Josh-da-man

The Critical Drinker
Geeks + Gamers
Nerdrotic
Clownfish TV
WorldClassBullshitters

That graphic is a Doom Cock away from a Royal Flush of assholes.

DJariya

I watched an interview with Liu on a San Francisco news station. He said that none of the movie was filmed in SF. It was all filmed in Australia. They planned to shoot for one week in SF, but those plans got nixed because of COVID.

movieguru

Marvel movies are starting to get a bit repetitive at this point. Also, if there's one thing we don't need to see in any more super hero films or sci-fi movies/ tv is giant snake like creatures or tentacles coming through some mystical portal or wormhole. How many times have we seen something like this in the past five years? Enough already!!

DWilson

To be fair, some of those you.tubers were just repeating what better-regarded sources were reporting. They were just savoringit a bit too much. At best Shang-Chi was expected to do well for Labor Day, since that's traditionally when studios dump movies they don't even submit for review. Disney itself was accused of down-playing the movie. No one expected it to do the business it did. The studios needed a hit here to save the day, and they got one.

Spiderbite

Well...Black Widow had a decent trailer but the movie was shit.
Suicide Squad had a great trailer but the movie was mediocre.

This movie's trailer was quite bland but the movie turned out to be very enjoyable. I felt it hit all the spots that the first two mentioned above did not. The locations were attractive. The fight scenes were interesting and fun. The villain was engaging (the dad...not the kaiju Cthulu dragon thing). The comedic relief was actually funny most of the time and not overly annoying or coming across as trying to hard (the best friend, the dude on the bus and the host at the fight club). The family emotions/engagements felt real and not contrived. The CG was mostly well done. Some good cameos (sure wish they would throw a CG Stan in these...I miss seeing him).

I thought the final fight scene just had too much going on and wasn't directed very well. Just CG and dragons all over the place and sometimes not knowing what part belonged to who. The rings were cool but not used in a very interesting way. The humor from Mandarin came across as too kooky a lot of the time but I guess that was what they were going for. The score was passable but still no catchy themes (I guess having a theme like Superman was a once in a million happening).

So I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It does have some of that Marvel formula but as long as it hit high points on all that was mentioned above, I will still enjoy it.

So far all The Eternals trailers have been pretty bland. So here's hoping for another good super-hero movie if the trailers above are any track record.

Where are Shang-Chi's nunchuckas? That was my favorite part of the comics (though I have to admit I didn't read much of his comics as a kid).

DJariya

Shang-Chi did really well week 2

Twitter

I've seen it twice and I'm good until it hits Disney + and 4K disc.

windom

Saw it yesterday. It was a bit of a slog. Got very boring in the middle section. It should have been at least half an hour shorter. The best character was the father, but he never was really a full blown villain. He would have been a better lead than the guy that played Shang Chi who was rather bland. Even the bottled water girl was a better character than he was. The sister was boring as well. This was definitely a low to mid level Marvel movie for me. At least it was a bit better than Black Widow.

As far as superhero movies this year that end with a Kaiju needing to be destroyed go, The Suicide Squad was much better.

DJariya

Wenwu (Tony Leung) was full blown villain and murderer from the very beginning. He only took a break from it after he met and married Li and had his kids. But he was never a good man. He later trained his kids to be assassins. And Leung is almost 60 he’s been in the film business decades. Simu Liu is a young actor from Canada. You can’t compare the two.

As for the length, I know tastes are subjective, but if you cut 30 minutes, this would be a 100 minute movie. It would be the shortest MCU movie. You have to keep in mind Shang Chi is a mostly unknown character and I think this needed most of the run time to establish him.

Ash Ketchum

It was great seeing Tony Leung in his first Hollywood role. His English is flawless so why didn't they recruit him sooner? Truth to tell, I would rather have seen him in some of Jet Li's Hollywood roles. Imagine him in LETHAL WEAPON IV! Of course, he would have blown Gibson and Glover off the screen, so that would never have happened. I'm wondering if someone hasn't tried to cast him and the role just was wasn't good enough for him. This role in SHANG-CHI at least was pretty substantial and he gets to speak both Mandarin and English extensively. I wonder if this is the Hollywood film with the most subtitles since INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.

