It really was. And visually it's just fine, it looks great. Thing is, Nolan's incredibly ambitious visually, for all his other faults. I just don't know that after "Fruitvale Station, looked fine but nothing to write home about", "Creed, great looking movie, but basically what you'd expect of modern Rocky", and "Black Panther, ostensibly a Marvel-looking movie - a pretty one by Marvel standards, but still using the house style" you could really put him on Chris' level visually.
At least not yet. It'd be ridiculous to compare Nolan to, I dunno, Mann or whoever back when he'd just finished Memento too. Coogler shows buttloads of potential, he's probably going to be amazing someday. He's still fresh-faced and a relative newbie though.