The Brilliance of ‘Black Panther’ Helped It Avoid a Common Tentpole Movie Trap

The outpouring of reactions to Ryan Coogler’s Marvel triumph “Black Panther” is understandable, given that there are any number of things to praise about it.

Its world-building is spectacular (I need Shuri, Okoye, and Nakia spinoffs now); it disproves the frustrating, long-held myth that movies starring actors of color don’t perform well all over the world; it is the rare superhero film with an array of well-developed female characters (Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda — just wow); and it is one of the most explicitly political tentpole movies ever (and brilliantly so).It also had one of the best concluding sequences I’ve ever seen in a superhero film.

Among its many accomplishments, “Black Panther” understands that psychological stakes matter more than the sheer scale of destruction on screen.Coogler’s film managed to avoid what I’ve taken to calling the “smashy-smashy” trap — the syndrome that afflicts too many big-budget movies, even some that

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