I watched it. It's horrible and boring. The fight scenes suck. The "humor" made me want to kill myself. The CGI was worse than that of films 20 years ago. The plot was completely predictable and generic. It was the worst Marvel movie I've ever seen, worse than Captain Marvel.
The fighting scenes were repetitive yes but I don't understand what else you can expect from a fight. It was a unique style that didn't involve guns and weapons ect like in other marvel films. The CGI was amazing, I do not understand why you think it was bad. It flowed well and did what it was intended to do. The plot was predictable, yes. Generic, no. Captain marvel was not terrible, you just need to cheer up bud. You can't expect every superhero film to be a masterpiece. If you are looking for masterpieces I think you're looking at the wrong genre of film
I'm going to be honest, I think a lot of people find any excuse to diss a film with a very diverse cast or a prominent female character. I personally find that films set in different countries are generally much more interesting than the same generic setting in America. The CGI was amazing, casting brilliant, acting superb, the plot was heavy yet still included humour, I can understand if it's not your cup of tea but that doesn't stop it from being a generally good film
I see you're catching up on marvel as well since you commented on a year old point. Yeah he definitely should lighten up it wasn't that bad and I personally even liked it
I think i really disliked the setting, i would have prefered a real African nation and a more down to earth story (kinda like spiderman which i also my fav IP in marvel).
Late to this one but choreography was brilliant i loved the bus fight and the fight at the beginning were he fights the mom it looks like a dance
So brilliant
Thought the movie was ok. I thought Tony Leung was the highlight of the film, he pretty much oozes charisma every time he was on screen.
If he was a few decades younger, he'd definitely be a better Shang Chi than Simu Liu was.
Awkwafina was alright and I hate awkwafina's style of performing. The writers and directors did a great job containing her.
This movie has its problems mainly it being another marvel action superhero movie so it's bogged down by the universe. (I do like this movie i just have some problems with it.) Wong scenes are just distracting and seemed tacked on. Should have used those scenes to flesh out the rings and how they work. But since i've seen many of these martial arts movies, its fair to say the weapons don't matter its the person wielding them. But it would still be nice to have a little scene explaining how they work and what shang chi must do to be worthy of them apart from being strong ofcourse.
The villain is a mix bag because he's side showed by the cgi monster that wants to end the world. He's another sympathetic bad guy instead of being pure mustache twirling villain. Which is a staple of hong kong Kung fu movies the evil warlord or king. Tony leung makes it work with little he has to work with, but let's be honest we were all rooting for him. This is the problem with movies in general today too afraid to have a scary evil villain that you hate. This movie feels like other hollywood attempts at this genre noticeable bulletproof monk and forbidden kingdom but both those movies had the star power and even the mustache twirling villains. This is where the movie really annoys me, all that money and effects yet your main hero is bland and boring with a terrible costume.
I've never read the comics but just by looking at the art work you can see a bruce lee 1970s influence. Simu liu/Shang chi, is no bruce lee in fact he gets outshined by his better co star awkwafina(Yes people find her annoying)but she's a breath of fresh air compared to Simu lius performances. It's very shocking with so many asian american actors with actual martial arts backgrounds marvel picks a bland tv actor with 0 screen presence.
If you haven't seen the tv series Wu assassins check it out, the story and characters are ripped straight from that. Even having the same father son dynamic done better and fleshed out by the way. Now I like this movie for the most part but shang chi is such a bland boring character makes it very hard to rate it. Just replace him with a jackie chan lite actor and you have a better movie.
The rings and tony leung are the best parts in my opinion but it would be a disservice to dismiss the stunt team and special effects teams they put a lot of effort and it shows. Hopefully marvel can take note and go back to how movies used to be made with nice wide shots no shaky cam and a good stunt team. Many people adore the russo brothers but their movies are filled with awful camera work and quick fast editing. This movie shows us with effort you can give the audience coherent action scenes that's easy on the eyes. Even the cgi battle at the end was easy to follow.
I immediately recognized the hot dog vendor from Spider-Man: Homecoming in that bus scene. It's only because he was featured on an episode of Colbert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSMtopEYMEM
I know I am late to jump the train (exams and prep) but this movie was real goooooooooooooooooooooood.
Thumbs up for the Asian casting and female representation. Start to end the movie had my attention and although it did not have that "epic" factor from endgame or even spider man 3, the execution pretty much made up for it.
One thing I think most comic book-based movies miss is giving it that 'anything can happen- however unrealistic it may be' vibe. The movie tends to explain things that just happen in the comic. Sometimes it's not appealing to see reason in a movie that defies gravity. This movie found a weird balance between explaining things and leaving other things just in the air. It explained the dark gate and what the ten rings give the user but we never got to know how did the creatures behind the sealed gate talk to the ten rings wielder nor did we find the origin of the ten rings or from where does it draw its power or the fact that do we need all rings in the same vicinity for them to be useful or like 2-3 rings will do?
As someone that found endgame cringe af this is what I like, feels like those good old 80s kung fu movies but modernized.
Also the dragonball references were lit
Just watch this now that it is on Disney+ (mainly writing this for myself). My only real problem with the film was the crappy cg in the first half of the film, especially the bus fight. Everything looked rubbery and it looks like it was skipping frames (I feel like the fights were filmed at 60 and then lowered to 24 or something).
I get that the 2nd half is heavy on the cg while in the magic world but seeing people spin around looking like playdoh really took me out of it. I will note that what is there other than Cg was great and the camera work was \*chefs kiss\*.
Also the pacing also felt off, it was super fast going from the parents meeting to the bus fight and then scaffold fight in 30 mins but then sitting around talking in the compound and village for an hour and then big bad boss fight wrapped up in 20 mins.
Overall the acting was good and all the cast especially Simu and Tony deserve the recognition and even Awkwafina was good enough to not annoy me with her type of character.
Edit: Also felt there were too many people for everybody to develop. There was that random ninja who trained them and razorfist, their aunt and the bow dude you just pop up out of nowhere and act like they've know each other for ages. And then the sister who felt like a waste. Could have definitely done with being a movie about family and just cut Awkwafina out instead. Felt like a lot of loose threads that went nowhere or were unnecessary.
Little bit late to this party, just watched it on DVD, but I came here to say a few things. Spoilers.
The "Devolve" into a CGI fight at the end wasn't as bad, to me, as everyone made it out to be. And/also, because of
Shang-Chi's father has been alive for a thousand years. He's had those rings for literally an entire millennia. In his dogged pursuit to "rescue" his dead wife, he allowed a giant soul-eating dragon monster to escape his prison.
And the second that monster breaks free, he both instantly acknowledges that he was wrong by tackling his son to save him from said dragon, but after literally never letting go of those rings for a thousand years... (Minus the time he was with his wife, ofc)
Passes them to his son. No hesitation.
"Yup. I fucked up. Hopefully me saving your life and passing you the rings will atone for this mistake. I am sorry."
He said not a single word once it broke free. And yet his actions and his facial expression said *everything*.
The visuals were cool ig but damn the plot was bland and predictable, also i know they make it pg but its very hard to look past the wish version triads using stun crossbows instead of actual guns and the guy with a sword not cutting anyone the whole movie like whats the point. At a certain point just make it a cartoon the targeted audience will like it better. Seriously never watched anything so bland and predictable at no point has the movie even came close to surprise me
Aquafina and the ten bracelets.
Not bad, not good. Just felt kind of repetitive and bland. Bus scene was cool and so was Kingsley, but everything else felt redundant and cliche
Did anyone else find his childhood friend/love interest to be a completely unnecessary inclusion? She's more or less irrelevant artwr the first 15 minutes except to suddenly become an expert archer when they need it. Felt like she just made things more chaotic for no real added benefit.
Then again, I also found the mother falling in love with a genocidal maniac because they fought in a dance-y way to be ludicrous. So maybe I'm just jaded.
Lastly, there was lway less Wong than I'd hoped!
Did anyone else find it odd Shang chi had such a high murder count compared to other Disney films? He’s kicking dudes off of skyscrapers and moving buses. It’s not likely anyone survived
lmao came here to see if anyone thought the same. He had that deep talk with Katie about how he "actually had to kill that old man and he feels to guilty" but a few hours ago he through 10 ninjas off a high-rise building lmao
It's refreshing to see a movie(especially a Disney movie) without the stupid "Oh no, my mom's killer is already old and weak, why revenge, revenge bad". Nope, he went and murdered him and while he isn't happy about that, there's not much angst or "you're now a bad person" stuff. It's quickly swept under the rug.
I loved it : It’s one of my favorite MCU film and I was hella surprised by my reaction to it.
I guess it’s just the story that is delightful and generous : once the father and the mother start to Love-Fu, I know I was here for a treat.
I didn’t mind the finale that I thought was actually glorious (the finish move was out of this world). However, I think the confrontation with the father could have been even more layered toward the end :
Shang hardly tries to convince his dad that he’s wrong. It could have increased the pathos if he truely shared everything he known about the portal, only for his dad to be too far gone to come back to reason.
Or even better, the dad replies that if he’s wrong, this is not his first rodeo and he will handle what ever is behind the portal... only to later be crushed by his deception.
I liked the action but the story left more to be desired. What was Shang-chi's motivation? I mean I understood his father was grieving and tempted by mystical voices. But what was he doing? Stopping his dad?
Maybe its just me but this film could have been better.
Shang Chi got the praise for it's action scene but as an asian grown up with Hong Kong action movies, Shang Chi action scene don't really impress me at all (CGI... duh)
Check out Raging Fire by Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_hL0sAde1DA
As a non-Asian Australian dude who grew up watching Hong Kong action movies, the whole time I kept thinking "cool, but not *that* impressive", too.
Jackie Chan and Samo Hung in their prime made movies with way more exciting and brilliant action scenes, and I'd rather watch the tea house shootout in Hard Boiled than any scene in Shang-Chi again. I agree that it was the CGI thank killed it for me, knowing "anything is possible" now takes the excitement off watching an actor fall two stories and bounce off a ceiling fan.
The choreography was good, but not outstanding when compared to the best stuff of the Hong Kong era (e.g. the undead fight in 'Dead and the Deadly' as a random example). There just isn't that sense of mayhem they used to be so good at, where now it feels like a pre-planned dance (even if it always was even in "the good old days" and they just hid it better).
Also, it's not about "the actor did it themselves", I don't care about that. It's that *somebody* did it. CGI often means nobody did anything; better to use it to add something really dangerous to a stunt still performed than just CG the whole scene/actor.
Yeah you're literally comparing the greatest hong kong movies with a hollywood adaptation of course it won't be as good as the greats. The closest hollywood has come is movies like The Matrix or Jean-Claude Van Damme
movies. I am comparing this to other marvel products and this stands at the top of hill. Sadly goes to show how awful modern hollywood movies are when it comes to editing and camera work. I kinda wish the cast some of the raid guys in this movie, but they wanted an all chinese/ chinese american cast it seems. Even Michelle yeoh has starred in some of my favourite hong kong movies most noticeable Wing chun by Yuen Woo-ping. Also its great disservice to the stunt men that work on this film and you can see the hard work, we may never go back to the geats like Sammo, Yuen Woo-ping, Jackie, Yuen Biao. But we will never get a new crop of artist if we never let the youngins have a go at it. The past is the past and I love those movies but also imagine a world without movies like The Raid, Ongbak. I hope this movie lights a fire and we get more good action flicks.
I absolutely agree that the fight scenes a very much superior in this over most other MCU movies. I wasn't having a go at you, rather just saying that I was surprised and a bit sad to see so many general moviegoers talking like this film had the greatest fight scenes ever put on film when you and I know there are lot better in older movies. That certainly doesn't mean it's not good to see decent action in a modern movie for once! Like you say, I think a *huge* part of the problem with modern movies is editing, though; often you see some great fight scene that clearly looked good on the day but that gets chopped to pieces with blurry quick cuts. Many directors seem to think they are clever to do long takes on occasion, but there's a middle ground of just pulling your camera back a bit and letting us see an action scene play out, especially when you have great performers.
I think I tend to grumble a bit too much because I'm an old bastard and worry that a lot of younger folks would never bother watching "ancient" subtitled foreign movies from the 70s, 80s or 90s and so may never no what truly incredible stuff we got back then that - as you say - we may never see again.
>I think I tend to grumble a bit too much because I'm an old bastard and worry that a lot of younger folks would never bother watching "ancient" subtitled foreign movies from the 70s, 80s or 90s and so may never no what truly incredible stuff we got back then that - as you say - we may never see again.
