Sci-Fi & Scary

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review consideration.

Okay, so I’ve actually ended up reading this for review before I’ve seen Black Panther. I know. Bad me. I’m horrible. (I do fully intend on seeing it next weekend.) However, Black Panther: The Official Movie Special didn’t really spoil anything for me and I actually think I’ll have a better understanding of the film going into it than I normally would have. (Super hero comics just don’t do it for me. Neither do most MCU movies, either.)

Readers will be delighted with the interviews contained within the Black Panther: The Official Movie Guide. The actors and actresses came into the film with various degrees of knowledge regarding the Marvel universe and the Black Panther character and world. The in-character photographs that accompany the interviews are absolutely lovely. My favorite interview was the one with Lupita Nyong’o. While the others were interesting, hers is the one where you could feel her excitement really bleeding through. You could tell the movie meant a lot to her. One thing that was obvious throughout all the interviews was that the actors and actresses felt that the movie was truly different from the other Marvel Universe films. A lot of them also commented on how they believed the movie was putting its finger on the pulse of our world today.

Another thing to takeaway as a reader was that everyone had a strong respect for Ryan Coogler and the way he did his job.

The profile piece on Forest Whitaker was lovely. He really has had an amazing career with lots of roles. Even though he didn’t have an interview, it was nice to see that he was not forgotten.

Black Panther: The Official Movie Special is an interesting movie tie-in that is perfect for people who want to get inside the primary actors’ heads on the film. There are enough stills and photographs/mock-ups of set design to make the hardcore film fans happy. The concept art was absolutely gorgeous. I was expecting a little more out of it, but I wasn’t unhappy with what I read. I think I was hoping for a little more truly behind-the-scenes photographs like of fight scenes and whatnot.

Overall, it’s a solid, if not outstanding tie-in piece and I can see lots of Black Panther fans being happy with adding Black Panther: The Official Movie Guide to their memorabilia collection.