I love the idea of the rings being these big arm rings instead of finger rings...but every time I watch trailer and they float off the arms I raise an eyebrow. How does that work? Wasn't every ring a different element or something? Why does it look like lightning v fire? Do they have all the rings and they pick one that lights up the others? Its looks odd. I'll obviously wait to see film to judge.
This is (sorta) explained in an after credits scene.Quoting Skitch (view post)
I'm not really complaining and I'm certainly no expert on these characters, just base knowledge and curious.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
Every ring was a different alien being in the comics. But in the movie the implication is they are [] in origin.Quoting Skitch (view post)
No shit?! I didn't know that about comics part. Dope.
I might be phrasing that wrong but I'm pretty sure each ring possessed the power of a single cosmic entity. We need Arya to confirm though.Quoting Skitch (view post)
This is bottom-tier MCU for me. While the worldbuilding is cool, Tony Leung is great and the movie homages almost every filmmaking style of Asian cinema, it exists as a mishmash of tones, Simu Liu is inconsistent in the lead role, the jokes really sap any suspense out of the action sequences and while the film succeeds in manifesting Shang-Chi's inner conflict about being the son of a ruthless warlord visually through flashbacks, he rarely feels like the main focus of what's basically diluted into a cliche-riddled fish out of water story. As much as it deserves to be celebrated for what it's done for Asian representation in American media, it deserves to be criticized for its shortcomings as a movie. What a letdown.
Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5
615 Film
Letterboxd
These are my thoughts on it too Ivan. I never went into details, but every sentence you wrote is how I feel about it.Quoting Ivan Drago (view post)
I thought this was lots of fun. The cliche storyline is obvious, and there are some baffling (I guess) leftovers from some previous version (the masked fighter?!), but I enjoyed the whole cast and the design of everything was great (except for the generic enemy). Shoutout to the clearly choreographed martial arts fights, as well. All in all, I'm more likely to rewatch this than many of the "better" MCU titles.
Better than I was expecting, tho it's very light. Good action sequences. Leung, mercifully, isn't wasted and does more with no dialogue than most MCU villains can do with an exposition dump. Surprised to find the ending a better [] we've had.
"How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home wine-making course and forgot how to drive?"
--Homer
I thought this was badass. Any movie with a dude riding a dragon is probably gonna get bonus points from me. Leung was fantastic, too bad this will be his only MCU flick. I thought the humor worked pretty well. The final act was your typical CGI heavy action fest which didn't surprise me too much. The end credits scene hints at cooler things to come and also is very funny in a good way.
Blog!
And it's happened once again
I'll turn to a friend
Someone that understands
And sees through the master plan
But everybody's gone
And I've been here for too long
To face this on my own
Well, I guess this is growing up
I enjoyed this. I don't know if it would crack top ten mcu but it certainly wouldnt be bottom ten.
I enjoyed it i too! I loved Awkwafina's performance, and pretty much every fight scene had me saying, man, this guy could kick Iron Fist's ass with both arms tied behind his back!
Losing is like fertilizer: it stinks for a while, then you get used to it. (Tony, Hibbing)
Iron Fist is so damn lame. I would love to see Daredevil pop up finally in an MCU film.
Blog!
And it's happened once again
I'll turn to a friend
Someone that understands
And sees through the master plan
But everybody's gone
And I've been here for too long
To face this on my own
Well, I guess this is growing up
A bit of reversal from earlier Black Widow (in a good way) and general MCU single hero entries (in a mixed way). It's maybe the first time an MCU origin film prioritizes action and choreography more over characterization, so the hero's writing has him come off a tad of a cipher, with his character origin beats broadly defined and then hurriedly zoomed past in favor of world-building and exposition. Or maybe knowing they have Tony Leung, they give the villain far more shading and nuances than any of the hero group for once, which the actor absolutely, unsurprisingly nails it.
But it means that unlike BW, the film doesn't feign at something more grounded before devolving into another big structure climatically blown down from the sky. And the more cartoonish and fantasy elements throughout make the climatic CGI-fest, if heavily and obviously green-screened, more colorful and involving than the studio's recent non-Avengers norm too, with some fun, actually clear action sequences throughout. The standout is the wuxia-informed first-encounter fight between Leung's Wenwu and Fala Chen's Li, which is exhilarating, beautifully choreographed, and romantic all at once. 6.5/10
Last edited by Peng; 11-21-2021 at 04:33 AM.
Midnight Run (1988) - 9
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
Sisters (1973) - 6.5
Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5
The praise here is weird to me.
This is me on any yay vote for Black Widow.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
Midnight Run (1988) - 9
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
Sisters (1973) - 6.5
Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5
Yeah that was not good. That would make bottom ten mcu for me.Quoting Peng (view post)
This was great. Top tier Marvel. Can't wait to see more Shang Chi in the MCU.
The combo of Leung's magnetic presence and a villain who finally has some depth, makes this "Mandarin" the very best villain the MCU has had to date.
The cameo was freaking incredible, too. "If those monkeys could act that brilliantly..."
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Yeah, I liked this a lot. As much as Black Widow failed to be an exhilarating spy actioner (or even a decent flick) this succeeds in homaging the wuxia genre. There's some ham-fisted wokeness here and there but I guess that's unavoidable in any modern studio film. Tony Leung and Awkwafina MVPs for me.