It was also great seeing Leung and Michelle Yeoh reunited for the first time since the wire-fu classic BUTTERFLY AND SWORD (1993), which co-starred Donnie Yen, and seeing Yeoh and kung fu great Yuen Wah reunited for the first time since POLICE STORY III: SUPERCOP. It was old home week for HK cinema fans.

I have no complaints about the young actors. I was really impressed with Meng'er Zhang as Shang-Chi's sister. This is her only acting role so far, according to IMDB. This is the second film I've seen with Awkwafina (after CRAZY RICH ASIANS) and I liked her a great deal. Simu Liu was new to me, but he did a fine job playing the central role in a Hollywood blockbuster and had a lot to carry. It was nice seeing a predominantly Asian cast in a big-budget Hollywood film again after three years. I'd like to see more.

Tsai Chin, who played Awkwafina's grandmother, was the Chinese girl in Hong Kong who sets up James Bond for assassination in the pre-credits sequence of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967). She also played Fu Manchu's daughter in some of the British Christopher Lee Fu Manchu films.

devilshalo

As much as I was thrilled to see the praise for Tony Leung from the young cast, I was disappointed not to see any interviews asking about Aunty Lindo. She's a legend and has history with Disney (Touchstone) in an all Asian cast with Joy Luck Club.

story

I caught this on Friday afternoon and enjoyed it. I wasn't all that familiar with the character and I thought they handled the mashup of Marvel universe, Chinese legend/culture, and its own unique twist altogether pretty well. I admit, at around the 3/4 mark I got a little antsy and sleepy, though I was fighting some heartburn from lunch and wanted a nap (which I took right after I got home!). Awkwafina made me laugh quite a bit, and in fact all of the humor worked for me in this. Fun to see Wong, he's a good character.

IBJoel

The MCU needs more films like this, Winter Soldier, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange. Dip into different influences, cultures, and genres and styles.

The stingers also continue to taunt me by not delivering the in-universe documentary or news show I want to know what the Hell is going on in the background and how this world functions.

Inhumans99

My brother and I helped contribute to the 2nd weekend Box Office Gross. Even pre-pandemic it had been a while since I had seen a film in theaters, so this was the first in-theater film I watched in probably close to 2 years! It helped that my brother also wanted to see the film with me and even though this is a 2 hour 20m film, which is indeed a pretty long-ass film, I felt the time went by pretty fast. I go back to that saying everyone loves to bring up from Roger Ebert when it comes to film lengths, no good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.

I admit that other than Hard Boiled and a small handful of other HK cinema films, I had not seen Tony Leung in a film in quite some time, but it was indeed neat that he was the villain (although not simply a mustache twirling villain, which was much appreciated). I also of course loved that Michelle Yeoh was in the back half of the film. They did a great job casting this film. The word of mouth is what kept this film's box-office gross from cratering in the 2nd weekend, and I bet it will continue to have some nice legs in the weeks to come.

I continue to be very interested in Eternals, as of course that was one of the trailers before the film. Between this film, Black Widow (which I have not seen but suspect I will enjoy just fine when it hits D+ soon), the upcoming Spider-Man film, Eternals, and others coming down the pike, I feel that the next phase of the MCU will be just as enjoyable as the first (couple of phases, are we moving onto to Phase 2 or 3 already?).

dex14

This is Phase 4.

story

Although, 20-30 years from now, when we're in the second or third reboot era, perhaps phases 1-5 will be called phase 1 so we're not at phase 13. Everyone knows Marvel likes to go back to #1 when the issues numbers get too high...

Inhumans99

Lol Story! Also, dex14...shows how much attention I have been paying to what films make up which "phases" of the MCU.