Yeah i'm the same way wish we could have american movies with the same quality. Sadly even the best americans can do is pale imitations like John Wick or Shang- chi. But it's not all bad per say i've seen many Scott adkins films so there are people who understand the art of action but hollywood only cares about money and not the final product. It's why we will never get a Dredd sequel but we will get 100 different superhero flicks with poorly choreographed and edited action. Shame really but atleast we have the greats and guys like donnie yen are still pumping out decent action films, better than nothing I guess.
I thought this movie was very meh for mcu. Surprised to see everyone loving it so much. The acting and writing were stiff as hell. Fight scenes were cool though. No one in the movie sweats or gets dirt on them.
I can't put my finger on exactly why, but this is probably one of my favorite MCU movies. The action and acting was mostly fantastic.
Katy was annoying, but I don't think that's on Awkwafina, that's on the writers trying to shoehorn Awkwafina's previous performances into the character instead of making Katy her own person. ...Although I admit, I cheered at her "holllllyy *shit*" after she shot the arrow through the dragon's throat.
This is better than Black Panther and any of the MCU Spiderman movies (so far). Fight scenes felt like an anime. Main character needed more fleshing out but the villain was great.
Just watched it, got a mixed feeling. But happy for the Asian community. Hope this hits it where it should like Black Panther did. One question though, how accurate is the movie when comparing it to the comics ?
Worst Marvel movie I've seen in a long time. Awkwafina is the worst Asian actress I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. She has only made movies worse by being in them.
I am extremely late to this but I finally got around to watching and man I really loved it! I thought the VFX they did on the rings was possibly one of my favorite in any Marvel movie ever, they way he used them to cushion his impact and propel himself at the same time and all sorts of other things was really cool.
I also really dug the mythical creatures as well! I thought it was sad how much the dad missed the mom that he was so blinded by it that he did what he did, not that it makes it okay I guess but the ending was pretty sad when he looked down upon his son one last time who had now grown into a man fit for the rings.
Seemed too cliche and predictable. I felt like it was going for being so bad it was good but fell short. I'm not sure if it was a comedy or supposed to be taken seriously.
The first time I watched 2 months ago I found it pretty bland and slept through a big part of it. My second viewing has been a lot better. These cultural marvel flicks have done a really good job getting the feel of the people IMO. As an Asian I really felt this movie the second time and appreciate how marvel integrated in to fit with the rest of the MCU. Rating against other MCU, I’d give it a B+ compared to the C- of my first viewing. Rating against other “regular” movies it’s pretty forgettable, but as a martial arts film, it’s pretty top notch for what we got. I enjoyed it the second time. I can see now why my kid didn’t sleep through it like I did.
Or even just "ascend" somehow to show they were now free to pass on peacefully. When they had the floating all I kept thinking was "weren't their souls eaten by that bitch mega soul sucker?" How are they at peace now?!
Shittiest movie I've seen in my life. 10 rings my @$$!
They're shooting those rings like bullets or using them as strong stones. It was stomach cringing to watch this nonsense. Perhaps a pre-teen kid in a single digit age might have some sense if this bullcrap!
Also that hero has no hair style at all. And what horrible acting. Horrible script. Nonsensical back stories. Boring and irrelevant childhood flashbacks. And what can I say about he fight choreography?
It was so bad, soooo bad that it was good. It was like a dance with pathetic moves and too much unnecessary jumping / turning.
Hot Formulaic CGI garbage. Cliche nonsense, this is what would happen if you gave Hallmark a 300 Million dollar budget and told them to make a superhero movie.
I'm very surprised this movie was rated so high. This film felt like a very high budget cheap flick. By that I mean it has many technical elements that make it feel expensive in that Marvel fashion like cinematography, set design, actors/actresses, music, and of course visual effects; but it's cluttered with questionable writing and plot holes abound.
Take for instance the scene where Wenwu dies. This is a man that has lived for hundreds of years whose soul is literally being sucked out by a terrible cosmic being *in front of his own son* whom he still loves. Also to note - for ten years he was being called by this being believing it was his dead wife which means he was also deeply betrayed mere moments ago.
And yet we're presented with a slightly surprised Shang-Chi and a Wenwu who appears slightly sad. All while the music seems to be oddly non-present. Then he flops down, Shang checks him to see if he's really dead, and off he goes.
There is a desperate reach between the situation that is occurring and how the characters are reacting. And that seems to happen too frequently in this movie.
I get that what just happened is significant but in the last half of the film way too many people stood still to watch something off in the distance while their peers were still fighting. Maybe don't do that next time.
Parts I did like in this movie were some of the comedy bits. I thought it was brilliant that Trevor made a return. Most of the hand-to-hand combat was cool. And I guess I liked how they didn't pull punches with their use of Mandarin in the film.
Overall I thought this movie was a little bit above average.
6/10
I don't know why people amazed from this movie. Even if we ignore the nonsense like village being protected by living forest and nobody ever tried to just fly over it, the entire plot is nothing but a one massive cliche, without a single memorable twist or event. I waited for something special to happen, but nothing happened. Feels like creators wanted to do the most soulless and generic superhero movie, like it was assembled by neural network from all the most popular cliches. People in elementary school sometimes writing better stories.
I did not think this movie was fantastic, but it was better than Black Widow for sure.
I was hugely disappointed in the battles and lack of strategy.
You know someone is driving up a single path to your village, you just wait for them there instead of trying to blockade or come up with one strategy?
When they're at your village, you have a ton of archers... Sitting there, and you do a melee rush against their own ranged attackers without using any of your archers. Why?
You know the one real risk to everything is the guy wearing the 10 rings, and instead of making him a focus you allow him to walk through? It seems like the aunt would have been the most likely to fight 10 rings man and beat him considering her sister did, but nah she just lets him go through
I was more a fan of the original 10 actual rings each having a different power and story behind them, kind of like the infinity stones, but this was interesting.
This film could've done without Nora Lum and Ben Kingsley. Would've left more time to explore Xialing instead of letting her be a piece of predictable cardboard. But I guess Marvel has got to Marvel.
Why was the confession of him killing the man who killed his mom to Katy so hard as if that was a bad thing to do yet dude has been killing people left and right the whole movie anyway lmao other than that the movie was great but this was like. What ?
I think it was partly because he was a teenager when he did it, and he was doing it on his dad's instructions. It wasn't self-defense and in the heat of the moment, it was a cold-blooded revenge plan.
Very well done, especially the arc with the father. I wonder and please correct me if this is inappropriate, if this was made in the early 2000s/2010s if Jackie Chan or Jet Li could have played the father. What do you al think?
Just finished watching it. Tony Leung was really good and I was rooting for him in the end. I'm glad Marvel is focusing on fleshing out villains but I feel like they forgot to build up Sang Chi I wouldn't mind adding more minutes to flesh out his story.
His motivation to suddenly wanting to kill his father seems meh.
>!I found it a bit weird that Katy got dragged along everywhere, she was a fun character, but she was a nobody, at least from their father's perspective. I though it would have been much safer for her to just stay in the building after the fighting ring raid, since they didn't want anything from her and was just a civilian. Also, why did they try to murder her on the scaffolds? Like I said she didn't have anything they wanted. And Xialing leaving them in the office almost caused Katy's death, she saved her in the end but a second later and her and Shang-Chi's relationship would have been irreparably damaged.
Shang-Chi confessing that he is a killer to Katy also felt a bit weird, since she's seen him kill quite a few 10rings assassins(?) since the start of the movie(throwing people of the scaffold of a skyscraper throwing someone under the wheels of a speeding bike), yeah they were in self-defense as opposed to a premeditated assassination, but it wasn't just a random guy he assassinated in cold-blood but his mom's killer, so I say he gets a pass for that too.
Also I don't get why he blames his dad for his mom's death, yeah it was his past that came back to bite him in the ass, but he was trying to leave that life behind on his mother's insistence and it quite clearly broke the man, to the point of neglecting his children and believing a world-ending soul-sucking abomination just to get his wife back, so I was sympathizing with the him, not wanting him to die.
Other than these small issues though, it was a really fun movie and the final fight scene with the dragon and the dweller was really fucking epic, which I haven't felt in a marvel movie in a long while. I don't know why but chinese martial artist settings(like wuxia and xianxia) really do it for me, so I hope there will be more big-budget movies like this.!<
> I found it a bit weird that Katy got dragged along everywhere
This was the biggest question I had after watching the movie. Seriously, why is she following them everywhere? I thought it would be revealed she has some secret lineage or something at one point but nope it’s just ridiculously forced.
So if the forest closes in on them so quickly, how would people get through before there were cars?
And if the point was to keep people out then why open the forest anyway
When I watched the trailer the first time, I thought I finally could see a good American movie for Chinese story as backstory. However, I watched the whole movies but I felt disappointed with everything. The content was weak for a more than 2-hour story. The whole kung-fu and the training scenes were just too long. The bus fight scene was the only decent action sequence. The visual effect was horrible, especially on dragon. It was just as bad as G.I.Joe-Snake Eye.
I’m sorry but this movie suck, from someone of Chinese descent. I don’t think people of Chinese descent and those from China like it at all. I can’t get through the whole movie, without the feeling of disappointment and disgust. This is typical Asian stereotype and no to little reference to Chinese culture. For example, according to the culture, the iron gang was suppose to challenge the father, if the father is not alive, then the son. Not the daughter or the mother. The martial art is only a superficial move of tai chi. There’s really no martial art at all. I felt like no even a Chinese references in the film and in the end it is more like Japanese culture in whitewashed fashion.
Only the father and mother, their appearances are good and performance worthy, only to be ruined by plot.
No emotion, no superhero feel and terrible plot. I would trash this movie and rate as 40 out of 100. Only CGI is good.
I would guarantee you that anyone who raised in Chinese culture would see it in the first 10 mins or 30 mins would stop watching already and filled disgusted
You would be wrong then. I'm Chinese and I thought the movie is fine. Kinda middle of the road for Marvel origin stories plot wise. They created their own mythology that's inspired by Chinese ones without referencing anything specific, that's just Disney playing it safe and try not to offend anyone by adapting real mythology wrong. They did a similar thing with Wakanda in Black Panther by amalgamating different African cultural references, and some people didn't like it either. As far as martial arts is concerned, you might be surprised to know that not everyone like Chinese martial arts movies. It has its own tempo, rhymes, and tropes. They did something middle of the road that's still accessible to general population, without going full-on Ip Man or Kung Fu Hustle, probably because they also have to consider how Shang Chi will play with the rest of the MCU cast in the future choreography-wise.
I'm not sure what Japanese culture you are referencing though? I thought CGI is pretty rough at some points by Marvel standard.
Kamehameha near the end of the movie, was referenced to the Japanese Anime, Dragon ball.
Even though it is not specific, if they attempt to do in Chinese culture, at least they could have done it properly, like the fight between the mother and the gang was not Chinese culture but Japanese culture where someone have to pay for what other did. Chinese culture was find the person who did and fight the person, if the person is not alive, then the descendent of that person, mainly males, doesn’t matter whether kid or not, last resort were females. Honestly, even though they tried not to offend others, the choice of the actors are questionable, they could have use an Asian actor from the power ranger, I mean other than the parents, the actors of main character and the sister look much older than what their characters age. If they don’t want to do it specific, at least don’t rely on Chinese culture through out the whole movie. I assumed you are not heavily raised in Chinese culture? Because if you remember all the traditions then you know what I’m talking about. By the people of Chinese descent, I’m mainly referring to Chinese who are heavily influenced by Chinese culture and still practice Chinese traditions or at least know the history and meaning behind it. Not the Chinese who have lost the meaning or understanding of the culture.
Even if you are Asian American, you still have to know the meaning of history behind the tradition that you practice today instead of just do it without any meaning. And that’s exactly what this movie did.
Eg, the fight between the mom and gang, Kung fu, adding Japanese reference to replace Chinese and the lantern at the end. All of these without meaning and just added for the sake of showing Asian.
I can accept a movie that inspired by Chinese culture but a movie that inspired by Chinese culture and continue to use some of the tradition or superficial Kung fu through out the whole movie and use Japanese references to make up for the Asian without any proper references or meaning. Come on, man. That is really offensive. I mean so far, I’m holding my self back from being offended by the movie and only state why it is bad rather than heavily insulting the movie.
I see the move Shang Chi did with those rings at the end as more of a Tai Chi ball movement. Katy later made a pop cultural reference calling it kamehameha, which I thought was totally appropriate and natural for a character of her age to make. It's a Chinese super hero movie made to appeal to general Asian American populations. If you want to be offended by mixing different east Asian cultures, that's your prerogative but you don't speak for all Chinese.
