WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
Now, as many of you know – Michael B Jordan is one of a few to play two Marvel characters, in Killmonger and Flame Boy. The mantle of the latter was originally held for my generation by Chris Evans (hence why his article is based around the same character instead of Captain America). Of course I had to cover Jordan before he became Flame Boy for two reasons – 1) the role came first and 2) technically Killmonger could be considered as a villain in Black Panther but I would say he is potentially more of an anti-hero…
Chronicle
I think the Spider-Man quote “With great power, comes great responsibility” is pretty apt for this film. In a weird kind of way, this film is actually a found-footage superhero film. In all honesty, in comparison to Dane DeHaan character of Andrew, Steve (played by Michael B Jordan) is more of an ancillary role – especially as Andrew seems to be more of the hero in the beginning. It’s funny to think that Andrew and Steve aren’t friends from the start – our first introduction to Michael’s character is through his picture plastered around the school. He’s introduced about 10 minutes into the film when he finds Andrew outside a party upset. I worried that he was going to be a little bit of a dick, a little like Usher in The Faculty because that’s normally the way the jock characters are written but I’m so glad that Jordan doesn’t play it that way at all. He’s kind to Andrew from the eoutset even noting that he remembers him from a specific class. Their bond grows through the gaining and testing of their powers to the point I actually think they become better friends than Steve and Matt, Andrew’s cousin. I love the fact that even though Andrew is clearly the more powerful and the main character – Steve is the first to fly. This is my second watching of this film, and I think Andrew actually kills Steve! I think he causes the storm or at least his emotions make it worse, causing Steve to get struck by lightning when he’s there to help him.
Fruitvale Station
Warning – the opening scene of this film is real! It is genuine footage from 1st January 2009 at 2:15am when the incidents depicted in this film took place. Michael takes on the role of Oscar Grant III, the real life victim of the Fruitvale Station incident. Yes, I know that gives away the ending of the film but I always warn you about spoilers at the beginning of articles. This is a ‘Black Lives Matter’ story before that term was even coined. Oscar spends a lot of the film pretending everything is OK – lying to his family about his job. Obviously, this is only depiction of his life, but Michael B. Jordan portrays Oscar as a loving father and partner (even though the film starts with us finding out he cheated on Sophina), a man trying to turn his life around. The final scenes are intense and I feel that it is brave on behalf of the director to not only include the genuine footage at the beginning but to also re-enact the incident at the end – almost bringing the film in full circle.
Red Tails
This film at no point purports to be based on a true story. Yes, the Tuskegee Airmen (African-American Airforce servicemen) existed but all the characters featured in the film are fictional even though they are based on real individuals that took part in World War II. Now, I mentioned before about Michael having an ancillary role in Chronicle but there’s a difference between ancillary and still having an impact on the film as a whole and only appearing around 15 minutes in to the film and only having a few scenes here and there. This could be because the main focus of the film is on Captain Martin “Easy” Julian and 1st Lieutenant Joe “Lightening” Little as well as the attitude towards the Tuskegee Airmen as a whole from the rest of the army. Even though he plays a new recruit to the Tuskegee by the name of Flight Officer Maurice Wilson, we don’t actually see him in a plane until over an hour into the film! Both Ne-Yo and Andre 3000’s roles are bigger than Michael’s but this could be because he hadn’t been acting as long as them.
Honorary Mentions
Outside of the films above, Michael had only appeared in 4 others – Black and White, Hardball, Blackout and Pastor Brown. The majority of his acting career up to making Fantastic Four was based mainly on TV with main roles in The Wire, All My Children and Friday Night Lights. The interesting thing is, he was actually credited as Michael Jordan for his first ever role in an episode of The Sopranos instead of Michael B Jordan.
