Director:
Destin Daniel Cretton
Year: 2021
Rating: 8.5
This is a pretty lame review. I admit it upfront. There are already so many out there and I was very late to the party. And I almost always avoid reviews on new films because there are so many. But on Letterbox I came across so many 6 out of 10 stars that just puzzled me. I give six for so-so films - a nice try - reasonably competent - I had no trouble finishing it but in a month I will remember little of it. Maybe people are just jaded with Marvel. Maybe it is no longer cool praising Marvel films. I don't like a bunch of them in truth. But I thought this was terrifically fun. So I wanted to vent my enthusiasm.
Well, they are turning off the water during the day in my apartment so that got me out and about and to kill time I will be going to see some movies this week. This one was almost gone from the theaters - one show a day - and gone this weekend. So it was first up. I feel so glad they forced me out. I had really been avoiding this film because I thought for sure it would be a big disappointment - and perhaps a little too Orientalized. Nope. This was great. I have zero criticisms of the film. Loved parts of it. Liked the rest. The bus action scene - a year in planning - and the scaffolding scene were just amazing. Good humor when it was called for from Awkwafina. Tony, Michelle and Yuen Wah. I was a like a pig in shit.
I had never heard of Shang-chi before - I was past comic books when he made the scene - so I looked him up. The son of Fu Manchu! He killed Doctor Petrie, the old doddering companion of Nayland Smith! Teamed up with Nayland to fight Fu Manchu! What the hell. None of that is in this film of course because Marvel lost the copyrights to Fu Manchu. But Wenwu is a pretty good substitute for him. I looked up the actors who played Shang-chi (Simu Liu), the sister (Meng'er Zhang) and the mother (Fala Chen) expecting to read about their martial arts experience. None. None! How do they do that? Could they make me look that good? If I lost a little weight? And could bend over without hurting my back?
This one pretty much jumps to the Top of the Pops for me regarding Marvel movies. I mean it is no Red Sonja but within the Marvel Universe. Spider-Man is cute, The Avenger films are tedious, Ant Man - cute again, Thor is a snore, Venom is just bad, Doc Strange - all he does is wave his arms around, Black Widow was really enjoyable but I have to ask myself how much of that is my fanboy love of Scarlett Johanssen, Captain Marvel is too powerful to be interesting, The Incredible Hulk has always been boring going back to the TV show. So that leaves Shang-chi fighting it out for top honors with Iron Man 1, Guardians of the Galaxy 1, Black Panther and Captain America 1. I will have to watch it again before the big decision that I know the world is waiting on. It is too bad though that he ends up with the Ten Rings at the end. The best parts were the martial arts scenes but now that he has the Ten Rings, the next one might turn into nothing but endless special effects which this one ended with. I didn't mind it here too much - Black Panther had that terrible fx overload at the end as well - because they are dragons fighting and hard to do without special effects.
Year: 2021
Rating: 8.5
This is a pretty lame review. I admit it upfront. There are already so many out there and I was very late to the party. And I almost always avoid reviews on new films because there are so many. But on Letterbox I came across so many 6 out of 10 stars that just puzzled me. I give six for so-so films - a nice try - reasonably competent - I had no trouble finishing it but in a month I will remember little of it. Maybe people are just jaded with Marvel. Maybe it is no longer cool praising Marvel films. I don't like a bunch of them in truth. But I thought this was terrifically fun. So I wanted to vent my enthusiasm.
Well, they are turning off the water during the day in my apartment so that got me out and about and to kill time I will be going to see some movies this week. This one was almost gone from the theaters - one show a day - and gone this weekend. So it was first up. I feel so glad they forced me out. I had really been avoiding this film because I thought for sure it would be a big disappointment - and perhaps a little too Orientalized. Nope. This was great. I have zero criticisms of the film. Loved parts of it. Liked the rest. The bus action scene - a year in planning - and the scaffolding scene were just amazing. Good humor when it was called for from Awkwafina. Tony, Michelle and Yuen Wah. I was a like a pig in shit.
I had never heard of Shang-chi before - I was past comic books when he made the scene - so I looked him up. The son of Fu Manchu! He killed Doctor Petrie, the old doddering companion of Nayland Smith! Teamed up with Nayland to fight Fu Manchu! What the hell. None of that is in this film of course because Marvel lost the copyrights to Fu Manchu. But Wenwu is a pretty good substitute for him. I looked up the actors who played Shang-chi (Simu Liu), the sister (Meng'er Zhang) and the mother (Fala Chen) expecting to read about their martial arts experience. None. None! How do they do that? Could they make me look that good? If I lost a little weight? And could bend over without hurting my back?
This one pretty much jumps to the Top of the Pops for me regarding Marvel movies. I mean it is no Red Sonja but within the Marvel Universe. Spider-Man is cute, The Avenger films are tedious, Ant Man - cute again, Thor is a snore, Venom is just bad, Doc Strange - all he does is wave his arms around, Black Widow was really enjoyable but I have to ask myself how much of that is my fanboy love of Scarlett Johanssen, Captain Marvel is too powerful to be interesting, The Incredible Hulk has always been boring going back to the TV show. So that leaves Shang-chi fighting it out for top honors with Iron Man 1, Guardians of the Galaxy 1, Black Panther and Captain America 1. I will have to watch it again before the big decision that I know the world is waiting on. It is too bad though that he ends up with the Ten Rings at the end. The best parts were the martial arts scenes but now that he has the Ten Rings, the next one might turn into nothing but endless special effects which this one ended with. I didn't mind it here too much - Black Panther had that terrible fx overload at the end as well - because they are dragons fighting and hard to do without special effects.