Having seen it a second time now, I still feel about the same as when I initially posted after seeing it in theaters:
Was loving the movie up to about the mid-point. When they were locked away and heard strange sounds coming from somewhere, I guessed that it was Trevor and whispered that to my daughter. I was giddy when it turned out to be him. But almost immediately right after that, everything seemed so forced. It was visually stunning, and incredibly well-choreographed. But the writing and acting seemed very forced and contrived from that point forward.
Still, a good movie. If it were as consistently good all the way through as the first half, it would definitely be up near the top, probably just behind the Avengers films and Homecoming. As it is, it is somewhere nearer to the bottom with Black Panther. I don't expect Marvel to hit a home run every time. A few walks and infield singles are just fine in the grand scheme of things. Film-wise, phase 4 is pretty pedestrian so far, so I'm glad I'm not expecting huge things. It's Marvel. It's fun. And getting so much right about Chinese culture is a nice bonus.
Still kinda felt the same about how the film was divided too. With the Trevor reveal, I was like "Yay, Trevor! Love me some Trevor!" But then every scene he was in just felt like it went nowhere.
Overall, I just found it hard to be invested in the characters and the conflict. But then again, that is often a "problem" with the standalone solo superhero movies, IMO. Iron Man was a really good movie. But it wasn't great. What made the character and his conflicts great was that they built far beyond what we saw in the first film. And to different degrees, I think that's true of most of the films. So, I'm not necessarily knocking this film for it. I just don't
overly care for Shang Chi or Katy...
yet. But I look forward to seeing how they fit into the bigger picture as time goes on.
I will say this though as a criticism, and I have no idea whether this is a popular or unpopular opinion, but here goes: I continue to be frustrated by Akwafina's casting. Having seen her in a few different things now, I think she is developing into a pretty good actress. She can be perfectly believable being quirky, sincere, and a whole range of other things. That said, it seems like she also has a really difficult time shedding her past (or those that write for her do). She consistently (not just in this movie) has lines of dialog where it feels like her only job is to drop gratuitous, crass profanity that sounds like a 12 year old that just discovered swear words. It's both offputting and unnecessary. And the other issue I have in this film in particular is that I feel like they tried to do a bit too much with her, without her character having earned it. And it is, again, unnecessary. She is GREAT as a sidekick. I feel like she significantly elevates the movie
as a sidekick. She doesn't
need to be more than that, and I feel like the movie actually suffers a bit from trying to make her more than that. It's cool that Marvel has been leaning into presenting women as strong and independent. It often works great (e.g. virtually every female character in Black Panther), even if it may sometimes feel a bit too on the nose. But there's no need to try to do that with
every major female character in
every film. And this was a case where, IMO, it didn't work.
Topic: Shang Chi (Disney/MCU) Spoiler thread (Read 7233 times)