Obi-Wanma

Basically each phase ends with an Avengers movie or the film right after it, not counting Infinity War, as that was the first of a 2 parter.

rexinnih

Saw this on Friday with my two daughters (12 & 10) in 3D and all gave a thumbs up. The fight on the bamboo scaffolding had my Acrophobia running a bit.

Mike86

Saw it tonight. I thought it was alright overall. I liked the characters for the most part. I felt the film’s length at a certain point though.

I feel like the first half or so is way better than the last half. The first part is cool with all the cool martial arts stuff.

After they get to Wenwu’s compound to me the film seemed to just drag on and on. I was ready for it to be done numerous times.

Also I think there could have just been a showdown between Shang-Chi and Wenwu instead of the big spectacle with the creatures, but of course these films feel the need to do something epic instead of going for something smaller scale.

I didn’t dislike it, but overall kinda mixed on it. Not really sure how much I’d want to rewatch it.

asianxcore

Saw this a few weeks back with a friend.

I really enjoyed it but would agree that the first half of the film was stronger than the second half.

Loved every scene that Tony Leung was in and actually appreciated Awkafina's humor.

Abob Teff

Went and saw Shang Chi on and XD screen this past Thursday ... and received a private showing (along with a bunch of posters they still had leftover). You all really should reconsider at least looking into going back to the theater. Just check out the tickets sold online (or in app) before you go. Went to see Candyman last weekend and was one of 5 people in the theater.

I am not being hyperbolic, this is in the top tier of my Marvel list. I loved the movie! Is it perfect? No, but it is damned fun, extremely beautiful, and I had a blast. I thought Black Widow was bland but OK, and I was concerned Marvel had run its course. Nope! This is an energizingly entertaining movie and I'll be buying the Blu-Ray as soon as it is available.

james2025a

I am a Marvel fan, but i see myself in the minority as i found this movie middle to lower tier. I found it to be one of the most predictable Marvel movies with some massive plot holes. The acting (other than Tony Leung who is always great) was horrible to average. Awkwafina should never be put in front of a camera and it made me laugh that all the other Marvel herord have hot other halves and yet Shang Chi is put with this annoying, ugly little shit.

I found the first fight good, and a few decent moves in other fights, but nowhere near where it should have been for fight scenes. Once again a superhero movie were a portal with baddies coming out and a big fight.

The screening i saw this is was about half full, and i got the same feeling i had with the first Suicide Squad. A lot of goodwill given for the initial experience (and especially now as we are still neck deep in pandemic), but i am sure on repeated views many will see that its not as good as they originally thought. Same thing happened with Black Panther, its a fine movie, but not the masterpiece many seem to think it is.

Oh, and this is the first Marvel movie where i couldnt be bother staying until the second after credit scene.

GoldenJCJ

This is available on Disney+ today.

They have the IMAX EXPERIENCE version which appeared to be the IMAX ratio? I was expecting the movie to switch back and forth between different aspect ratios but it never did.

One thing I can say about Phase 4 is that it seems to trying to be its own thing. So far, this and Black Widow didn’t have the same cookie cutter feel as a lot of the other recent MCU movies. I haven’t seen it yet but Eternals looks to have a pretty different look as well.

Overall I enjoyed this a lot. Some shaky CGI aside, this was very engaging. I look forward to seeing more with these characters going forward.

TomOpus

Was there an IMAX version of the entire movie available instead of just select scenes?

GoldenJCJ

I didn’t see it in the theater so I’m not sure. Looks like Disney+ has two versions. The theatrical 2.39:1 aspect ratio and the IMAX version which is 1.90:1. I watched the IMAX version last night. It looked pretty great but it had the 1.90:1 ratio throughout the entire movie. No shifting AR.

Most of the article about Shang Chi in IMAX are referring to the Disney+ version but I did find this from an article in Forbes:

Quote:

Shang-Chi is particularly effective in IMAX because the movie was filmed on Arri Alexa LF IMAX film cameras with Panavision Primo and Sphero 65 Lenses, so the entire movie is designed to fill the 1.9:1 aspect ratio of an IMAX screen at full quality.