“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (** out of four) was a lumpy sequel to the 2018 smash about the kingdom of Wakanda (Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, and others) who are mourning the death of King T’Challa and have to unite to fight off intervening powers which threaten to overtake them and present worldwide devastation. Fierce and exciting opening grabs your attention but film soon lags and becomes talky and meandering. Typical Marvel slam-bang action finale brings film back on track but film is fatally overlong at nearly three hours. Bassett stands out as usual as Queen Ramonda but Chadwick Boseman and his effortless charisma are sorely missed.