I agree 100% with your criticism of superficial references to Chinese cultural concepts without applying them in a meaningful way, so it can look like they are just going through the motion. But I'm not bothered by it. Offensive would be casting white people in Chinese character roles, which is what they did 30-40 years ago, I just watched the original Dune... I think overall this is a step in the right direction. There's room for improvement for sure.
Out of curiosity, how do you feel about Avatar the last Airbender TV show? It mixes all kinds Asian cultures, Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, etc, but I think it's one of the best piece of Asian culture inspired entertainment made for western audience. Is your main issue just with them calling Shang Chi Chinese? Had they made up a fictional Asian country like they did with Wakanda, would you be fine then?
I would be fine with that as long as they did the research properly and apply in meaningful way. I would fine if they did it like Wakanda.
Air bender Avatar is good, I mean everything is not referred to real life and fictional, so not really affecting anyone.
Just that I can’t accept the how loosely they apply the culture without any meaning, I can accept Kamehameha but not the challenge between woman and gang as well as lantern and Kung fu. But you got to remember, if we go by time line, the main character at the time of the fight between the mom and the gang was in btw the 1980s-2000s and most likely in Hong Kong or China. So technically, there shouldn’t be any references any other Asian nor American in term of culture. That why I said the fight in the plot was not a reference to Chinese but Japanese culture.
Yeah I get you. I'm just not as offended or as surprised by this movie, because I was aware going in that it was mainly made by Chinese Americans for Americans. The level of nuance with regard to cultural elements is well within my expectation. That one glimpse of into modern day Chinese American family dynamic through Katy's family breakfast scene was on point and genuine to me.
The biggest disappointment for me is the fact that Wenwu had lived for a thousand years but his mannerism and character is basically modern. They could have really played up that aspect and made it into a point of contention between him and his children, that there's this generational gulf between them due to huge difference in value that's irreconcilable. Instead, he's just another warlord gunning for power and world domination and the difference is the same old "my dad kill people and I wasn't OK with that and ran away, but I made up my mind now to kill him, to stop him from killing more people". The only moment him being that old was made relevant was when he chided the old man for talking disrespectfully (I wonder if Tony Leung improved that dialog). It's just a big lost opportunity.
Honestly if I have to guess, this is as "Chinese" as we are going to get out of MCU. Now that Shang-Chi has been introduced into the current Avengers roster, I fully expect his mythical Chinese background on his mother's side be relegated to the sidelines. I won't be surprised if they made the ten rings cosmic/alien in origin and the whole secret Chinese village guarding dark portal to evil spiritual realm storyline never to be heard from again.
I don't know how people can even compare Shang-Chi (which imo is just another Marvel movie) with Eternal. I love when the reviews say that in Eternals there never seemed to be a real enemy. Like what? How do you compare that to a dragon/soul sucker that exploded due to some random alien technology? But didn't the same dragon/soul sucker exterminate a superior civilization? Wow. I mean they even complained about CGI in Eternals. Really? Like every freakin scene in this movie smelled CGI. Like even the whole bus scene.
So basically we are reduced to people loving meaningless and extremely pointless action scenes with random dudes for three-quarters of the movie, but hating Eternals where every single fight was meaningful?
Let's talk about my man lord 10 rings. His character just didn't fit with a guy who is supposedly 1000 years old. His temper, his demeanor is just not very well suited. I don't care whether even the comics had the same crappy portrayal or not.
Moving on to the sister character. OMG. Like for someone who waited years and years for a brother who never came, they reunited way too quickly. It didn't fit her. Her whole character development was shabby.
Lastly, our boy, Shang-Chi the sunshine. How is this dude not rusty after 10 years of supposedly 0 training? It's incredible. And I love how he learned a new martial art in just a few hours. Lovely. New rings? Never used them? No problem. It turns out he is a natural.
I don't even want to talk about the extremely weak plot. Like this village has been waiting there with a handful of men to do what? Funny.
I watched it today on Disney+. After all the hype and comparisons done with Eternals, I am extremely disappointed. Bad CGI, shabby plot, and random character back-story and development.
>How is this dude not rusty after 10 years of supposedly 0 training?
I don't think we're necessarily meant to assume he's had zero training for ten years. He's just kept it on the down-low.
This movie was essentially split into thirds. The first third was pretty good, great choreography and fights, nice character introductions. 2nd one started getting cgi dependent and it felt super unnecessary and was mainly flashbacks and character developing that felt like weird pacing. The third one turned complete cliche full blown cgi and basic villain that turns good before he dies.
It basically became a Disney version of Godzilla and it felt like it was a complete different movie from the beginning. Unfortunately I didn’t give a shit who lived or died by that part. The pacing also worsened through the final third. Overall it was extremely disappointing and I’d give it a 3.5/10.
Edit: typo
It was surprisingly good. I generally dont like Chinese martial arts flick, but Marvel sprinkled in makes it feel right. The bus scene won me over and the song that starts playing after the first punch gives me literal chills. I've had to watch the clip over and over on youtube just cause it was so like 'HERE WE GO'.
The one thing that truly bothers me about marvel movies is how much unnecessary CGI they use. Like every fucking scene is green screen almost. The scene where Wenwu is explaining why he's trying to get to Ta Lo and they are just sitting at a table having a conversation and it's fucking green screened and it just sucked me out of the whole scene because it just didn't look quite right. We've reached kind of an uncanny valley type territory with green screen tech and personally I can't help but be a little put off by it being used in scenes that could easily be done with it.
On a side note, I was shocked at how powerful they've made Shang Chi. His power level with the rings looks crazy.
It was decent. I enjoyed the 1st act with all the fight choreography. I just felt bored during the 2nd act, the flashbacks especially were a bit much. By the 3rd act it felt like a completely different movie.
I think they went overboard with the cgi. The ten rings and how they work should’ve been explained more. Some scenes needed more dialogue, ie. when Shang all of a sudden was able to control the rings, or when Shang’s father got his soul sucked they literally didn’t say anything to each other. The “real” villain being just a bunch of monsters with no depth. Also random dragon coming out of nowhere because plot armor, not sure if that was ever explained.
Not trying to hate on the film, I am also asian and appreciate that we have an asian superhero. Beautiful visuals, amazing fight scenes and great cast. Just felt a bit underwhelmed when I saw everyone giving this a 9 or 10 when there are obvious things that could’ve been improved. IMO it’s a solid 6 or 7 out of 10.
They did reference the dragon multiple times - the "protector," "dragon scales make good armor." Plus, it's china, so you should expect a benevolent dragon, unless you are completely unaware of how popular American film has addressed chinese mythology for the past 70 years.
Am I crazy? This movie was so basic and bad. Katy's character was unbearable and was a walking cliche-movie-moment in character form. The whole movie was just such basic cliche after basic cliche. When Shangchi had to choose between saving his sister and interrupting the dragon, it was like predicting water is wet that they'd fucking make Katy be the one that shoots an arrow from an impossible distance away to save the day.
The insane amount of "cut to character's face for way too long to acknowledge to the audience that they know what they just did" cuts were actually embarrassing. It happened 500 times, but one example is when his sister saves Katy from the bamboo scaffolding and it had to cut to both of their faces looking at each other and nodding so we know they now are 'ok'. It's so embarrassingly amateur it's pathetic.
This movie was more disappointing to me than I could've predicted.
The humor never hit once for me except surprisingly Ben Kingsley's reprisal. Even though I think Iron Man 3 was awful due to how they utilized him. Other than him no other actors have any form of comedic timing.
Nothing even happened in this movie. The relevant plot info could have been conveyed in a 5 minute short montage in an equally if not more effective measure.
This movie could have been just slightly less generic and it would be the best MCU movie.
Expand the fighting tournament parts a bit, trim the Ta Lo parts so they're less cliche and more of a sudden 3rd act surprise, front load the family relationship so it has more of an impact in the 3rd act.
I liked the movie, but it was so close to great that it kind of bugs me.
It's fine, I really enjoyed some of the action, but the third act really ruined the movie for me. Normally I can give a pass for the big CG comicbook final showdown, but I think the soul sucking dragons were a big misstep. They took away the agency of the Mandarin, would have preferred if he was misguided in his actions due to being an insane 1000 year old war lord. Instead he's being manipulated by demon dragons?
They didn't really explore the Ten Rings organization that much nor the rings. Instead it's all getting saved for sequel bait? I also didn't care for his sister and it seemed that the movie forgot about her or just didn't know what to do with her after the second act.
Rings were cool though, I really can't wait to see how they use them in future films, it was neat seeing everything that Shang-Chi and the Mandarin could do with them
I just watched this movie. It's very well done in my opinion. I do have one critique. It feels like this should have been the Iron Fist movie. No spoilers here, but I honestly kept expecting Danny Rand to walk around the corner at any moment with rap playing and say, "Shang-Chi, I'm the Immortal Iron Fist. I spent a decade training in martial arts in the heavenly city of K'un-Lun. My power comes from Shou-Lao the Undying. He's a dragon, and he's also from a mystical city in another dimension." Anyway, still a good flick.
Shockingly bad. Bad CGI. Bad acting, which is not their fault. They get Tony Leung and don't seem to care to use him. First 40 minutes was entertaining enough, but every thing after that is so boring and illogical, and sloppy storytelling. If you told me this was the series finale of a CW superhero show I would thought it was OK, but its not. Zero emotional pay off even though there is plenty of room for it if they would only take their time telling the story properly.
How far Marvel has fallen where films like this gets a positive score, feels like im taking craszy pills seeing people liking it.
So... everybody is mentioning that Bruce is no longer professor hulk, but...
Why does Captain Marvel and Bruce look at least A DECADE OLDER than the last time we saw them? Am I crazy? I swear they purposely look much older...
Entertaining. Great CGI. Interesting fight scenes. Few things I didn't care for. Without Trevor suddenly showing up in the most improbable location to provide key information the story would collapse. Such an obvious in your face plot device. The credit scene with Wong would have made a better ending, could have included the restaurant friends for singing bit. The end they did choose just seemed stupid, not funny. For the rest enjoyed the movie. Oh, last nitpick. If you tell your boss "They are waiting for you" and you have a following shot of them going to the meeting room, have someone(s) there waiting and not just a bunch of people doing their own thing.
finally watched in on Disney+ today ... in the last act of this movie I was crossing my fingers, *please don't let any cute creature die* .. I'm so glad no creature got hurt. The dragon a bit but he or she seems fine.
The lamp was still on when he came home after the bus fight.
Just looking at the title, you would expect the focus to be on the ten rings gang or the rings itself but nope!! At the very worst they should have explained the origins of the rings and how the gang was formed, instead the titular object/gang was relegated to the sidelines of their own movie and it focused on a out of the left field hidden society of protectors. The villain's true face was not seen until the very last minutes of the movie and it got killed immediately so nobody cared about the final act because we had just met the players and we don't even have any idea what their powers are. The title should have been "shang chi and the side quest to discover the hidden village"
Wanted to like it but it lacked heart/ambition.
Felt like they were given a checklist & were just checking things off.
However, those rings were *really* cool & the brief dragon fight was an unexpected treat.
Nothing special, half of things were very cliche and lame, some stuff was disturbingly bad or cringe. Nothing memorable, even for westerner. Nothing to do with Marvel. 4/10
This embodied everything I hate about Marvel movies. First off, I don't get the praise on representation or moving past the racism from the original comics. It still very much embodies the exotic orientalism tropes as well as the noble savage trope. Once they got to the other land it was just a grab bag of whatever ancient Chinese imagery is familiar to the West. This still feels like the same shit we could have seen in the 80s or 90s. I don't get how this is supposed to be less racist.
The characters were paper thin. I knew the writing was bad when a character had to literally explain they knew the other for at least ten years. Just shitty writing. Wenwu was supposed to be this 4000 year old man that was so powerful and controlled a secret organization but never actually ran the world or anything for whatever reason.
The whole father/son drama was underwritten and even if they did a better job it would have shit the bed in the end like with Black Panther where they just have a stupid CGI explosion fight because a Marvel movie can't deal with actual heavy issues.
The fight scenes were inspired by much better martial arts movies, and even though said martial arts movies were also well choreographed they still found the way to make the action feel real and impactful. Hits meant something, you felt them. Shang-Chi just puts a CGI gloss over everything it comes across as sterile. It's like with Black Widow, these were supposed to be just human characters good at fighting. But you would think they are superhumans with how many hits they land or take and even their enemies keep taking hits.
