women.

  51. 51.

    Matt McIrvin

    February 27, 2018 at 5:11 pm

    @guachi: I was not that fond of Avengers: Age of Ultron or Thor: The Dark World, though both of them had their moments (the good characters in Age of Ultron were the robots, Ultron himself and the Vision).

    I think this is one of the best MCU movies, maybe my second favorite after Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Best Marvel movie villain ever, and that includes even Alfred Molina as Doc Ock. (OK, the Ian McKellen Magneto may be even with him.)

    The Panther vs. Panther fight scene in the mine at the end did look a bit too video-gamey, but I was willing to forgive that for a movie that was so visually interesting otherwise.

    I want to live at M’Baku’s place.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    February 27, 2018 at 5:17 pm

    @Brachiator

    Who the hell collects that data? And how? The idea of designated racial spotters at the door or of surreptitious photos of the audience being pored over is downright creepy.

  53. 53.

    Matt McIrvin

    February 27, 2018 at 5:19 pm

    @Brachiator: Having seen CGI develop from its infancy, I feel as if our standards have gotten incredibly high. 20 years ago, the worst CGI in this movie would have been jaw-dropping.

    But, it’s true, there were a few moments particularly in the fight at the end when it didn’t look a lot better than an XBox cutscene.

  54. 54.

    Matt McIrvin

    February 27, 2018 at 5:23 pm

    @WaterGirl: I didn’t understand the spoiler protocol either. If we feel it’s appropriate to delete any of the comments I’d posted earlier, the mods should feel free to do so.

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    February 27, 2018 at 5:23 pm

    As it’s a mediacentric thread, fans of Happy Valley and/or Broadchurch – be on the lookout for Collateral, a similarly themed grim police detective BBC mini-series, arriving on Netflix March 9. trailer

  56. 56.

    Hermann Fegelein

    February 27, 2018 at 5:29 pm

    I was alive during 1968 and before, and I am not watching that Black Panther movie. From everything I’ve seen, it is totally detached from historical reality.

  57. 57.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 27, 2018 at 5:38 pm

    @NotMax:

    comScore/Screen Engine’s “PostTrak” collects domestic survey data for all films in release in at least 800 theaters, and links box office grosses to gender and ethnicity of attendees. The surveys are conducted during the first two weeks of a film’s wide release.

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    February 27, 2018 at 5:41 pm

    @Major Major Major Major

    It’s still creepy. One goes to the movies to be entertained, not to be profiled.

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    February 27, 2018 at 5:51 pm

    @NotMax: Thanks for that! I just added it to my Netflix list.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    February 27, 2018 at 5:52 pm

    @NotMax:

    Who the hell collects that data? And how? The idea of designated racial spotters at the door or of surreptitious photos of the audience being pored over is downright creepy.

    That’s why they call it show business.

  61. 61.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 27, 2018 at 5:52 pm

    @NotMax: I don’t imagine filling out one of these surveys is mandatory. For all I know it’s like a Nielsen thing.

  62. 62.

    Tenar Arha

    February 27, 2018 at 5:54 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: how good a friend is she? How much thought & effort do you want to put in?

    One thing I’ve noticed on Tumblr & Twitter is that there’s almost always a tipping point where a movement or a consensus is forming where “but whataboutism” starts to get activated. It seems to start in some from an honest & reasonable understanding that there are issues that are only going to be solved using interconnected solutions. But online it often just tips over into absurdity and derailment.

    Anyway guess I’m trying to say that it seems like there’s a “natural phenomenon” of pointing out how things are interconnected, but some of that, we now know has been, was, and will still be encouraged by people who want infighting to make many movements less effective. Before you leave her in mute, try to find out where she got the meme from. Because there’s now a non zero chance that it’s Russian or right wing propaganda. If she’s a good enough friend, maybe remind her of that privately?

  63. 63.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 27, 2018 at 5:59 pm

    @Tenar Arha: We aren’t that close. I’m pretty sure it came from some “don’t take our guns!” whataboutists, but she decided it raised an important point about bullying or something, even though what it’s actually saying is that these kids are worthless bandwagoneering starfuckers.

  64. 64.

    John Revolta

    February 27, 2018 at 6:00 pm

    @Brachiator: It’s like the carpenters say: you can have it fast, you can have it good, and you can have it cheap.

    Pick two.

  65. 65.

    Tenar Arha

    February 27, 2018 at 6:03 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah, with Baquet in charge, I doubt it. And I read the Bennet transcript that was reported on in Vanity Fair & HuffPo. I’ve reached significant levels of fuck’em.

    The news side is losing out to the trolls in Opinion & the stenographers in Politics. I’m really beginning to wonder if this paper is worth saving. The NYT should be really really worried that I feel this way.

  66. 66.

    chopper

    February 27, 2018 at 6:05 pm

    has tenguphule declared it the worst movie in history yet?

  67. 67.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 27, 2018 at 6:06 pm

    @chopper: I mostly see him talk about pie nowadays.

  68. 68.

    Tenar Arha

    February 27, 2018 at 6:08 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Yeah. Mute, and see what happens.

    SWTG we’ve all been traumatized for years by the GOP into conceding a point to make arguments “run smoothly” or something. Insisting that that’s not what we’re talking about, or even in addition pointing out that someone else is undercutting our own arguments, feels like we’re all trying to push that freaking boulder uphill.

