One of the worst things you can do is place unwarranted expectations on a person, place, thing, or event. Leading up to the release of Marvel’s Black Panther, the expectations for the movie reached Star Wars-esq levels. Just to be clear, I don’t mean Revenge of the Sith, I’m talking Return of the Jedi levels of anticipation. Considering the lack of positive African American representation on the big and small screen it’s not hard to understand why African Americans have made it their mission to support this movie in full force. Black Panther managed to galvanize an entire people to spend their hard earn money months in advance for something that could very well have failed miserably. As a black man, I wanted to love this movie based on principle alone. As an objective writer on the interwebs, I know I have to put all of my cultural bias aside and view this movie not as a cultural movement but as just another piece of cinema. That’s said, Black Panther isn’t perfect… but it is the best movie Marvel Studios has ever released.