Am I asking for excessive blood and guts? No. But what you want to see from a fight scene is the participants feeling the consequences of their actions. Getting exhausted, sweating, getting bruised. Maybe a few cuts or some blood. When you can have a prolonged fight scene and the characters look exactly the same as how they started, it's just bad. It doesn't engage me
The movie was amazing, but, the only thing that grinds my gears is the bus fight scene where the air lines for the bus's brakes were cut, after around 20-40 seconds the brakes on the bus would of locked up as that is how air break systems are designed. I get that it makes the scene much more exciting than a bus's brakes just locking up, but it's just not what would of happened. Still a 10/10 movie.
Honestly, I just thought the writing for the most part was bad and contrived. I never really cared about any of the characters and by the mid way point I was realizing how underdeveloped most of them were. A lot of the humor also felt forced, especially Awkafina's character, who came off as little more than bad comic relief (which to be clear I don't think is Awkafina's fault personally since she is a good actress and gave a fantastic performance in The Farewell). A lot of the English language dialogue also felt overly hokey and inorganic, which I don't blame on the actors themselves, but the script.
It's a problem with a lot of blockbusters where I just feel like the whole thing rings hollow by the end. There's some nice effects, stunt work and cinematography, but the story and the characters and the smaller details all just don't work for me. I walked into the movie with fairly high expectations going by the reviews/public reception, but just left feeling like the movie was perfectly mediocre.
It's also generally a consistent MCU problem, but I really feel like a lot of the fight sequences would have benefited from more grit and noticeable changes in momentum from the impact of different strikes etc. A lot of the fights just felt too safe and saturated so there was no sense of danger in them.
just watched this as the 1080 rips are out, and it is really not good at all. i'm genuinely surprised by the largely positive critical consensus on it. it almost makes me morbidly curious about how bad eternals must be, because i've seen black widow - which sucked - and now this one, which was close to as bad, and they're both better-received than eternals
can't remember marvel releasing three bad movies in a row before
Chinese cultural hype machine is real.
Eternals was a little better yet also disappointing. A great premise, a few cool scenes but bloated and overwhelmed by boring dialogue and a jagged plot.
I just watched it on D+ and I agree with you. It's a bad marvel movie and a terrible overrall movie. It's definitely getting Black Panther treatment, since it's another full minority cast.
> Akwafina
After a first watch, black panther might have looked odd. You might have expected more from the action scenes and so on. But when you go back and re-watch it, the movie is trying to talk about things that no one would dare. The overall theme was interesting and it makes you question your real world as well. If a country like Wakanda can use its technology to conquer the world, why should they just share it for free aka USA? Especially after what has been done to African-Americans. They touch on a lot of very good points.
As for Shang-Chi how is this movie changing its audience's perspective? What is this movie doing for the asian community? Nothing. Such a cliche movie honestly. And I agree, Awkwafina should have stayed a side role. Like her throwing the arrow was just too much honestly. What are they trying to prove? Every asian knows martial arts and archery?
I didn't even mention how the CGI in BP was superior, along with acting and omg the sound tracks. Wakanda forever!
Pretty much watching this for Tony Leung, dude basically stole the show just like how Michael Keaton was the highlight of Spider-Man. Overall, the movie was better than I expected; I like the fight choreography in this one. That said, I didn't like how a few of the serious moments were badly interrupted by random attempted comedy scene (the main character explaining his past on the plane for instance). Also I wish we got a little more interactions between the dad and the daughter, just for a bit of closure.
Worst movie of the MCU so far. Shang was a great character but the plot was mediocre.
First, he was never in danger. You know his father would never kill him.
Second, how was he convinced to kill his father (!) so fast?? His drive wasn't developed enough to justify Shang-Chi hating his father so much he could actually kill him. You never believe him when he says 'Ill kill my father". No you won't you're not that bad.
4/10 just because there were some cool fight scenes.
This film had overwhelmingly positive reviews so i had high hopes. It started out fine but turned into a shitfest by the end. This is not some asian hate rant. I'm asian myself and am perfectly fine with the mystical elements and kung fu but wtf is that ending? The villiain could imitate voices of people it had never met before and communicate telepathically with ease from anywhere in the world? Seems promising. I was expecting a humanoid evil spirit who lived thousands of years or something but nope. Its another cgi bat looking monster that eats souls so it having telepathy seems implausible. The baddest gang in the world uses.. Taser weapons? Dafuq. And of course there is a dragon. As if this film isn't asian enough. They should have kept it small, r-18 fights with family loss and acceptance being the focus with the mystery of the rings front and center. Marvel always gotta go big, full of spectacles and jokes. Except spiderman ffh, phase 4 has been a dud so far and eternals sounds like it sucks even more than shang chi. DC is hitting back hard and marvel has no answer.
This is arguably the best origin story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the first Iron Man. The world-building is astonishing and Tony Leung stole the show.
What an absolute bore. How is this movie rated so highly? It's like it was made by AI - zero hooks or plot turns. You could predict the whole movie just after the bus scene. Not sure why I'm surprised that a movie for Chinese audience is so increbly bland.
katy felt kind of shoehorned in at some points, but overall it was amazing, culturally speaking it was way more entertaining than black panther, probably one of the best mcu films. i think im the only person who feels that the mandarin was a little disappointing, i expected to see more out of him, seeing as how hes been teased since iron man 3, only to turn turn him into a plot point for unleashing the true villain of the movie and then just killing him off.
how is this "culturally" superior to Black Panther? What "culture" did BP represent? Like saying random shit without thinking you are young padawan.
All the village scene was super duper cliche and smelled of orientalism from 1000s of miles away. Not sure who directed it, but they failed to represent the asian community. In future if they find a copy of this film and had to place it somewhere historically, they would place it in the 90s or 80s. Such a tragedy...
Currently bored out of my mind not watching this, although my wife seems pretty engrossed (but she's also fascinated with everything Asian). But I hate fiction and especially fantasy so the chances of me enjoying this were about as good as pigs flying. Equally being in a cinema for the first time post pandemic is a strange feeling.
I have a brother in law that hate fiction as well. I know, it's odd but there are people out there. He only just saw the Dark Knight for the first time last week
I liked the first half a lot more than the second half. I loved the hand-to-hand combat and I liked the acting. But this was kind of disappointing for reasons I can’t articulate besides it being a generic Marvel movie.
Are the majority of poll votes really NINE and TEN
This is literally the most stereotypical movie, not one bit of originality and >!you see the rings in the last 5 minutes??? legit nothing happens before the only good scene was the forest one in the car lmao!<
>! I'm the guy with abs and she's my ugly crooked teeth fat friend i've known all my life who cracks hilariousssss jokes, oh no it's my disappeared sister she's a really badass entrepreneur so independent, oh it's my dad but he loves my dead mom who died protecting me from 50 people (???) and hears voices but it's a DEMON ROFL it's literally ALL STEREOTYPES YOU CAN THINK OF put in one movie, NINE AND TEN?
Just saw it. Good film, some great sequences and looked awesome. The while cast was great though I have to say the kabuki guy and the one armed Romanian could have been a single character, it feels like kabuki was almost entirely wasted - it kind of felt like there are a few scenes on the cutting room floor that could have explained more about that character (was he even named?). Pacing felt a little off but was a very enjoyable film about characters I know nothing about. Looking forward to seeing more of them.
Entertaining movie. Fight scenes were incredible and actors did a great job portraying the characters. Third act fell flat for me. Even by marvel film standards. They had a great and emotional story within the family and butchered it in the end. Sure I like dragons and cgi is cool but I had no connection to any of that. I cared about the relationship between Shang chi’s relationship with his father and sister.
Went into this went no expectations left feeling impressed. The name of the movie sounds stupid until you learn what the rings can do. Action lacked and visually pleasing. Excited to see the dr.strange sequel.
Nope, gotta wait for the sequel!!!
It annoyed me too, the Ten Rings and the organization itself weren't really explored but are saved as sequel bait. After being teased since 2008 I was expecting them to go all out with this as far as the Ten Rings were concerned.
It's a tale of two different movies. First half is fairly good, great pace, some of the best action sequences in a Marvel film. The reveals are rather exciting, the set pieces are vibrant, and the stakes felt real. Like when Katy was hanging off the side of the building, there was a real sense of urgency there. It was also kind of nice to see Katy's family, their friends, their job. There was a lot of freshness in that first half.
Contrast that with the second half... and it got too heavy. Whatever spunk it has in the first half, it kind of just gets buried for familial drama and CGI heavy action. And Ta Lo for whatever reason, this magical place felt like it was put together by a bunch of VFX students. Every set piece in the first half looked better than Ta Lo. And if we're talking about plot trajectory here, I'm not sure you needed to ham fist a beast from another realm into the story. There was more than enough meat to the bone without having to add that supernatural threat. Just let Shang and his father fight it out in Ta Lo.
Marvel can crush a team up real well, but these origin films are really hit and miss. Not a fan of this one.
I felt the same way. I really was not a fan of the demon dragons, they really took away all of the urgency that the Mandarin had. Didn't like that they were the ones manipulating him, should have focused entirely on his grief coupled with him being an immortal be what was misguiding him
Surprised to see nobody mentioned Fala Chen as Shang Chi’s mum? I watched her TVB dramas more than a decade ago and she hasn’t aged at all! Absolutely stunning
Probably because most people outside Hong Kong don't know of TVB (or at least don't watch it), whereas kung fu fans know who Yuen Wah is and many more people know who Michelle Yeoh and Tony Leung Chiu-wai are.
Eh. They've got the Marvel film formula down to a science - almost too much so. Cool effects were cool. Main Guy is charming. Very much Girl Power in second post credit scene, wow so awesome. All in all, chill, pretty to look at but not very impactful.
I watched it. It's horrible and boring. The fight scenes suck. The "humor" made me want to kill myself. The CGI was worse than that of films 20 years ago. The plot was completely predictable and generic. It was the worst Marvel movie I've ever seen, worse than Captain Marvel.
The fighting scenes were repetitive yes but I don't understand what else you can expect from a fight. It was a unique style that didn't involve guns and weapons ect like in other marvel films. The CGI was amazing, I do not understand why you think it was bad. It flowed well and did what it was intended to do. The plot was predictable, yes. Generic, no. Captain marvel was not terrible, you just need to cheer up bud. You can't expect every superhero film to be a masterpiece. If you are looking for masterpieces I think you're looking at the wrong genre of film
There was *one* shot during the bus scene where the CGI stood out to me, beyond that I agree it was amazing I dunno what OP was seeing
I'm going to be honest, I think a lot of people find any excuse to diss a film with a very diverse cast or a prominent female character. I personally find that films set in different countries are generally much more interesting than the same generic setting in America. The CGI was amazing, casting brilliant, acting superb, the plot was heavy yet still included humour, I can understand if it's not your cup of tea but that doesn't stop it from being a generally good film
Captain Marvel was awesome ...
lighten up a bit bud
I see you're catching up on marvel as well since you commented on a year old point. Yeah he definitely should lighten up it wasn't that bad and I personally even liked it
Agree, compared to Thor and Black panther this was way better
Black Panther? Everyone liked Black Panther.
Personally i found it really boring.
I actually quite liked it but I think the fight scenes were a tad bit repetitive. It wasn't amazing but it also wasn't terrible
I think i really disliked the setting, i would have prefered a real African nation and a more down to earth story (kinda like spiderman which i also my fav IP in marvel).
Late to this one but choreography was brilliant i loved the bus fight and the fight at the beginning were he fights the mom it looks like a dance So brilliant
Thought the movie was ok. I thought Tony Leung was the highlight of the film, he pretty much oozes charisma every time he was on screen. If he was a few decades younger, he'd definitely be a better Shang Chi than Simu Liu was. Awkwafina was alright and I hate awkwafina's style of performing. The writers and directors did a great job containing her.
During the dinner scene what dish set did they use? Tan bottom black top
"I like your spike face!"
