Fletch
Studious
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2025
- Messages
- 572
Shang-Chi
This is when I learned it's pronounced like "Shawng" and proceeded to pretend I'd known that the whole time.
I also think this is where Marvel *should* be at its strongest: taking a film genre and applying super-hero elements to it. Winter Soldier's espionage thriller, Ant-Man's heist film, and so on. A Marvel kung-fu movie is a terrific idea. They didn't stick the landing, but I was here just for the idea.
This is when I learned it's pronounced like "Shawng" and proceeded to pretend I'd known that the whole time.
I also think this is where Marvel *should* be at its strongest: taking a film genre and applying super-hero elements to it. Winter Soldier's espionage thriller, Ant-Man's heist film, and so on. A Marvel kung-fu movie is a terrific idea. They didn't stick the landing, but I was here just for the idea.
- I don't know Simu Liu's career, but it's crazy to me that someone this talented got his start as a stock photo model. In general, I find him pretty charismatic and he's convincing in his emotional scenes. I kind of wish his introduction was more drawn out somehow? There's no way we wouldn't know he was a martial arts master, since that's why we're here, but it would've been fun to learn it along with Katy. Maybe little things like having the fight club the first time we see him shirtless. Not only is Katy's reaction to that priceless, but if we don't see how ripped he is doing pushups in his apartment, maybe the bus fight could still be a surprise. If they hadn't released the whole thing online before the movie's release, I mean. Anyways, I think it would've added more to his "torn between two worlds" aspect if we got to participate more in him being just a dude in San Fran.
- I know Marvel can do better than the swingy looking wire-fu of Crouching Tiger, but using it in the fight between Wenwu and Li really sold the genre they were going for. Later fights would have more digi-doubles, but this was pure Hong Kong cinema. It was absolutely the right choice.
- Speaking of the fights, I (mostly) loved the escalation and uniqueness to each as the story progressed. From a mostly grounded fight on a bus, to a briefer but more emotional fight with his sister, to a more cinematic fight on the side of a mirrored neon building. They each felt distinct. That feeling doesn't hold up into the final fights with Wenwu at Ta Lo, though. It's his first actual fight with Wenwu, in a fantastical land filled with mythical beasts, with two armies fighting in the background, and they choose to punch it up alone in a temple and on the lakeshore.
- I'm not sure what we're supposed to think of Wenwu. Clearly he's described as a warlord, and we already know from Iron Man that the Ten Rings is a criminal organization, but I guess we're supposed to be happy for him when he finds true love? I think because it's all done in narration, I didn't get the full emotional impact of him giving up the rings when he found happiness with Li. More importantly, I never got the drive behind his desperation to get her back. I'd have to say that the problem was the the actor, Tony Leung, never changed expressions between scenes. He had the same face when he was a medieval warlord as when he was holding baby Shang-Chi as when he got revenge on the gang that killed Li as when he accepted his death at the end. What a stoic dude. Now, that was kind of his thing in Hard Boiled, fer instance, when he was the coldblooded hitman, but it doesn't work for me as a lost father. While I'm here, quick shout out for kung fu legend Michelle Yeoh. Big fan and glad she got to join the MCU. She's so natural here, they could've revealed that she actually is from a lost village of mystic kung fu guardians and I would've believed it.
- Awkwafina gets a lot of flak for being here, but I really liked Katy. I found she had good chemistry with Simu Liu and kept up a good outsider's perspective of his world without going too far into just comic relief. She has a terrible scream, though. Maybe just keep it to yourself when you're hanging off a skyscraper. And I can't leave out the long awaited return of one of the MCU's anchor beings: Klev, the "do a backflip" guy who does the bus commentary. Oh, and Trevor Slattery's here, which I thought would annoy me but really didn't. It's very logical that he would wind up here, and I've come to appreciate the consistency of him being a very talented actor (off-screen). Sometimes *he* would go too far into the imbecile act, though. Pump the breaks and stop ruining the reveal of the mythical creatures.
- Like I said, I don't like the opening narration since it robs us of the emotional impact of Wenwu's life changes, but he's not our main character and probably not worth using up screen time we need for Shiang-Chi. But that means I *can* be mad that they made a lot of Shiang-Chi's backstory narration too. I'd argue that him going on his first assassination mission at 14 years old was something we should have seen. Imagine two scenes: one where we see him standing over a sleeping body, but he drops his knife and runs away, voice over telling Katy that he couldn't go through with it; then a second version later on when he's confessing to Katy, that shows the dropped knife is all bloody. It was such a character defining moment, it was worth filming, I think.
- What a weird place for an Abomination cameo. And Wong for that matter. I guess they were trying to say the fight club drew from all sorts of MCU elements, like the extremis fighter we saw earlier. I remember being really intrigued by them appearing in the trailer, but really disappointed to learn they were just pulling a con? But comic-accurate Abomination looks dope.
- I teared up a bit when Xialing caught Katy falling from the building. I really liked how they connected throughout the movie. She's all "I like your pants" and tossing her Razor Fist's car keys, no questions asked. Just small little looks and nods throughout the movie said so much. It's like Katy is the first person to ever honestly appreciate her and what she's accomplished.
- Ooh, one of Wenwu's alternate identities was Master Khan. I didn't see the Iron Fist series, was that name mentioned there at all? I also recognized the name drop for Dweller in Darkness later on. I kind of remember him from some old Dr. Strange stories, but don't remember what his deal was there.
- Shiang-Chi is really lacking a character arc. I don't know what he wants and I'm not sure if he gets it. I really liked the "mom would've hated who I've become" line and wish that idea had been expanded on. Like, it would've been interesting if he didn't immediately think it was impossible for his mom to still be alive in Ta Lo and this could be a chance for forgiveness. Then he needs his more cynical sister to help him see reason. "Mom would never ask us to burn down her village to rescue her."
- You know who does have a character arc, though? Katy. "If you aim at nothing, you hit nothing." It really straightened her out. Sure we see her and Sean back at the bar with their lawyer friend again at the end, but I really think she learned her value during that battle.
- Oh my effing god, that final battle. I hate so much that it turned into a big CGI dragon fight. I'd really enjoyed the super martial-arts take in the movie and it turned into something completely different at the end. What if instead, a defeated Wenwu was possessed by the Dweller, and Shang-Chi had to learn to channel the dragon to fight him? So we still get a big fight at the end, but it's between people. Sure have all the little monsters flying around that the Ten Rings and the villagers have to team up against, let Katy make a difference in that fight, but keep the final fight on the ground. Or leaping around with rocket rings, whatever. I don't think I can oversell how much I hated this element of the finale.
- I loved the end cameo from Wong and think they should've just saved him for that. They're just talking in the bar and suddenly Benedict Wong's distinctive voice is heard calling his name. I even liked him joining them for karaoke in the credit scene. I wasn't so crazy about Bruce being back in human form, though. Becoming the best of both Hulk AND Bruce was kind of the point of his character arc. I'm also disappointed that Danvers didn't recognize the Ten Rings, but I'll get into that later.