Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

[Jeff]

Just got out of the theater.  Good movie!

I’ll keep this spoiler free.  We really enjoyed this one.  There were fun cameos and thankfully most of the spoiler stuff from the trailer was from the beginning of the movie.  Some good humor, good battles, good special effects.  It almost lost me when some ridiculousness happens in the middle with one of the guest stars.  Seriously, I almost wrote off the whole movie but it came back and regained the fun from the movies start and ended with bang.  

Oh and there’s two after credit scenes.  We saw the first one and then left because the lights came up in the theater. We missed the second one and had to read about it online.  

Fortunately, the first one is the more important one as I believe it ties into the Eternals.  I think this because there was a new Eternals trailer at the beginning and they use similar dialogue.  This new trailer really even made my daughter excited about the Eternals movie!  It’s a good one.

[Gay Titan]

I really want to see this movie. I was hoping that it would be on Disney+ like Black Widow.

[Jimmy T]

I REALLY liked it. A lot even! I thought it was pretty good, I enjoyed watching it, and I liked watching it with my wife, who really enjoyed it as well.

Black Widow? Naw, wouldn't watch it again. Shang Chi? I'd watch it again in a heart beat!

I love that the martial arts were also wonderfully balanced with acrobatics. That was so cool. I like that I just go, "okay cool, magic kung fu!" when freaky deaky stuff starts happening. In Widow movie, that nutso stuff happens and all my wife even says is that "Captain America does that and lives through that. Not ScarJo."

[Perry]

The first 1/3 of Shang-CHi was incredible. Loved it. Where it fell apart for me was in the second and third acts. Not because of any action (realistic or otherwise) but in structure and script ... especially

with the way they turned the Mandarin into a pitiful rendition of himself

And as cute as

Morris turned out to be, a six legged, no eye having chicken (regardless of it being an accurate Chinese mythological creature) is every bit worthy of an eyeroll and critical bashing.

I still would grade it as a decent flick, overall, but I would rank Shang-Chi in the same realm of the lower tier Marvel flicks for me like Ant-Man, Black Widow, Black Panther and Thor: Dark World. They all have issues in some way or another that keep it away from being top class stuff. It's fine, it's okay, but it is no James Gunn Suicide Squad, which actually is not that fair as that might be the best movie I have seen so far this year, I think (Although I have yet to see The Green Knight. Man I need to see that)
 

[Jeff]

I still would grade it as a decent flick, overall, but I would rank Shang-Chi in the same realm of the lower tier Marvel flicks for me like Ant-Man, Black Widow, Black Panther and Thor: Dark World. They all have issues in some way or another that keep it away from being top class stuff.

Whoa - I'm surprised you put Ant-Man and Black Panther in the lower tier.  I thought those were great movies.  I might agree with a mid-tier label but lower?  If I read you correctly your saying these are the bottom 4 Marvel movies?  Or are you saying these are all just below the mid-point?

It's fine, it's okay, but it is no James Gunn Suicide Squad, which actually is not that fair as that might be the best movie I have seen so far this year, I think (Although I have yet to see The Green Knight. Man I need to see that)

You need to see Free Guy.  That is my favorite movie from this year.  Of course, it has the exact same garage scene that you loved so much in Shang-Chi......

[Jimmy T]

Perry...do you remember that the Mandarin character played by Ben Kingsley was a joke?

Or are you referring somehow to Shang's father?

[Perry]

 

No, no. I am referring to the great (in his own mind) Iron Man villain The Mandarin.

He was nothing but a power hungry mad-man and while I usually enjoy the movies that attempt to make villains more relatable or more human or more than just a power hungry megalomaniac (if the comics fail to do so originally), I didn't like the take on making the Mandarin, a highly intelligent person, fall prey to the ... spoiler free here ...  fall for what he fell for, grief ridden or no. It was something I hated.

I already hated ... oh screw it, lets bring in the spoiler banner 

I really hated

the "I will change my ways for the love of this woman" trope which should have been a no go where the Mandarin is concerned in the first place, but add in that it was grief that stole his intellect, and that intellect basically being the ability to reason that his dead wife, whom he knows is dead, would not be behind any door much less a door where the peaceful people of his wife's tribe are keeping her from him, and it just made me madder.

I mean first you take a character away from being his true power hungry self for some Disney cartoon idea of "love changes the most vile of men" (for if love really changed him he wouldn't have treated his son like he did nor blamed him for her death ... so much for love changing him), and then you strip him of his power even further by making him believe the 'she is being held' farce ... without a proper reason other than this shadow god wants him to believe it?

Also still really mad that a warlord who has been around for thousands of years on this plane of existence, who is hell bent on taking said wife back. wouldn't come to the fight with actual guns and enough ammo firepower to get the job done, instead of some single shot power-bows (?) and having his army resort to karate

 

[Jimmy T]

Interesting Perry. I'll be honest, none of those angles ever popped into my head.

Now true, you bring it up, that the 'true love makes me change my ways' is greatly over-used; but all too true! It's the beginning basis for John Wick! LOL Also, all men change in married life. 

But to have a thousands year old man and warlord be like 'I like watching Little Mermaid on family night with the kids!' now, you know what, yeah I can see that. And I'll admit too, that this was the weakest link of the movie. They needed to have mom die...but also apparently die by violence...which couldn't happen if Father was around...but yes, it was the weakest link.

As far as the Mandarin angle of his reign....that is a touchy subject. Mandarin (comics) is an old world, Chinese dynastic centrist, who really is made of a lot of caricatures, even if he isn't Fu Manchu. Let's face, he is Fu Manchu, Marvel style.

But I still really like the movie. I would NOT put it down by Black Widow, as I will watch Shang Chi again.

[Perry]

But I still really like the movie. I would NOT put it down by Black Widow, as I will watch Shang Chi again.

I get ya  But I honestly will never watch either again, unless I walked into a room and they were on.
 

Okay, not entirely true, I watched Black Widow twice so the wife could see it the next day and if she were ever inclined to watch Shang-Chi I would watch it with her, but both movies are fine being one and done for me. They're fine. They are okay. Just.

To me they're like Slott's Fantastic Four run. Yeah, I got pulled in and spent some time and money on them, and I at least got to see Sue and the guys. However, all-in-all, I wasn't impacted by the stories in the slightest and I will never read those issues again
 

[Jimmy T]

Ouch! Words like daggers there with that comparison!

[Perry]

Ouch! Words like daggers there with that comparison!

 
Yeah, I probably went a little harsh with that one

[Gay Titan]

Watched this again the other night with my partner's family and really enjoyed it.