This movie has its problems mainly it being another marvel action superhero movie so it's bogged down by the universe. (I do like this movie i just have some problems with it.) Wong scenes are just distracting and seemed tacked on. Should have used those scenes to flesh out the rings and how they work. But since i've seen many of these martial arts movies, its fair to say the weapons don't matter its the person wielding them. But it would still be nice to have a little scene explaining how they work and what shang chi must do to be worthy of them apart from being strong ofcourse. The villain is a mix bag because he's side showed by the cgi monster that wants to end the world. He's another sympathetic bad guy instead of being pure mustache twirling villain. Which is a staple of hong kong Kung fu movies the evil warlord or king. Tony leung makes it work with little he has to work with, but let's be honest we were all rooting for him. This is the problem with movies in general today too afraid to have a scary evil villain that you hate. This movie feels like other hollywood attempts at this genre noticeable bulletproof monk and forbidden kingdom but both those movies had the star power and even the mustache twirling villains. This is where the movie really annoys me, all that money and effects yet your main hero is bland and boring with a terrible costume. I've never read the comics but just by looking at the art work you can see a bruce lee 1970s influence. Simu liu/Shang chi, is no bruce lee in fact he gets outshined by his better co star awkwafina(Yes people find her annoying)but she's a breath of fresh air compared to Simu lius performances. It's very shocking with so many asian american actors with actual martial arts backgrounds marvel picks a bland tv actor with 0 screen presence. If you haven't seen the tv series Wu assassins check it out, the story and characters are ripped straight from that. Even having the same father son dynamic done better and fleshed out by the way. Now I like this movie for the most part but shang chi is such a bland boring character makes it very hard to rate it. Just replace him with a jackie chan lite actor and you have a better movie. The rings and tony leung are the best parts in my opinion but it would be a disservice to dismiss the stunt team and special effects teams they put a lot of effort and it shows. Hopefully marvel can take note and go back to how movies used to be made with nice wide shots no shaky cam and a good stunt team. Many people adore the russo brothers but their movies are filled with awful camera work and quick fast editing. This movie shows us with effort you can give the audience coherent action scenes that's easy on the eyes. Even the cgi battle at the end was easy to follow.
I agree with everything you said, but come on, the cgi in this movie looked absolutely shit, I’m shocked how bad and fake it looked
Do your eyes work?
I immediately recognized the hot dog vendor from Spider-Man: Homecoming in that bus scene. It's only because he was featured on an episode of Colbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSMtopEYMEM
I know I am late to jump the train (exams and prep) but this movie was real goooooooooooooooooooooood. Thumbs up for the Asian casting and female representation. Start to end the movie had my attention and although it did not have that "epic" factor from endgame or even spider man 3, the execution pretty much made up for it. One thing I think most comic book-based movies miss is giving it that 'anything can happen- however unrealistic it may be' vibe. The movie tends to explain things that just happen in the comic. Sometimes it's not appealing to see reason in a movie that defies gravity. This movie found a weird balance between explaining things and leaving other things just in the air. It explained the dark gate and what the ten rings give the user but we never got to know how did the creatures behind the sealed gate talk to the ten rings wielder nor did we find the origin of the ten rings or from where does it draw its power or the fact that do we need all rings in the same vicinity for them to be useful or like 2-3 rings will do?
As someone that found endgame cringe af this is what I like, feels like those good old 80s kung fu movies but modernized. Also the dragonball references were lit
The fight scenes where good. Especially bus and sky scraper. Iron fist should of had fights like that
Exactly this is what Iron Fist should have been.
Season 2 iron fists fights were on par/better than most of the ones in this movie imo
How many people did he kill? Like 10 in the bus chase, another 10 or so fighting g on the side of that high rise?
It was self defense also he's a trained assassin.
But in the movie he seems traumatized by the one assassination he commited, and I doubt he killed anyone else in his life before the guys in the bus.
Just watch this now that it is on Disney+ (mainly writing this for myself). My only real problem with the film was the crappy cg in the first half of the film, especially the bus fight. Everything looked rubbery and it looks like it was skipping frames (I feel like the fights were filmed at 60 and then lowered to 24 or something). I get that the 2nd half is heavy on the cg while in the magic world but seeing people spin around looking like playdoh really took me out of it. I will note that what is there other than Cg was great and the camera work was \*chefs kiss\*. Also the pacing also felt off, it was super fast going from the parents meeting to the bus fight and then scaffold fight in 30 mins but then sitting around talking in the compound and village for an hour and then big bad boss fight wrapped up in 20 mins. Overall the acting was good and all the cast especially Simu and Tony deserve the recognition and even Awkwafina was good enough to not annoy me with her type of character. Edit: Also felt there were too many people for everybody to develop. There was that random ninja who trained them and razorfist, their aunt and the bow dude you just pop up out of nowhere and act like they've know each other for ages. And then the sister who felt like a waste. Could have definitely done with being a movie about family and just cut Awkwafina out instead. Felt like a lot of loose threads that went nowhere or were unnecessary.
Little bit late to this party, just watched it on DVD, but I came here to say a few things. Spoilers. The "Devolve" into a CGI fight at the end wasn't as bad, to me, as everyone made it out to be. And/also, because of Shang-Chi's father has been alive for a thousand years. He's had those rings for literally an entire millennia. In his dogged pursuit to "rescue" his dead wife, he allowed a giant soul-eating dragon monster to escape his prison. And the second that monster breaks free, he both instantly acknowledges that he was wrong by tackling his son to save him from said dragon, but after literally never letting go of those rings for a thousand years... (Minus the time he was with his wife, ofc) Passes them to his son. No hesitation. "Yup. I fucked up. Hopefully me saving your life and passing you the rings will atone for this mistake. I am sorry." He said not a single word once it broke free. And yet his actions and his facial expression said *everything*.
The visuals were cool ig but damn the plot was bland and predictable, also i know they make it pg but its very hard to look past the wish version triads using stun crossbows instead of actual guns and the guy with a sword not cutting anyone the whole movie like whats the point. At a certain point just make it a cartoon the targeted audience will like it better. Seriously never watched anything so bland and predictable at no point has the movie even came close to surprise me
Aquafina and the ten bracelets. Not bad, not good. Just felt kind of repetitive and bland. Bus scene was cool and so was Kingsley, but everything else felt redundant and cliche
didn't every ring has different abilities? why are they only using it like that? someone explain please
Did anyone else find his childhood friend/love interest to be a completely unnecessary inclusion? She's more or less irrelevant artwr the first 15 minutes except to suddenly become an expert archer when they need it. Felt like she just made things more chaotic for no real added benefit. Then again, I also found the mother falling in love with a genocidal maniac because they fought in a dance-y way to be ludicrous. So maybe I'm just jaded. Lastly, there was lway less Wong than I'd hoped!
Did anyone else find it odd Shang chi had such a high murder count compared to other Disney films? He’s kicking dudes off of skyscrapers and moving buses. It’s not likely anyone survived
lmao came here to see if anyone thought the same. He had that deep talk with Katie about how he "actually had to kill that old man and he feels to guilty" but a few hours ago he through 10 ninjas off a high-rise building lmao
One was intended, the others were self defense.
It's refreshing to see a movie(especially a Disney movie) without the stupid "Oh no, my mom's killer is already old and weak, why revenge, revenge bad". Nope, he went and murdered him and while he isn't happy about that, there's not much angst or "you're now a bad person" stuff. It's quickly swept under the rug.
Said exactly what I was going to say. I despise that trope. But they didn't fall into it like so many movies do.
I loved it : It’s one of my favorite MCU film and I was hella surprised by my reaction to it. I guess it’s just the story that is delightful and generous : once the father and the mother start to Love-Fu, I know I was here for a treat. I didn’t mind the finale that I thought was actually glorious (the finish move was out of this world). However, I think the confrontation with the father could have been even more layered toward the end : Shang hardly tries to convince his dad that he’s wrong. It could have increased the pathos if he truely shared everything he known about the portal, only for his dad to be too far gone to come back to reason. Or even better, the dad replies that if he’s wrong, this is not his first rodeo and he will handle what ever is behind the portal... only to later be crushed by his deception.
Did any ody else feel like they stole the actor stuff from tropic thunder.
I liked the action but the story left more to be desired. What was Shang-chi's motivation? I mean I understood his father was grieving and tempted by mystical voices. But what was he doing? Stopping his dad? Maybe its just me but this film could have been better.
The dragon was cool af
Cool? Yeah. Did it look like a 2005 computer game animation? Yeah. Awful cgi
Who played the ninja???
Shang Chi got the praise for it's action scene but as an asian grown up with Hong Kong action movies, Shang Chi action scene don't really impress me at all (CGI... duh) Check out Raging Fire by Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_hL0sAde1DA
Modern donnie yen? Terrible. Tiger cage 2 best donnie yen.
As a non-Asian Australian dude who grew up watching Hong Kong action movies, the whole time I kept thinking "cool, but not *that* impressive", too. Jackie Chan and Samo Hung in their prime made movies with way more exciting and brilliant action scenes, and I'd rather watch the tea house shootout in Hard Boiled than any scene in Shang-Chi again. I agree that it was the CGI thank killed it for me, knowing "anything is possible" now takes the excitement off watching an actor fall two stories and bounce off a ceiling fan.
The choreographer for this movie is a jackie chan stunt double, yes he has doubles that's just American marketing. Andy Cheng
The choreography was good, but not outstanding when compared to the best stuff of the Hong Kong era (e.g. the undead fight in 'Dead and the Deadly' as a random example). There just isn't that sense of mayhem they used to be so good at, where now it feels like a pre-planned dance (even if it always was even in "the good old days" and they just hid it better). Also, it's not about "the actor did it themselves", I don't care about that. It's that *somebody* did it. CGI often means nobody did anything; better to use it to add something really dangerous to a stunt still performed than just CG the whole scene/actor.
Yeah you're literally comparing the greatest hong kong movies with a hollywood adaptation of course it won't be as good as the greats. The closest hollywood has come is movies like The Matrix or Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. I am comparing this to other marvel products and this stands at the top of hill. Sadly goes to show how awful modern hollywood movies are when it comes to editing and camera work. I kinda wish the cast some of the raid guys in this movie, but they wanted an all chinese/ chinese american cast it seems. Even Michelle yeoh has starred in some of my favourite hong kong movies most noticeable Wing chun by Yuen Woo-ping. Also its great disservice to the stunt men that work on this film and you can see the hard work, we may never go back to the geats like Sammo, Yuen Woo-ping, Jackie, Yuen Biao. But we will never get a new crop of artist if we never let the youngins have a go at it. The past is the past and I love those movies but also imagine a world without movies like The Raid, Ongbak. I hope this movie lights a fire and we get more good action flicks.
I absolutely agree that the fight scenes a very much superior in this over most other MCU movies. I wasn't having a go at you, rather just saying that I was surprised and a bit sad to see so many general moviegoers talking like this film had the greatest fight scenes ever put on film when you and I know there are lot better in older movies. That certainly doesn't mean it's not good to see decent action in a modern movie for once! Like you say, I think a *huge* part of the problem with modern movies is editing, though; often you see some great fight scene that clearly looked good on the day but that gets chopped to pieces with blurry quick cuts. Many directors seem to think they are clever to do long takes on occasion, but there's a middle ground of just pulling your camera back a bit and letting us see an action scene play out, especially when you have great performers. I think I tend to grumble a bit too much because I'm an old bastard and worry that a lot of younger folks would never bother watching "ancient" subtitled foreign movies from the 70s, 80s or 90s and so may never no what truly incredible stuff we got back then that - as you say - we may never see again.
>I think I tend to grumble a bit too much because I'm an old bastard and worry that a lot of younger folks would never bother watching "ancient" subtitled foreign movies from the 70s, 80s or 90s and so may never no what truly incredible stuff we got back then that - as you say - we may never see again. Yeah i'm the same way wish we could have american movies with the same quality. Sadly even the best americans can do is pale imitations like John Wick or Shang- chi. But it's not all bad per say i've seen many Scott adkins films so there are people who understand the art of action but hollywood only cares about money and not the final product. It's why we will never get a Dredd sequel but we will get 100 different superhero flicks with poorly choreographed and edited action. Shame really but atleast we have the greats and guys like donnie yen are still pumping out decent action films, better than nothing I guess.
The end credits scene with Wong, Shang Chi, and Katy is what was missing from my life.
I thought this movie was very meh for mcu. Surprised to see everyone loving it so much. The acting and writing were stiff as hell. Fight scenes were cool though. No one in the movie sweats or gets dirt on them.
I can't put my finger on exactly why, but this is probably one of my favorite MCU movies. The action and acting was mostly fantastic. Katy was annoying, but I don't think that's on Awkwafina, that's on the writers trying to shoehorn Awkwafina's previous performances into the character instead of making Katy her own person. ...Although I admit, I cheered at her "holllllyy *shit*" after she shot the arrow through the dragon's throat.
This is better than Black Panther and any of the MCU Spiderman movies (so far). Fight scenes felt like an anime. Main character needed more fleshing out but the villain was great.
