Black Panther: Ryan Coogler’s entry to the ever-expanding, almost ubiquitous franchise (or cinematic universe) is a decent origin story to a decent character. It’s a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-do-not scenario as far as the connections with the universe-at-large are concerned, so this entry’s isolationism is what raises eyebrows and questions. There’s no denying the social relevance of a black super-hero, but the title character himself is not particularly well-developed or interesting. In that regard, he is upstaged by a few supporting female characters. The main villain has some of the usual bad-guy tropes, but also allows a cartoonish version of the debate between violent and non-violent black power. Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan are both interesting, and so are Lupita Nyong’o and Letitia Wright in their smaller roles. The action sequences and the film in general have the usual nondescript polish of the franchise.