Shuri: Black Panther II

I saw this a while ago, and I'm afraid I'm now just reminded to provide a review when I saw this pop up under "Latest Posts." I should start doing more reviews so let's start here. I rewatched this again, and in my opinion, this is the definitive version of the movie. It's the only way to watch it, I think. For removing more than 30+ minutes, the whole thing felt seemless. Like of course we didn't need that kitchen scene with Martin Freeman and JLD talking about bad olive oil or whatever. Or that other Martin Freeman getting rescued at the end. All that should've been kept on the cutting floor. I also liked the abbreviated scene between Killmonger and Shuri and then moving it later as part of a flashback/dream sequence. Moving the ending scenes around and having a mid-credits scene switch was an absolute no-brainer. Just small things like these which just made sense but makes all the difference. This edit makes the actual Wakanda Forever feel like an extended cut. I think this is the Best Picture nominee version of this movie, and I think would be better remembered in canon if it was the official version. Highly recommended. Very easy watch. No complaints here.

Absolutely fantastic. Loved it. The pacing was so much better. I hardly noticed the scenes that were cut. There was only one cut scene that I noticed and missed having which was the ritual/ancestral plane scene, but I understand the decision to shorten and move it, and it worked well. That's really my only note. Everything flowed very well. I liked the focus staying on Shuri, and the actions were so much easier to follow. It didn't occur to me til reading the edit list, but it was so nice not having the action drag on forever and not cutting away from important moments.
Favorite edits were starting the movie with T'Challa's death and really establishing Shuri's grief as the focal point instead of the really long ship attack, and putting T'Challa's speech over the opening credits.

This edit was a joy to watch. An absolute improvement over the bloated original. When it comes to the audio and visual editing, I did not personally notice anything that was off except for the battle of Namor and Shuri. It did feel choppy to me, but on the other hand I prefer the choppiness versus the theatrical version. Focusing on those 2 characters helped improve the narrative. This was a tradeoff between the narrative versus technical aspect of the movie.

I largely agree with many of the other reviews that tremault's condensing this movie to focus on Shuri's struggle with family and loss really helped elevate this movie. Why exactly Marvel could not make this obvious decision - particularly after the unfortunate passing of Mr. Boseman truly befuddles me. I also felt the editor would have been better off leaving the message regarding his death after the final scene of the movie versus after the mid-credit scene. It was a bit of an awkard placement.

In terms of Riri, removing her to the extent possible was a great decision. Here you have a character who was intended to be portrayed as an intellectual prodigy, is introduced to the audience in a way that makes her come across very poorly. I mean, throwing objects at a princess of a superpower country does not come across as intelligent to me. I think trimming or removing a portion of the throwing objects at Shuri would help further minimize her poor portrayal.

Going further, I wonder if further trims and cuts can help minmize other areas of the narrative that simply were incoherent. We see plenty of convoluted and contradictory behavior from Namor. He makes various threats, but does not really act all the way through. Another reviewer mentioned the failure to kill Ruri - not just when she was a hostage, but also during the invasion of Wakanda. Why would he also leave Shuri alive when he could easily kill her? He instead reiterates a demand for an alliance after murdering her mother in cold blood. I think of some of his lines throughout the movie should be removed to minimize his contradictory words versus actions.

The editor correctly made the decision to cut down on the excess and filler content involving the American intelligence operatives. I wish they would be removed completely considering they added nothing to the movie and came across as a bit clueless - I mean they blame atrocities on the Wakandans with questionablle circumstantial evidence.

Overall, the edit turned this movie into a solid and fun watch. My personal dream edit of this movie, which is likely not feasible, would be to maintain near total focus on the family relationships while briefly showing all other content briefly to provide brief background information. The tighter it is, the better.

I want to thank tremault for sharing her edit and for the hard work. Making a subpar movie decent is not an easy task. I recommend others who have this to give it a shot, particulary those who had problems with the original to see if this fixes many of problems, which it does minimize in large part.

This was such a great watch! I almost didn't even want to watch it because I so strongly disliked the Riri plot and the bloated length of the original, but I am so glad I gave it a chance. This has 100% replaced the original for me.

Trimming the battle scenes was fantastically done, as overly-long fights where you know no one's going to die can be a tad boring. I agree that the Midnight Angel suit was a bit under-realized but it doesn't bother me too much because it still played a pretty good part.

There are a few things that could not be saved narratively, like why fight the Talokians on a suicide-mission boat deathtrap? Why does Namor kidnap Riri alive at all when they were just about to kill her on the bridge anyway? I did somehow get the overwhelming sense that he decided to keep her as a bargaining chip, even if that wasn't stated, and I think I got there because there was less filler between these moments, so you somehow filled in plot gaps for me without even using footage.

By removing over a half hour and keeping Riri's shoehorned screen time down to something like 10 minutes total, you have really allowed me to connect with the real story of Shuri mourning her brother and mother, and unlike with the original I cried at the end.

This edit was a massive success!

Let me start by saying, I have not seen the original, and any lack of enjoyment is because of the plot of actual film and NOT the edit. The edit is expertly done and I have no real complaints. And frankly aside from very VERY few details I honestly would've never known this was an edit. It's that well done.

The only audio fades that were noticeable was once during the opening funeral and once during the Iron Heart chase, I was enjoying the music of the chase but then it faded and felt too short. I could tell something was cut there.

The story never lost me. It never left anything for the viewer to just assume. It's fully being told with no blank spaces to confuse the audience. GREAT JOB.

Apparently there was a subplot with the Hobbit dude and the purple haired lady which I was wondering they hired a more well known actress if she barely had any lines and then I read the changes and was like "ooooh her stuff was cut out...GOOD." Whatever was going on there, I just know it was irrelevant and obnoxious, and I wanted to see none of it.

Midnight Angel got her suit introduced, but we barely got to see her fight in it. I was surprised, but then I was like "oh yeah it was prolly cut." Honestly the CGI was so bad I'm glad a bunch of the last battle was cut.

One line I feel should've been cut was when Shuri gets offered the dress or drink or something and Iron Hearts starts to doing what Disney loves to do in all their stuff, a disgustingly obnoxious amount of name dropping. For no reason IronHeart just start rapid fire talkin bout Disney StarWars Indiana Jones and Snow White which made me want to punch through a door. AGAIN that is an issue with the original film. No knocks against this edit.

What can I say? Honestly I can't believe this isn't already the original cut. The idea that there's more stuff shoved into this movie is crazy to me because clearly it didn't need any of that. Just watch this Fan edit if you want to see a movie that's actually about a character instead of being a commercial for all the other MCU and Disney + Garbage

It's about Shuri, The Black Panther, as it always should've been.