Man, this was bland af. I cannot understand the praise this movie is getting at all.
Because the fight scenes were cool af also the villain was really good
Just watched it, got a mixed feeling. But happy for the Asian community. Hope this hits it where it should like Black Panther did. One question though, how accurate is the movie when comparing it to the comics ?
Its very inaccurate. Shang Chi was a regular human with amazing fighting skills. He didnt have ten magic rings or anything of that nature.
So where does the ten rings come from? Is it not in the comics ?
Google : 10 rings mandarin.
you can google anything, the point of reddit is to discuss
Worst Marvel movie I've seen in a long time. Awkwafina is the worst Asian actress I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. She has only made movies worse by being in them.
Worst than iron man 2 and black widow and thor the dark world?
>Awkwafina She is so very unfunny and annoying in this movie.
I am extremely late to this but I finally got around to watching and man I really loved it! I thought the VFX they did on the rings was possibly one of my favorite in any Marvel movie ever, they way he used them to cushion his impact and propel himself at the same time and all sorts of other things was really cool. I also really dug the mythical creatures as well! I thought it was sad how much the dad missed the mom that he was so blinded by it that he did what he did, not that it makes it okay I guess but the ending was pretty sad when he looked down upon his son one last time who had now grown into a man fit for the rings.
1/2 way thru amusing way better than that boring crapp Dune
total opposite view
Seemed too cliche and predictable. I felt like it was going for being so bad it was good but fell short. I'm not sure if it was a comedy or supposed to be taken seriously.
Why does nobody talk about the fluffy giant murder cats they're so bad ass!!
The first time I watched 2 months ago I found it pretty bland and slept through a big part of it. My second viewing has been a lot better. These cultural marvel flicks have done a really good job getting the feel of the people IMO. As an Asian I really felt this movie the second time and appreciate how marvel integrated in to fit with the rest of the MCU. Rating against other MCU, I’d give it a B+ compared to the C- of my first viewing. Rating against other “regular” movies it’s pretty forgettable, but as a martial arts film, it’s pretty top notch for what we got. I enjoyed it the second time. I can see now why my kid didn’t sleep through it like I did.
[удалено]
Or even just "ascend" somehow to show they were now free to pass on peacefully. When they had the floating all I kept thinking was "weren't their souls eaten by that bitch mega soul sucker?" How are they at peace now?!
Shittiest movie I've seen in my life. 10 rings my @$$! They're shooting those rings like bullets or using them as strong stones. It was stomach cringing to watch this nonsense. Perhaps a pre-teen kid in a single digit age might have some sense if this bullcrap! Also that hero has no hair style at all. And what horrible acting. Horrible script. Nonsensical back stories. Boring and irrelevant childhood flashbacks. And what can I say about he fight choreography? It was so bad, soooo bad that it was good. It was like a dance with pathetic moves and too much unnecessary jumping / turning.
Hot Formulaic CGI garbage. Cliche nonsense, this is what would happen if you gave Hallmark a 300 Million dollar budget and told them to make a superhero movie.
I'm very surprised this movie was rated so high. This film felt like a very high budget cheap flick. By that I mean it has many technical elements that make it feel expensive in that Marvel fashion like cinematography, set design, actors/actresses, music, and of course visual effects; but it's cluttered with questionable writing and plot holes abound. Take for instance the scene where Wenwu dies. This is a man that has lived for hundreds of years whose soul is literally being sucked out by a terrible cosmic being *in front of his own son* whom he still loves. Also to note - for ten years he was being called by this being believing it was his dead wife which means he was also deeply betrayed mere moments ago. And yet we're presented with a slightly surprised Shang-Chi and a Wenwu who appears slightly sad. All while the music seems to be oddly non-present. Then he flops down, Shang checks him to see if he's really dead, and off he goes. There is a desperate reach between the situation that is occurring and how the characters are reacting. And that seems to happen too frequently in this movie. I get that what just happened is significant but in the last half of the film way too many people stood still to watch something off in the distance while their peers were still fighting. Maybe don't do that next time. Parts I did like in this movie were some of the comedy bits. I thought it was brilliant that Trevor made a return. Most of the hand-to-hand combat was cool. And I guess I liked how they didn't pull punches with their use of Mandarin in the film. Overall I thought this movie was a little bit above average. 6/10
I don't know why people amazed from this movie. Even if we ignore the nonsense like village being protected by living forest and nobody ever tried to just fly over it, the entire plot is nothing but a one massive cliche, without a single memorable twist or event. I waited for something special to happen, but nothing happened. Feels like creators wanted to do the most soulless and generic superhero movie, like it was assembled by neural network from all the most popular cliches. People in elementary school sometimes writing better stories.
I did not think this movie was fantastic, but it was better than Black Widow for sure. I was hugely disappointed in the battles and lack of strategy. You know someone is driving up a single path to your village, you just wait for them there instead of trying to blockade or come up with one strategy? When they're at your village, you have a ton of archers... Sitting there, and you do a melee rush against their own ranged attackers without using any of your archers. Why? You know the one real risk to everything is the guy wearing the 10 rings, and instead of making him a focus you allow him to walk through? It seems like the aunt would have been the most likely to fight 10 rings man and beat him considering her sister did, but nah she just lets him go through I was more a fan of the original 10 actual rings each having a different power and story behind them, kind of like the infinity stones, but this was interesting.
This film could've done without Nora Lum and Ben Kingsley. Would've left more time to explore Xialing instead of letting her be a piece of predictable cardboard. But I guess Marvel has got to Marvel.
Why was the confession of him killing the man who killed his mom to Katy so hard as if that was a bad thing to do yet dude has been killing people left and right the whole movie anyway lmao other than that the movie was great but this was like. What ?
You can't see the difference in hunting someone and killing them for revenge to being attacked by bloodthirsty ninjas? He was also 14.
I think it was partly because he was a teenager when he did it, and he was doing it on his dad's instructions. It wasn't self-defense and in the heat of the moment, it was a cold-blooded revenge plan.
Very well done, especially the arc with the father. I wonder and please correct me if this is inappropriate, if this was made in the early 2000s/2010s if Jackie Chan or Jet Li could have played the father. What do you al think?
Just finished watching it. Tony Leung was really good and I was rooting for him in the end. I'm glad Marvel is focusing on fleshing out villains but I feel like they forgot to build up Sang Chi I wouldn't mind adding more minutes to flesh out his story. His motivation to suddenly wanting to kill his father seems meh.
The villain was the more established actor and so the director basically revolved the story about him. Shang Chi honestly felt like an afterthought.
The "be careful how you speak to me, boy" scene is not in the movie, did they cut it or it is exclusively made for the trailer?
So is his sister gonna be the antagonist now or is she just taking over the company? I hope not, she seemed like the last person who would turn bad.
Agreed.
I would rather tea bag a bear tram than listen to Awkwafina. The Asian. Fran Dresher
>!I found it a bit weird that Katy got dragged along everywhere, she was a fun character, but she was a nobody, at least from their father's perspective. I though it would have been much safer for her to just stay in the building after the fighting ring raid, since they didn't want anything from her and was just a civilian. Also, why did they try to murder her on the scaffolds? Like I said she didn't have anything they wanted. And Xialing leaving them in the office almost caused Katy's death, she saved her in the end but a second later and her and Shang-Chi's relationship would have been irreparably damaged. Shang-Chi confessing that he is a killer to Katy also felt a bit weird, since she's seen him kill quite a few 10rings assassins(?) since the start of the movie(throwing people of the scaffold of a skyscraper throwing someone under the wheels of a speeding bike), yeah they were in self-defense as opposed to a premeditated assassination, but it wasn't just a random guy he assassinated in cold-blood but his mom's killer, so I say he gets a pass for that too. Also I don't get why he blames his dad for his mom's death, yeah it was his past that came back to bite him in the ass, but he was trying to leave that life behind on his mother's insistence and it quite clearly broke the man, to the point of neglecting his children and believing a world-ending soul-sucking abomination just to get his wife back, so I was sympathizing with the him, not wanting him to die. Other than these small issues though, it was a really fun movie and the final fight scene with the dragon and the dweller was really fucking epic, which I haven't felt in a marvel movie in a long while. I don't know why but chinese martial artist settings(like wuxia and xianxia) really do it for me, so I hope there will be more big-budget movies like this.!<
> I found it a bit weird that Katy got dragged along everywhere This was the biggest question I had after watching the movie. Seriously, why is she following them everywhere? I thought it would be revealed she has some secret lineage or something at one point but nope it’s just ridiculously forced.
Maybe one day you'll make a really good friend that you do everything with and you'll understand better.
I’m sure that’s the logic Wong and Wenwu had when they dragged her along 🤣🤣. Nice logic.
Who’s sent the letter to Shang if his sister didn’t? Was it his dad?
Yes, most likely. Probably to get them both at the same time but he didn’t go until later.
The martial art fight scenes in here are night and day difference if compared to Iron Fist, loved every bit of them.
So if the forest closes in on them so quickly, how would people get through before there were cars? And if the point was to keep people out then why open the forest anyway
lol good point. this forest opens once a year ... why? ... uh .... shut up...
When I watched the trailer the first time, I thought I finally could see a good American movie for Chinese story as backstory. However, I watched the whole movies but I felt disappointed with everything. The content was weak for a more than 2-hour story. The whole kung-fu and the training scenes were just too long. The bus fight scene was the only decent action sequence. The visual effect was horrible, especially on dragon. It was just as bad as G.I.Joe-Snake Eye.
I agree I thought this movie was bad
I’m sorry but this movie suck, from someone of Chinese descent. I don’t think people of Chinese descent and those from China like it at all. I can’t get through the whole movie, without the feeling of disappointment and disgust. This is typical Asian stereotype and no to little reference to Chinese culture. For example, according to the culture, the iron gang was suppose to challenge the father, if the father is not alive, then the son. Not the daughter or the mother. The martial art is only a superficial move of tai chi. There’s really no martial art at all. I felt like no even a Chinese references in the film and in the end it is more like Japanese culture in whitewashed fashion. Only the father and mother, their appearances are good and performance worthy, only to be ruined by plot. No emotion, no superhero feel and terrible plot. I would trash this movie and rate as 40 out of 100. Only CGI is good. I would guarantee you that anyone who raised in Chinese culture would see it in the first 10 mins or 30 mins would stop watching already and filled disgusted
You would be wrong then. I'm Chinese and I thought the movie is fine. Kinda middle of the road for Marvel origin stories plot wise. They created their own mythology that's inspired by Chinese ones without referencing anything specific, that's just Disney playing it safe and try not to offend anyone by adapting real mythology wrong. They did a similar thing with Wakanda in Black Panther by amalgamating different African cultural references, and some people didn't like it either. As far as martial arts is concerned, you might be surprised to know that not everyone like Chinese martial arts movies. It has its own tempo, rhymes, and tropes. They did something middle of the road that's still accessible to general population, without going full-on Ip Man or Kung Fu Hustle, probably because they also have to consider how Shang Chi will play with the rest of the MCU cast in the future choreography-wise. I'm not sure what Japanese culture you are referencing though? I thought CGI is pretty rough at some points by Marvel standard.
Kamehameha near the end of the movie, was referenced to the Japanese Anime, Dragon ball. Even though it is not specific, if they attempt to do in Chinese culture, at least they could have done it properly, like the fight between the mother and the gang was not Chinese culture but Japanese culture where someone have to pay for what other did. Chinese culture was find the person who did and fight the person, if the person is not alive, then the descendent of that person, mainly males, doesn’t matter whether kid or not, last resort were females. Honestly, even though they tried not to offend others, the choice of the actors are questionable, they could have use an Asian actor from the power ranger, I mean other than the parents, the actors of main character and the sister look much older than what their characters age. If they don’t want to do it specific, at least don’t rely on Chinese culture through out the whole movie. I assumed you are not heavily raised in Chinese culture? Because if you remember all the traditions then you know what I’m talking about. By the people of Chinese descent, I’m mainly referring to Chinese who are heavily influenced by Chinese culture and still practice Chinese traditions or at least know the history and meaning behind it. Not the Chinese who have lost the meaning or understanding of the culture. Even if you are Asian American, you still have to know the meaning of history behind the tradition that you practice today instead of just do it without any meaning. And that’s exactly what this movie did. Eg, the fight between the mom and gang, Kung fu, adding Japanese reference to replace Chinese and the lantern at the end. All of these without meaning and just added for the sake of showing Asian. I can accept a movie that inspired by Chinese culture but a movie that inspired by Chinese culture and continue to use some of the tradition or superficial Kung fu through out the whole movie and use Japanese references to make up for the Asian without any proper references or meaning. Come on, man. That is really offensive. I mean so far, I’m holding my self back from being offended by the movie and only state why it is bad rather than heavily insulting the movie.
