Shang-Chi sitting at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, with most reviews saying it doesn't stick to the regular MCU formula. Looking forward to going to the theater for the first time in a year and a half on Saturday. I'm really interested to see how this one does in China, if it weren't for covid I'd put money on it breaking all kinds of records there
The Suicide Squad was excellent. Like night and day compared to the original and cements James Gunn in Hollywood's directing elite. The film is fun and well paced with interesting characters on an interesting mission. I actually cared about Rick Flag! There are a variety of good action scenes, neat twists, and satisfying reveals including some great uses of foreshadowing and Chekhov's gun. I also liked the darker subject matter that was taken seriously by the characters. There was no quippy dialog here with the all the jokes being situational. Elba was perfect for his role and gave a solid performance far above Smith's from the original. Some awkwardness here though as Elba is playing a different character to Smith's from the original despite having the exact character background. This is part of a bigger issue where the film is strangely both a reboot and sequel with the audience expected to already know some of the characters. Robbie's Harley Quinn for example, despite being the best big screen adaptation to date and having some narrative importance, feels tacked on at times and that we needed to watch Birds of Prey to fully get her character arc. Overall I had a big smile the entire run time and would recommend as a premier example of an R-Rated comic book film. 9.5/10
__________________
The masses of humanity have always had to surf.
The Following User Says Thank You to FireGilbert For This Useful Post:
I liked Shang-Chi but I didn't love it. There is some great stuff in there especially Simu Liu and Tony Leung they were both excellent. I just found the story played it safe and kinda hit all the beats of a MCU film, without doing anything different or bold. I guess when you are the most successful franchise ever you don't need to do anything different. I'm excited to see Shang-Chi in more movies as the character was excellent and would be cool to see him in an Avengers film.
I thought it was pretty strong. I liked all the cultural stuff, good action though a bit too much shaky cam close in shots, I like to see what's going on in a fight.
Story wise yeah it's pretty safe, solid but nothing special. Some great fights and great graphics at the end. And the cameo (maybe too long for a cameo) was great fun.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to photon For This Useful Post:
Shang-Chi was fun, if a little by the numbers. I appreciated how deep they went with the Chinese mythology aspect, that alone helped it stand out from the other Marvel origin stories. I imagine this will be Marvel's most popular franchise in China if they're ever allowed to go to the theaters again
The Following User Says Thank You to Hemi-Cuda For This Useful Post:
Shang-Chi was fun, if a little by the numbers. I appreciated how deep they went with the Chinese mythology aspect, that alone helped it stand out from the other Marvel origin stories. I imagine this will be Marvel's most popular franchise in China if they're ever allowed to go to the theaters again
I don't think this is getting a release in China, because of Marvel hiring Chloe Zhao for Eternals.
I don't think this is getting a release in China, because of Marvel hiring Chloe Zhao for Eternals.
Damn, that's sucks for them. Sounds like Zhao isn't the issue for Shang-Chi like it is for Eternals, China is blocking it because of the racist origins of the comic book characters
Which seems dumb. Marvel went out of their way to make "The Mandarin" character a joke, and gave Tony Leung total control of his character, which takes almost nothing from the comics. Don't know what else Marvel could have done there
Ha. Disney bends over backwards for China and still they get shunned. Let's see how far they will go now for that dollar.
The mouse is greedy. Even his own principles are for sale.
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
Damn, that's sucks for them. Sounds like Zhao isn't the issue for Shang-Chi like it is for Eternals, China is blocking it because of the racist origins of the comic book characters
Which seems dumb. Marvel went out of their way to make "The Mandarin" character a joke, and gave Tony Leung total control of his character, which takes almost nothing from the comics. Don't know what else Marvel could have done there
Seems like an excuse to me. I see China blocking more and more outside influences, as they begin to assert more control on Hong Kong. Their list of banned subjects seems to just get longer and longer.
Shang-Chi was fun, if a little by the numbers. I appreciated how deep they went with the Chinese mythology aspect, that alone helped it stand out from the other Marvel origin stories. I imagine this will be Marvel's most popular franchise in China if they're ever allowed to go to the theaters again
I agree. I felt like a different kind of world-building than we typically get from marvel, more down to earth. We saw it in with Black Panther, and I could just gobble that stuff up.
