***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE 10 RINGS SPOILER THREAD ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***

[Cap]

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/shang-chi-ben-kingsley-trevor-slattery-the-mandarin-1235055074/

 

Fun read!

[Cmasterclay]

Excellent by MCU standards. Tony Leung easily the best villain in MCU history and probably best superhero villain since Bane. Action is great for the most part. Kingsley one of the most actual funny bits MCU has ever done. Real human emotions and it always brings it back to Earth - never goes more than a couple of minutes without remembering to be a real movie. Simu Liu isn't Olivier or anything but he did his own stunts and was charismatic. Awkwafina jokes hit or miss but very good in the dramatic parts, so her usual. The bad - creature CGI is fucking god awful and the 10 minute boring fight between the dumb dragons brings the whole damn movie down, MCU style. But I really really liked it!

[AdrianL]

I think the film has a really strong first half and kind of loses its groove once they get to the father's home even though Tony Leung is excellent in this. Everything dealing with the dragon creatures... eh. Overall I think it's an enjoyable film but from the first half I was thinking this would make my top MCU films but by the end it's pretty on par with most of the MCU. 

[Felandria]

I loved how everyone was just letting Katy hang out, nobody bothering to try and tell her to go home or hide, even Wong being like you should come too.

 

I’d love to see hep pop up in Hawkeye, taking archery lessons.

[lorddemaxus]

The joke about Awkwafina's character doing a honor thesis at Berkeley got my theater crowd going wild (and would not be surprised if that happens during every show here). Only joke that got a laugh out of me too.

[eddyxx]

The parts that got the biggest laugh in my theater were the planet of the apes exchange and the playing dead part.  I love Trevor. We need him in more movies. Loved the movie. Will probably see it again in a few weeks:

[FilmFincher]

God I'm so happy we got so much Trevor in this. Highlight of the movie. All of his stuff was hilarious, the playing dead bit killed.

 

Wong joining Shang and Katy for karaoke also killed at my screening, what a great pay off.  

[CoolioD1]

honestly i might be trash but i thought the cgi mess at the end was the best action setpiece of the movie. the hand to hand stuff was a little overhyped (except the opening tony leung fight that was gorgeous). the dragons looked pretty cool.

[Eric Duncan]

18 minutes ago, CoolioD1 said:

honestly i might be trash but i thought the cgi mess at the end was the best action setpiece of the movie. the hand to hand stuff was a little overhyped (except the opening tony leung fight that was gorgeous). the dragons looked pretty cool.

Yeah I'm still confused by the backlash. I thought it was creative and it does well on building up each moment one after the other. It was cool!

[Ipickthiswhiterose]

Loved the movie. No problem with the CGI-a-thon - Clear and coherent storytelling was still going on throughout, which is where this stuff often loses me. As long as the emotional beats are clear and the narrative is clear, I'm good.

 

Real crowdpleaser in my theatre, best reactions in a theatre since Endgame. (North-west UK)

 

Spoiler

 

There's a part of me that thinks it would have been even greater to have a gritty lower budget Shang-Chi 1 filled with hand to hand combat and revealing Wenwu at the end followed by a fantastical big budget Shang-Chi 2 with CGI and Wuxia. On the other that's probably overambitious for a new character for where the MCU is now, they'd have to have come out close together and that wasn't realistic. 

 

Wenwu is easily top tier Marvel villain, nay comic book movie villain. The casting and use of characters in general, but especially of Leung, is triumphant. But everyone works: Katy, Xialing, Trevor, even Razor Fist surprisingly survives the movie and will be a useful minion type going forward. Excited to see what's next for Boss Bitch Sister, half thought we'd get another Val cameo at the end, but it seems there are even bigger plans.

 

Honestly, Slattery thinking he was mad and Morris was in his head (and that he'd completely accepted as such) was a beautiful piece of bittersweet comedy. That he was funny isn't surprising, but that he was funny in such a deadpan, sincere way was. I was expecting Goldblum in Ragnarok, but got actual Falstaff instead (up to and including playing dead, what a reference!).

 

 

[lorddemaxus]

5 hours ago, CoolioD1 said:

honestly i might be trash but i thought the cgi mess at the end was the best action setpiece of the movie. the hand to hand stuff was a little overhyped (except the opening tony leung fight that was gorgeous). the dragons looked pretty cool.

It would've been cool if it didn't make my eyes bleed everytime I looked at the screen. I mean Tsui Hark made more elegant dragon fights 30 years ago. And the CG here somehow looks cheaper than some of the more recent Chinese stuff I've seen.

[TigerPaw]

Okay just watched the film here in Singapore.. Now i know why word of mouth in some parts of Asia is mediocre.. I was rooting for it but was very disappointed especially with the 3rd act.

 

Fight scenes were okay (if you don't pay attention to the very obvious stunt doubles especially for Tony Leung...His acting was great though). 3rd act was too long and too much CGI imo - it became like journey to the west with Soul Sucking monsters... I was like what...

 

 

[Valonqar]

Fun movie with some nice visuals where supporting cast completely blows the lead off the screen. Simu Liu is adequate but far from a star turn that many Marvel leads enjoyed in their debuts, and he lacks the screen presence needed to make his noble but uninteresting character engaging. Luckily, supporting cast saves the day with aplomb.

 

Trevah Slattery, the Toast of Croydon, owns every scene he is in and is really a unique character in MCU. It's amazing that they didn't bring him back earlier but wasted time and money on some other characters who kept coming back and are already signed up for more. I think that after SC, people will clamor for Trevah (and Morris) and Marvel better oblige. Still, the way he was introduced is perfect, really good tie-in with IM3 and it also give his character a development and arc. Please come back!

 

Tony Leung is great but we've seen that kind of the villain - the nefarious relative -  before (think Loki - still #1, Hela, Killmonger, Ego) and he gives away his entire evil plan for heroes to thwart which is just ugh. Still, the actor's presence is felt and once he ridiculously dies from CGI soul sucking, the finale turns into an anti-climactic CGI mayhem. I also really dig Wenwu and future Mrs Wenwu fight/seduction and can't wait to rewatch clips on YT.

 

Awkawina did well with what she is expected to do (Marvel doesn't cast against type) and didn't annoy me ha ha. Also, I like that she was trained in archery before downing the Smaug so to speak (well, SC finished the work but Kathy's arrow mattered) so no one can say she was M*** S**.

 

I really dig the sister, Xialing, and wonder if she will be in much speculated about but in no way rumored yet Thunderbolts with Val, Zemo, Walker and Yelena. 

 

CGI ranged from impressive (dragon) to shit (lions, The Dweller). If you wonder why I didn't mention Morris, that's because he's real. I know, you are fooled into thinking he's a CGI creature but nope #MorrisLives.

 

Yes third act was weaker for the same reason it always is - too much mayhem too little dramatically justified mayhem, but that isn't going to change cause audience loves that kind of shit for the sake of it and that's fine. No point expecting otherwise. In this case, once Wenwu was gone, you had to glance at the watch.

 

I have a theory where/to whom the rings might have sent the beacon but that would spoil one of the upcoming movies. 

 

Yay for Mandarin (language)!

 

Overall, I didn't think this is Top Tier Marvel but it's between Top and Mid lets say upper Mid.

Edited September 4, 2021 by Valonqar

[TigerPaw]

Oh ya, as a Mandarin speaker - i can honestly say some of the accent and Mandarin spoken was awful (especially by Michelle Yeoh.. Sorry! Tony Leung was hit and miss in his Mandarin but they are both canto speaker so i know they tried). Simu Lui has much better command of the language than either of them.

 

Oh yes, and Trevor stole the show. He was really the best part of it.

[Valonqar]

58 minutes ago, TigerPaw said:

Oh ya, as a Mandarin speaker - i can honestly say some of the accent and Mandarin spoken was awful (especially by Michelle Yeoh.. Sorry! Tony Leung was hit and miss in his Mandarin but they are both canto speaker so i know they tried). Simu Lui has much better command of the language than either of them.

 

Oh yes, and Trevor stole the show. He was really the best part of it.

 

Good to hear native speaker's feedback. Liu family is likely Manda speakers so that's why. 

[Lion Roar]

My favorite little detail about this movie is that his helicopter's serial number is WW-888 aka the most Chinese number imaginable 

 

The Mandarin dialogue was really great, genre appropriate, and better than the subtitles, and I appreciate that all the child actors had the Northern accents just like their adult versions, so there's no weird disconnect. 

 

Loved all the creatures they had, including the 9-tailed foxes, and the qilins. 

 

Loved that the dragon was appropriate Chinese dragon, with feet and no wings, and is either in the water or flying in the air, none of the western dragon breathing fire walking on land nonsense. 

 

Really like the sister, and Awkwafina surprisingly did not annoy me this time. Simu was a bit bland, especially since he's paired with Tony Leung in the emotional scenes and really couldn't keep up. Hopefully he gets better in the future movies. 

 

This was Tony Leung's movie through and through.  Fantastic as always and I love what they did with his character. 

 

 

 

[Valonqar]

it's also the number for SC's Thursday preview, 8,800,008. 

Edited September 5, 2021 by Valonqar

[Sam]

Loved everything about it and more. Tony Leung is the man. My boy Trevor stole every moment he’s on screen. 
 

Simu did well for me, he has the heart and the presence, good comedic timing too. Looking forward to him further growing into the character in the future. 
 

As an Asian woman, I definitely connected with Xialing story in this. I think they did very well with her arc, she wasn’t treated as second fiddle character to Shangchi as opposed to how her dad did (villain or not typical Asian dad will always be typical huh?) 

 

I’m also in the minority here I guess cause I enjoyed the 3rd act. It was both grand and intimate enough for me in scale and was properly built up with good payoff. 
 

Action overall was great. Wenwu/YingLi duo fight was beautiful and the bus fight was one of the best actions in Marvel for me. 

 

Overall a great origin and introduction for Shang-Chi. Can’t wait for the sequel. 

Edited September 6, 2021 by Sam

[MOVIEGUY]

12 hours ago, CoolioD1 said:

honestly i might be trash but i thought the cgi mess at the end was the best action setpiece of the movie. the hand to hand stuff was a little overhyped (except the opening tony leung fight that was gorgeous). the dragons looked pretty cool.

Really? On paper the dragon fight should have been visually awesome, but it was just a big blue-gray blur. The bus setpiece on the other hand? That's gotta be a top 5 or 10 MCU action scene. Which kinda makes the dragon scene feel like a bigger missed opportunity. If they could pull off that bus scene so well why couldn't they do the same for the dragon fight?

[exomassey]

I thought the dragon Shang Chi was riding looked great coming out of the water and throughout the 3rd act. 

 

The evil dragons CGI was pretty good but it’s design was less pleasing to the eye. I know it was meant to be some love craftian design but it looked like a weird dragon octopus.

 

The fights between the dragons were a bit messy and hard to follow. Also could have used a bit more colour. However its still equally impressive because it honestly could have looked way worse than it did.