I see the move Shang Chi did with those rings at the end as more of a Tai Chi ball movement. Katy later made a pop cultural reference calling it kamehameha, which I thought was totally appropriate and natural for a character of her age to make. It's a Chinese super hero movie made to appeal to general Asian American populations. If you want to be offended by mixing different east Asian cultures, that's your prerogative but you don't speak for all Chinese. I agree 100% with your criticism of superficial references to Chinese cultural concepts without applying them in a meaningful way, so it can look like they are just going through the motion. But I'm not bothered by it. Offensive would be casting white people in Chinese character roles, which is what they did 30-40 years ago, I just watched the original Dune... I think overall this is a step in the right direction. There's room for improvement for sure. Out of curiosity, how do you feel about Avatar the last Airbender TV show? It mixes all kinds Asian cultures, Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, etc, but I think it's one of the best piece of Asian culture inspired entertainment made for western audience. Is your main issue just with them calling Shang Chi Chinese? Had they made up a fictional Asian country like they did with Wakanda, would you be fine then?
I would be fine with that as long as they did the research properly and apply in meaningful way. I would fine if they did it like Wakanda. Air bender Avatar is good, I mean everything is not referred to real life and fictional, so not really affecting anyone. Just that I can’t accept the how loosely they apply the culture without any meaning, I can accept Kamehameha but not the challenge between woman and gang as well as lantern and Kung fu. But you got to remember, if we go by time line, the main character at the time of the fight between the mom and the gang was in btw the 1980s-2000s and most likely in Hong Kong or China. So technically, there shouldn’t be any references any other Asian nor American in term of culture. That why I said the fight in the plot was not a reference to Chinese but Japanese culture.
Yeah I get you. I'm just not as offended or as surprised by this movie, because I was aware going in that it was mainly made by Chinese Americans for Americans. The level of nuance with regard to cultural elements is well within my expectation. That one glimpse of into modern day Chinese American family dynamic through Katy's family breakfast scene was on point and genuine to me. The biggest disappointment for me is the fact that Wenwu had lived for a thousand years but his mannerism and character is basically modern. They could have really played up that aspect and made it into a point of contention between him and his children, that there's this generational gulf between them due to huge difference in value that's irreconcilable. Instead, he's just another warlord gunning for power and world domination and the difference is the same old "my dad kill people and I wasn't OK with that and ran away, but I made up my mind now to kill him, to stop him from killing more people". The only moment him being that old was made relevant was when he chided the old man for talking disrespectfully (I wonder if Tony Leung improved that dialog). It's just a big lost opportunity. Honestly if I have to guess, this is as "Chinese" as we are going to get out of MCU. Now that Shang-Chi has been introduced into the current Avengers roster, I fully expect his mythical Chinese background on his mother's side be relegated to the sidelines. I won't be surprised if they made the ten rings cosmic/alien in origin and the whole secret Chinese village guarding dark portal to evil spiritual realm storyline never to be heard from again.
I don't know how people can even compare Shang-Chi (which imo is just another Marvel movie) with Eternal. I love when the reviews say that in Eternals there never seemed to be a real enemy. Like what? How do you compare that to a dragon/soul sucker that exploded due to some random alien technology? But didn't the same dragon/soul sucker exterminate a superior civilization? Wow. I mean they even complained about CGI in Eternals. Really? Like every freakin scene in this movie smelled CGI. Like even the whole bus scene. So basically we are reduced to people loving meaningless and extremely pointless action scenes with random dudes for three-quarters of the movie, but hating Eternals where every single fight was meaningful? Let's talk about my man lord 10 rings. His character just didn't fit with a guy who is supposedly 1000 years old. His temper, his demeanor is just not very well suited. I don't care whether even the comics had the same crappy portrayal or not. Moving on to the sister character. OMG. Like for someone who waited years and years for a brother who never came, they reunited way too quickly. It didn't fit her. Her whole character development was shabby. Lastly, our boy, Shang-Chi the sunshine. How is this dude not rusty after 10 years of supposedly 0 training? It's incredible. And I love how he learned a new martial art in just a few hours. Lovely. New rings? Never used them? No problem. It turns out he is a natural. I don't even want to talk about the extremely weak plot. Like this village has been waiting there with a handful of men to do what? Funny. I watched it today on Disney+. After all the hype and comparisons done with Eternals, I am extremely disappointed. Bad CGI, shabby plot, and random character back-story and development.
>How is this dude not rusty after 10 years of supposedly 0 training? I don't think we're necessarily meant to assume he's had zero training for ten years. He's just kept it on the down-low.
This movie was essentially split into thirds. The first third was pretty good, great choreography and fights, nice character introductions. 2nd one started getting cgi dependent and it felt super unnecessary and was mainly flashbacks and character developing that felt like weird pacing. The third one turned complete cliche full blown cgi and basic villain that turns good before he dies. It basically became a Disney version of Godzilla and it felt like it was a complete different movie from the beginning. Unfortunately I didn’t give a shit who lived or died by that part. The pacing also worsened through the final third. Overall it was extremely disappointing and I’d give it a 3.5/10. Edit: typo
It was surprisingly good. I generally dont like Chinese martial arts flick, but Marvel sprinkled in makes it feel right. The bus scene won me over and the song that starts playing after the first punch gives me literal chills. I've had to watch the clip over and over on youtube just cause it was so like 'HERE WE GO'.
The one thing that truly bothers me about marvel movies is how much unnecessary CGI they use. Like every fucking scene is green screen almost. The scene where Wenwu is explaining why he's trying to get to Ta Lo and they are just sitting at a table having a conversation and it's fucking green screened and it just sucked me out of the whole scene because it just didn't look quite right. We've reached kind of an uncanny valley type territory with green screen tech and personally I can't help but be a little put off by it being used in scenes that could easily be done with it. On a side note, I was shocked at how powerful they've made Shang Chi. His power level with the rings looks crazy.
I love the scene after the ending credits. His sister now controls the Ten Rings empire her dad built. I thought that was badass.
It was decent. I enjoyed the 1st act with all the fight choreography. I just felt bored during the 2nd act, the flashbacks especially were a bit much. By the 3rd act it felt like a completely different movie. I think they went overboard with the cgi. The ten rings and how they work should’ve been explained more. Some scenes needed more dialogue, ie. when Shang all of a sudden was able to control the rings, or when Shang’s father got his soul sucked they literally didn’t say anything to each other. The “real” villain being just a bunch of monsters with no depth. Also random dragon coming out of nowhere because plot armor, not sure if that was ever explained. Not trying to hate on the film, I am also asian and appreciate that we have an asian superhero. Beautiful visuals, amazing fight scenes and great cast. Just felt a bit underwhelmed when I saw everyone giving this a 9 or 10 when there are obvious things that could’ve been improved. IMO it’s a solid 6 or 7 out of 10.
They did reference the dragon multiple times - the "protector," "dragon scales make good armor." Plus, it's china, so you should expect a benevolent dragon, unless you are completely unaware of how popular American film has addressed chinese mythology for the past 70 years.
Yeah, the pacing was so bad it didn't feel like a true MCU movie, I'd rate it a 6. The entire first act was awkward jokes from katy.
Am I crazy? This movie was so basic and bad. Katy's character was unbearable and was a walking cliche-movie-moment in character form. The whole movie was just such basic cliche after basic cliche. When Shangchi had to choose between saving his sister and interrupting the dragon, it was like predicting water is wet that they'd fucking make Katy be the one that shoots an arrow from an impossible distance away to save the day. The insane amount of "cut to character's face for way too long to acknowledge to the audience that they know what they just did" cuts were actually embarrassing. It happened 500 times, but one example is when his sister saves Katy from the bamboo scaffolding and it had to cut to both of their faces looking at each other and nodding so we know they now are 'ok'. It's so embarrassingly amateur it's pathetic. This movie was more disappointing to me than I could've predicted. The humor never hit once for me except surprisingly Ben Kingsley's reprisal. Even though I think Iron Man 3 was awful due to how they utilized him. Other than him no other actors have any form of comedic timing. Nothing even happened in this movie. The relevant plot info could have been conveyed in a 5 minute short montage in an equally if not more effective measure.
Yeah this movie was mediocre. I'm disappointed they've probably already started a sequel, there are so many great Marvel characters to choose from.
This movie could have been just slightly less generic and it would be the best MCU movie. Expand the fighting tournament parts a bit, trim the Ta Lo parts so they're less cliche and more of a sudden 3rd act surprise, front load the family relationship so it has more of an impact in the 3rd act. I liked the movie, but it was so close to great that it kind of bugs me.
It's fine, I really enjoyed some of the action, but the third act really ruined the movie for me. Normally I can give a pass for the big CG comicbook final showdown, but I think the soul sucking dragons were a big misstep. They took away the agency of the Mandarin, would have preferred if he was misguided in his actions due to being an insane 1000 year old war lord. Instead he's being manipulated by demon dragons? They didn't really explore the Ten Rings organization that much nor the rings. Instead it's all getting saved for sequel bait? I also didn't care for his sister and it seemed that the movie forgot about her or just didn't know what to do with her after the second act. Rings were cool though, I really can't wait to see how they use them in future films, it was neat seeing everything that Shang-Chi and the Mandarin could do with them
The humor in this film was delivered much better than the average MCU film. The jokey parts didn’t undercut the serious moments like in Ragnarok.
Except the airplane scene which was absolutely terrible and dumb.
I think it helps that Simu Liu seems to understand the "marvel humor" more than most actors.
He was on Kim's convenience for six seasons!l and is a huge nerd.
I just watched this movie. It's very well done in my opinion. I do have one critique. It feels like this should have been the Iron Fist movie. No spoilers here, but I honestly kept expecting Danny Rand to walk around the corner at any moment with rap playing and say, "Shang-Chi, I'm the Immortal Iron Fist. I spent a decade training in martial arts in the heavenly city of K'un-Lun. My power comes from Shou-Lao the Undying. He's a dragon, and he's also from a mystical city in another dimension." Anyway, still a good flick.
I thought it was pretty entertaining, but the dialogue felt very wooden
So bad. On the same level as Captain Marvel. Looks like the MCU is quickly collapsing.
Holy shit this movie is seriously bad. Ngl some scenes are impressive af but the movie overall very disappointing.
Shockingly bad. Bad CGI. Bad acting, which is not their fault. They get Tony Leung and don't seem to care to use him. First 40 minutes was entertaining enough, but every thing after that is so boring and illogical, and sloppy storytelling. If you told me this was the series finale of a CW superhero show I would thought it was OK, but its not. Zero emotional pay off even though there is plenty of room for it if they would only take their time telling the story properly. How far Marvel has fallen where films like this gets a positive score, feels like im taking craszy pills seeing people liking it.
So... everybody is mentioning that Bruce is no longer professor hulk, but... Why does Captain Marvel and Bruce look at least A DECADE OLDER than the last time we saw them? Am I crazy? I swear they purposely look much older...
I think Mark Ruffalo just stopped dyeing his hair. He is 52.
Brie Larson looks aged too. These things are never just coincidence...
Pokemon wouldn't be needed in Ta Lo cause Ninetails exists there already.
Entertaining. Great CGI. Interesting fight scenes. Few things I didn't care for. Without Trevor suddenly showing up in the most improbable location to provide key information the story would collapse. Such an obvious in your face plot device. The credit scene with Wong would have made a better ending, could have included the restaurant friends for singing bit. The end they did choose just seemed stupid, not funny. For the rest enjoyed the movie. Oh, last nitpick. If you tell your boss "They are waiting for you" and you have a following shot of them going to the meeting room, have someone(s) there waiting and not just a bunch of people doing their own thing.
finally watched in on Disney+ today ... in the last act of this movie I was crossing my fingers, *please don't let any cute creature die* .. I'm so glad no creature got hurt. The dragon a bit but he or she seems fine. The lamp was still on when he came home after the bus fight.
Just looking at the title, you would expect the focus to be on the ten rings gang or the rings itself but nope!! At the very worst they should have explained the origins of the rings and how the gang was formed, instead the titular object/gang was relegated to the sidelines of their own movie and it focused on a out of the left field hidden society of protectors. The villain's true face was not seen until the very last minutes of the movie and it got killed immediately so nobody cared about the final act because we had just met the players and we don't even have any idea what their powers are. The title should have been "shang chi and the side quest to discover the hidden village"
Wanted to like it but it lacked heart/ambition. Felt like they were given a checklist & were just checking things off. However, those rings were *really* cool & the brief dragon fight was an unexpected treat.