I actually thought the pacing and filming style (outside of the fight scenes) was Ant-manesque.
Really enjoyed it, it was a little lacking in the ambition Marvel has shown lately, but still very good. My favorite Marvel movies are always when they do fully commit to a conceit that it's not 100% a given they can pull of. This wasn't that so it's securely outside of the top tier of Marvel movies.
The bus and the scaffold fight scenes are just a lot of fun, give me that any day over thousands of alien dog things fighting thousands of Wakandans.
But man, I am about done with these over the top CGI filled third acts for most comic book movies. I really stopped caring at a certain point in this one which is too bad because rest of the film was much more grounded. Bus scene was incredible.
This looks fun. They're really playing up the comedy though. Hopefully it's not just all s**ts and giggles and more of a balance between the comedy and drama like Falcon/Winter Soldier and Loki were.
I'm getting a little bit of Die Hard vibes from the trailer,
I have a theory there is a master list somewhere that has 2 or 3 older movies directly cited as directly inspiring tone, pacing, plot devices... of pretty much all Marvel content since at least First Avenger. And I'm thinking Die Hard could be one of the muses we are looking at here.
The Following User Says Thank You to #-3 For This Useful Post:
I'm getting a little bit of Die Hard vibes from the trailer,
I have a theory there is a master list somewhere that has 2 or 3 older movies directly cited as directly inspiring tone, pacing, plot devices... of pretty much all Marvel content since at least First Avenger. And I'm thinking Die Hard could be one of the muses we are looking at here.
Instantly felt the same. Probably with a few other "Gotta get home for xmas" movie references thrown in.
Damn, that's sucks for them. Sounds like Zhao isn't the issue for Shang-Chi like it is for Eternals, China is blocking it because of the racist origins of the comic book characters
Which seems dumb. Marvel went out of their way to make "The Mandarin" character a joke, and gave Tony Leung total control of his character, which takes almost nothing from the comics. Don't know what else Marvel could have done there
It doesn't matter because just like with the new Mulan, the Chinese audience sees this as an inauthentic Chinese production made by/starring foreigners.
The social media vibe is very much against Shang-Chi in China. There are many things in the film, even down to the name of the character that make no sense in Chinese. One person joked that Shang Chi sounds like rising fart. Its like going to a Chinese restaurant run by westerners where they tried really hard but you can tell its super fake.
They have issues with Simu Liu being Canadian and for past interviews on CBC where he has talked about poverty and starvation in Mainland China and having to escape which they take as an insult. They have issues with Tony Leung because while he is a rather legendary Hong Kong film star, there is great distrust between the mainland and Hong Kong. He is not considered one of them. Jackie Chan is one of the few who has squeaked by because he has fallen head over heels for the Chinese Communist Party and has become a lap-dog.
From what I've seen they also feel like Westerners have intentionally cast actors that aren't "attractive" enough and put the Chinese people in a bad light. The Chinese film market is quite superficial but nationalists on social media have said things like how the the main actor and his girlfriend are ugly and misrepresent the Chinese people, etc.
Finally, there is the background to the comic book origins which were very much yellow peril in terms of the Mandarin and had racist clichés throughout.
I know this all sounds crazy but imagine if a foreign country made a movie about Canada and the actors representing Canadians were a bit oddball and not Ryan Reynolds/Ryan Gosling looking and the main character is called "Billster McKenney". It's not filmed in Canada and everybody is wearing rubbery costumes with maple leaves on them. At the same time, they expect it to be a smash hit over here. That's how it's seen in China from what I can interpret and one reason it may not ever be released there.
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 09-16-2021 at 04:23 PM.
The Following User Says Thank You to Hack&Lube For This Useful Post:
I know this all sounds crazy but imagine if a foreign country made a movie about Canada and the actors representing Canadians were a bit oddball and not Ryan Reynolds/Ryan Gosling looking and the main character is called "Billster McKenney". It's not filmed in Canada and everybody is wearing rubbery costumes with maple leaves on them. At the same time, they expect it to be a smash hit over here. That's how it's seen in China from what I can interpret and one reason it may not ever be released there.
The Following 12 Users Say Thank You to Hemi-Cuda For This Useful Post:
