Random Thoughts

[Rev. Rye]

Looking up the history of “Baby it’s Cold Outdide,” a thought came to me:

Black Panther has several points inherent in its premise that pimp-slap willing suspension of disbelief:

1) Wakanda appears to be so low in natural resources that it managed to be entirely unmolested by colonizers during the Scramble for Africa.
2) Despite this, unknown to the rest of the world, Wakanda is absurdly rich and technologically advanced to the point where Head of State T’Challa’s vibranium reserves alone dwarf the rest of the world’s GDP. And, of course, they still manage to hide this from the rest of the world, with the possible exception of Stark Industries.
3. Despite having more responsibility than Bruce Wayne, what with running a country AND keeping this masquerade alive, still finds the time to moonlight as a superhero.

Of course, it managed to be the highest-grossing and most acclaimed movie in the MCU despite this, largely because Ryan Coogler managed to make the movie good enough that, when you’re watching it, the absurdity of these premises doesn’t bother you.

And yet, somehow, the idea of film characters bursting into song and dance seems to be a bridge too far for a depressingly large number of movie audiences.

Why do you think that is?