  69. 69.

    WaterGirl

    February 27, 2018 at 6:11 pm

    @John Revolta: Graphic designers where I used to work had t-shirts printed up with that on them. In a lovely design, of course.

    They also created something – can’t recall what – with all the classic client responses on it. My favorite was “I liked it, but my secretary thinks you need to change this”.

  70. 70.

    Tenar Arha

    February 27, 2018 at 6:32 pm

    As for Black Panther It’s even more visually stunning & unique than Thor: Ragnorok for a Marvel movie. Best inclusion of women as main characters & plot movers, by far, as in any Marvel movie. The acting is wonderful. It’s not John Wick levels of fight choreography, or that scene with Cap in the elevator in Winter Soldier, but there’s some amazing set pieces that will not disappoint. (You’ve seen parts of at least one/two in the trailers).

    Rating: Will see this at least once more in the theater. Wiling to pay full price at night for even the IMAX.

    NB: It is, without a doubt the most fic-able movie I’ve seen, and the most likely to be fought over because it’s so easy to slip into writing something accidentally offensive without a deeper understanding that f what Coogler was doing. IMHO Coogler put his stamp on this world, this country & these characters in a good way, like Ed Brubaker put on Bucky Barnes, or the Russos put on Steve Rogers in the movies (as opposed to FU Nick *spitting noises* Spencer).

    ETA *Will go see…

  71. 71.

    maeve

    February 27, 2018 at 7:15 pm

    Saw it last weekend in Juneau, Alaska. It was sold out the first weekend when I tried to see it and the theater was almost full this time. (Only showing on one screen here.)

    Loved it – the costumes and sets are amazing. The number of interesting characters with their own motivations.

    Saw it in 2D – I may go back and see it in 3D (I’ve never actually seen a modern 3D movie – I think the last one I saw was a revival of House of Wax. The original 1953 one with Vincent Price. I’d seen it on TV in 2D but sometime in the 70s there was a revival in theaters with 3D glasses. It explained the scenes with things like someone playing with a paddle-ball toy and having it shoot out at the audience. Anyway I’ve been meaning to go to a 3D movie just to see what its like.)

  72. 72.

    rachel

    February 27, 2018 at 7:18 pm

    @Rob Lll: It accomplished something I haven’t experienced in a commercial movie in years, maybe even decades — taking me into a completely new and coherent visual universe We’ve never seen this world in mainstream cinema before and the production design here is just stunning (down to Wakanda having its own alphabet!).

    Another subtle design element I noticed was Wakanda’s throne. If you look at close-up stills or the movie poster, you can see a sort of cross-hatching that suggests a woven texture, but the throne is made of metal. I think what they were aiming for was to use Widmanstätten patterns to suggest that the throne was carved out of the original vibranium meteor. The king of Wakanda sits in a chair of the most precious metal in the MCU’s world.

  73. 73.

    Seanly

    February 27, 2018 at 7:22 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    OMG, I went to see The Abyss when I was a senior in civil engineering with two buddies – a mechanical engineer & an electrical engineer. Even though we didn’t have much real-world experience, we laughed when the female protagonist talked about designing every aspect of the huge underwater base. All the lone genius stuff is BS – it breaks my suspension of disbelief more than superpowers or faster-than-light travel.

    Hoping that I get to see Black Panther this weekend…

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    February 27, 2018 at 7:49 pm

    Not a spoiler — I was looking at the IMDb trivia and a reporter asked Martin Freeman what it was like to sometimes be the only non-Black actor on the set. His response was, “You think, ‘Right, so this is what black actors feel like all the time.’”

  75. 75.

    catclub

    February 27, 2018 at 10:22 pm

    @guachi: I agree with this. I am very impressed and somewhat puzzled by how much money it is bringing in.

  76. 76.

    J R in WV

    February 27, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    @Hermann Fegelein:

    I was alive during 1968 and before, and I am not watching that Black Panther movie. From everything I’ve seen, it is totally detached from historical reality.

    I was born in 1950, and we saw Black Panther yesterday, and both enjoyed it very much. You seem to not understand fiction at all. Fiction can bear no resemblance to historical reality whatsoever, or it can be carefully researched to follow historic event closely. Either way, things that NEVER happened can take place in fiction.

    President Kennedy could have sneezed, the bullet missed, and he lived to save the world from an alien invasion. Perfectly valid fiction.

    I think what you are expressing is that you can’t stand even the thought of black people being heroic and willing and able to save the world from poverty and misery. Your despicable reaction to a fantasy film you haven’t even seen shows your prejudice out loud. A real shame your person is so blighted by your racist hatred. Thanks for expressing it so clearly.

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne

    February 27, 2018 at 10:47 pm

    @catclub:

    It’s a movie that has a very wide appeal beyond just the usual superhero crowd and is drawing record numbers of Black ticket buyers in addition to the usual Marvel crowd. Plus word has gotten out that it’s an interesting, thoughtful film that’s more about the characters than superheroics, so people who skipped the last few Marvel movies are showing up to check it out.

    It’s the old Steve Jobs trick — give the audience what they didn’t even know they wanted until they saw it.

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