Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

1. Riri's Forced Inclusion

Many fans were excited to learn that Riri Williams/Ironheart was announced to appear in Wakanda Forever, and though actress Dominique Thorne does an absolutely solid job with what she's given, it has to be said that her inclusion here feels incredibly forced.

The manner in which she's integrated into the central story doesn't feel organic in the slightest, making it clear that she was seemingly written into the script to accommodate the upcoming Ironheart Disney+ series, which can't help but make her presence seem like a cynical calculation.

In a film that already has so much to work through, introducing a significant new superhero probably isn't the smartest idea, and given that Riri feels like a thin sketch of a character at best, she probably should've been saved for a future movie with less weighty dramatic baggage.

One can't shake the feeling that Riri plays like she's in another movie entirely, as though she was a remnant from the original Wakanda Forever script written prior to Boseman's death, and so comes off as a shoehorned component in this new version of the story.

These gripes aside, though, there's a lot to enjoy in the film, and so here's what it gets absolutely right...