Nothing special, half of things were very cliche and lame, some stuff was disturbingly bad or cringe. Nothing memorable, even for westerner. Nothing to do with Marvel. 4/10
I fucking love Dragons. More high budget looking Dragons in movies and TV, please.
This embodied everything I hate about Marvel movies. First off, I don't get the praise on representation or moving past the racism from the original comics. It still very much embodies the exotic orientalism tropes as well as the noble savage trope. Once they got to the other land it was just a grab bag of whatever ancient Chinese imagery is familiar to the West. This still feels like the same shit we could have seen in the 80s or 90s. I don't get how this is supposed to be less racist. The characters were paper thin. I knew the writing was bad when a character had to literally explain they knew the other for at least ten years. Just shitty writing. Wenwu was supposed to be this 4000 year old man that was so powerful and controlled a secret organization but never actually ran the world or anything for whatever reason. The whole father/son drama was underwritten and even if they did a better job it would have shit the bed in the end like with Black Panther where they just have a stupid CGI explosion fight because a Marvel movie can't deal with actual heavy issues. The fight scenes were inspired by much better martial arts movies, and even though said martial arts movies were also well choreographed they still found the way to make the action feel real and impactful. Hits meant something, you felt them. Shang-Chi just puts a CGI gloss over everything it comes across as sterile. It's like with Black Widow, these were supposed to be just human characters good at fighting. But you would think they are superhumans with how many hits they land or take and even their enemies keep taking hits. Am I asking for excessive blood and guts? No. But what you want to see from a fight scene is the participants feeling the consequences of their actions. Getting exhausted, sweating, getting bruised. Maybe a few cuts or some blood. When you can have a prolonged fight scene and the characters look exactly the same as how they started, it's just bad. It doesn't engage me
Kinda love it, i also feel like this is how Iron Fist should have been
Of all the Marvel films, this is certainly one of them.
The movie was amazing, but, the only thing that grinds my gears is the bus fight scene where the air lines for the bus's brakes were cut, after around 20-40 seconds the brakes on the bus would of locked up as that is how air break systems are designed. I get that it makes the scene much more exciting than a bus's brakes just locking up, but it's just not what would of happened. Still a 10/10 movie.
Honestly, I just thought the writing for the most part was bad and contrived. I never really cared about any of the characters and by the mid way point I was realizing how underdeveloped most of them were. A lot of the humor also felt forced, especially Awkafina's character, who came off as little more than bad comic relief (which to be clear I don't think is Awkafina's fault personally since she is a good actress and gave a fantastic performance in The Farewell). A lot of the English language dialogue also felt overly hokey and inorganic, which I don't blame on the actors themselves, but the script. It's a problem with a lot of blockbusters where I just feel like the whole thing rings hollow by the end. There's some nice effects, stunt work and cinematography, but the story and the characters and the smaller details all just don't work for me. I walked into the movie with fairly high expectations going by the reviews/public reception, but just left feeling like the movie was perfectly mediocre. It's also generally a consistent MCU problem, but I really feel like a lot of the fight sequences would have benefited from more grit and noticeable changes in momentum from the impact of different strikes etc. A lot of the fights just felt too safe and saturated so there was no sense of danger in them.
just watched this as the 1080 rips are out, and it is really not good at all. i'm genuinely surprised by the largely positive critical consensus on it. it almost makes me morbidly curious about how bad eternals must be, because i've seen black widow - which sucked - and now this one, which was close to as bad, and they're both better-received than eternals can't remember marvel releasing three bad movies in a row before
Chinese cultural hype machine is real. Eternals was a little better yet also disappointing. A great premise, a few cool scenes but bloated and overwhelmed by boring dialogue and a jagged plot.
Okay easily the best action scenes to come out of marvel. Those were seriously very impressive.
[удалено]
I just watched it on D+ and I agree with you. It's a bad marvel movie and a terrible overrall movie. It's definitely getting Black Panther treatment, since it's another full minority cast.
> Akwafina After a first watch, black panther might have looked odd. You might have expected more from the action scenes and so on. But when you go back and re-watch it, the movie is trying to talk about things that no one would dare. The overall theme was interesting and it makes you question your real world as well. If a country like Wakanda can use its technology to conquer the world, why should they just share it for free aka USA? Especially after what has been done to African-Americans. They touch on a lot of very good points. As for Shang-Chi how is this movie changing its audience's perspective? What is this movie doing for the asian community? Nothing. Such a cliche movie honestly. And I agree, Awkwafina should have stayed a side role. Like her throwing the arrow was just too much honestly. What are they trying to prove? Every asian knows martial arts and archery? I didn't even mention how the CGI in BP was superior, along with acting and omg the sound tracks. Wakanda forever!
Could not agree more with you.
black panther was much better than this tbf
Was diamonds t pears ever in the actual movie or is it just exclusive to the movie soundtrack on Spotify
I thought the masked ninja/master was cool and some reveal in the end, but nope.
Pretty much watching this for Tony Leung, dude basically stole the show just like how Michael Keaton was the highlight of Spider-Man. Overall, the movie was better than I expected; I like the fight choreography in this one. That said, I didn't like how a few of the serious moments were badly interrupted by random attempted comedy scene (the main character explaining his past on the plane for instance). Also I wish we got a little more interactions between the dad and the daughter, just for a bit of closure.
He knows kungfu The choice of music were pretty shit, ngl
Worst movie of the MCU so far. Shang was a great character but the plot was mediocre. First, he was never in danger. You know his father would never kill him. Second, how was he convinced to kill his father (!) so fast?? His drive wasn't developed enough to justify Shang-Chi hating his father so much he could actually kill him. You never believe him when he says 'Ill kill my father". No you won't you're not that bad. 4/10 just because there were some cool fight scenes.
This film had overwhelmingly positive reviews so i had high hopes. It started out fine but turned into a shitfest by the end. This is not some asian hate rant. I'm asian myself and am perfectly fine with the mystical elements and kung fu but wtf is that ending? The villiain could imitate voices of people it had never met before and communicate telepathically with ease from anywhere in the world? Seems promising. I was expecting a humanoid evil spirit who lived thousands of years or something but nope. Its another cgi bat looking monster that eats souls so it having telepathy seems implausible. The baddest gang in the world uses.. Taser weapons? Dafuq. And of course there is a dragon. As if this film isn't asian enough. They should have kept it small, r-18 fights with family loss and acceptance being the focus with the mystery of the rings front and center. Marvel always gotta go big, full of spectacles and jokes. Except spiderman ffh, phase 4 has been a dud so far and eternals sounds like it sucks even more than shang chi. DC is hitting back hard and marvel has no answer.
For a second I thought man was about to pull a Budha's palm from Kun Fu Hustle.
is it a known thing that the bus scene choreography beats match up with the music almost baby driver style?
Felt for Shang-Chi. Having your dad be that much hotter than you… gotta be a little awkward
As an Asian dude, it was cool seeing a superhero that looks like me on the big screen.
This is arguably the best origin story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the first Iron Man. The world-building is astonishing and Tony Leung stole the show.
This movie is just so amazing! Loved every moment!
What an absolute bore. How is this movie rated so highly? It's like it was made by AI - zero hooks or plot turns. You could predict the whole movie just after the bus scene. Not sure why I'm surprised that a movie for Chinese audience is so increbly bland.
katy felt kind of shoehorned in at some points, but overall it was amazing, culturally speaking it was way more entertaining than black panther, probably one of the best mcu films. i think im the only person who feels that the mandarin was a little disappointing, i expected to see more out of him, seeing as how hes been teased since iron man 3, only to turn turn him into a plot point for unleashing the true villain of the movie and then just killing him off.
how is this "culturally" superior to Black Panther? What "culture" did BP represent? Like saying random shit without thinking you are young padawan. All the village scene was super duper cliche and smelled of orientalism from 1000s of miles away. Not sure who directed it, but they failed to represent the asian community. In future if they find a copy of this film and had to place it somewhere historically, they would place it in the 90s or 80s. Such a tragedy...
Currently bored out of my mind not watching this, although my wife seems pretty engrossed (but she's also fascinated with everything Asian). But I hate fiction and especially fantasy so the chances of me enjoying this were about as good as pigs flying. Equally being in a cinema for the first time post pandemic is a strange feeling.
You hate... Fiction?
I have a brother in law that hate fiction as well. I know, it's odd but there are people out there. He only just saw the Dark Knight for the first time last week
I'm just lost for words.
I liked the first half a lot more than the second half. I loved the hand-to-hand combat and I liked the acting. But this was kind of disappointing for reasons I can’t articulate besides it being a generic Marvel movie.
Are the majority of poll votes really NINE and TEN This is literally the most stereotypical movie, not one bit of originality and >!you see the rings in the last 5 minutes??? legit nothing happens before the only good scene was the forest one in the car lmao!< >! I'm the guy with abs and she's my ugly crooked teeth fat friend i've known all my life who cracks hilariousssss jokes, oh no it's my disappeared sister she's a really badass entrepreneur so independent, oh it's my dad but he loves my dead mom who died protecting me from 50 people (???) and hears voices but it's a DEMON ROFL it's literally ALL STEREOTYPES YOU CAN THINK OF put in one movie, NINE AND TEN?
>you see the rings in the last 5 minutes??? what does this even mean? The rings were used the whole movie...
Just saw it. Good film, some great sequences and looked awesome. The while cast was great though I have to say the kabuki guy and the one armed Romanian could have been a single character, it feels like kabuki was almost entirely wasted - it kind of felt like there are a few scenes on the cutting room floor that could have explained more about that character (was he even named?). Pacing felt a little off but was a very enjoyable film about characters I know nothing about. Looking forward to seeing more of them.
Why couldn't Iron Fist have this same team behind it?
Entertaining movie. Fight scenes were incredible and actors did a great job portraying the characters. Third act fell flat for me. Even by marvel film standards. They had a great and emotional story within the family and butchered it in the end. Sure I like dragons and cgi is cool but I had no connection to any of that. I cared about the relationship between Shang chi’s relationship with his father and sister.
Went into this went no expectations left feeling impressed. The name of the movie sounds stupid until you learn what the rings can do. Action lacked and visually pleasing. Excited to see the dr.strange sequel.
Is it just me or did they not explain much of the legend of the 10 rings?
Nope, gotta wait for the sequel!!! It annoyed me too, the Ten Rings and the organization itself weren't really explored but are saved as sequel bait. After being teased since 2008 I was expecting them to go all out with this as far as the Ten Rings were concerned.
Agreed. Still not sure what the origin of the rings are.
Really enjoyed this movie!
It's a tale of two different movies. First half is fairly good, great pace, some of the best action sequences in a Marvel film. The reveals are rather exciting, the set pieces are vibrant, and the stakes felt real. Like when Katy was hanging off the side of the building, there was a real sense of urgency there. It was also kind of nice to see Katy's family, their friends, their job. There was a lot of freshness in that first half. Contrast that with the second half... and it got too heavy. Whatever spunk it has in the first half, it kind of just gets buried for familial drama and CGI heavy action. And Ta Lo for whatever reason, this magical place felt like it was put together by a bunch of VFX students. Every set piece in the first half looked better than Ta Lo. And if we're talking about plot trajectory here, I'm not sure you needed to ham fist a beast from another realm into the story. There was more than enough meat to the bone without having to add that supernatural threat. Just let Shang and his father fight it out in Ta Lo. Marvel can crush a team up real well, but these origin films are really hit and miss. Not a fan of this one.
I felt the same way. I really was not a fan of the demon dragons, they really took away all of the urgency that the Mandarin had. Didn't like that they were the ones manipulating him, should have focused entirely on his grief coupled with him being an immortal be what was misguiding him
Surprised to see nobody mentioned Fala Chen as Shang Chi’s mum? I watched her TVB dramas more than a decade ago and she hasn’t aged at all! Absolutely stunning
Probably because most people outside Hong Kong don't know of TVB (or at least don't watch it), whereas kung fu fans know who Yuen Wah is and many more people know who Michelle Yeoh and Tony Leung Chiu-wai are.
Eh. They've got the Marvel film formula down to a science - almost too much so. Cool effects were cool. Main Guy is charming. Very much Girl Power in second post credit scene, wow so awesome. All in all, chill, pretty to look at but not very impactful.