Shang Chi I feel was less than the sum of its parts lots of good individual pieces, but the movie drags towards the end and has quite a bit of bloat.
Shang Chi I feel was less than the sum of its parts lots of good individual pieces, but the movie drags towards the end and has quite a bit of bloat.
Very much enjoyed Shang-chi! It does drag a little in the second act where there's little action, but the action scenes are great, especially the end fight. Also more films need more Wong!
Has anyone experienced the MX4D motion theaters? My friend wants to see Shang-Chi with this and I am skeptical lol... I'm more of a 2D, simple experience goer when I go to the theater.
about that last title card: uh, there are Spoiler: two sets now soooooo...Spoiler: which one returns?
gotta say I don't know how I wasn't spoiled on the appearance of Morris and his friend. I guess not watching any of the thousand or so featurettes on youtube helped.
a couple unearned moments in the film, that there were a few story beats that were way too Marvel. The only one that was really egregious was the:
Good guy: "we need to team up before bad thing happens"
*cue bad guys giving half a speech and bad thing happens, interrupting them*
Bad guy: "we need to team up"
The first credits scene must be setting up something cosmic, right? the only reason those two Avengers were there? and wow at a Spoiler: lack of the big guy. interesting, plus the aging up? makes you wonder when that is.
Had a really good time. It definitely is on the level of Antman and lower tier Marvel films imo (Even though I adore Antman), but the choreography here I could watch all day. The movie opens up sooo strong, but the middle is plagued with pacing issues and a lot of exposition. The end was nice and had me entertained the entire time, but I do agree that some stuff felt shoehorned in. Wish we got more of Shang beating up some baddies.
Spoiler: -The subtitles in the beginning I enjoyed a lot. It made the movie feel genuine to the parts it was representing here
-I like to think the scaffolding scene was a nod to Rush Hour
-Awkwafina didn't annoy me as much as I thought she would; she did a fine job. (Her arc was so predictable though)
- Looked like a Bruce Lee nod when Shang does the flying kick on the bus
-Really enjoyed Tony Leung here, fantastic actor
- The fact that fucking Trevor shows up had me cracking up.
Last edited by Self.Destructive.Pattern; 09-05-2021 at 12:32 AM.
Yea I couldn't bring myself to do it once I watched some videos on what it did. I don't want water and bubbles in my face when I'm trying to watch the damn movie.
I forgot to mention, I watched this in 3D by accident. I didn't realize the Xplus theater was 3D, but I kept an open mind once the girl handed me the glasses. But holy shit... They really got the 3D down huh? I was thoroughly impressed by how to looked. Mind you, I haven't seen a 3D movie since BEOWULF so this was a glaring difference. All in all, Shang-Chi looked incredible.
A LOT of work has been done with 3D, also helps most big budget films are filmed with 3D in mind rather then an after thought, so it can look look pretty incredible now.
oh those zombies....
wow, a zombie story that I actually liked. And for all of Spidey's horror-movie-trope explaining he sure left the "make sure they're dead" one out.
Kind of dark though there with the touch of hope just to find out oh no that's not hope at all. whew.
Also they did touch on the part of zombie stories that I hate the most: there is no coming back from rotting flesh so what kind of cure would they even be talking about at that point?
"Rogers, the Musical" *snickers*
I so can't wait for this. Barton is my favorite Avengers because he is us, in a way. He's a highly trained man with an uncanny hability but he has no super power, he's not super rich or super intelligent, he's an ordinary man with a wife and kids with a good heart and who's doing his best. And he's been through a lot.
Also: PIZZA DOG!
From the guy bringing the public a reboot of a movie based on a book.
Brian Altano or Denis Villeneuve ? Christ. Artists,REAL artists aren't even allowed to have an opinion on conveyor belt product that is suffocating the entire industry they personally work at! MCU fanboys can't handle the slightest acknowledgement on what they consume,they tied their self worth to corporate brand identity. "Watching movies outside of their comfort zone" is not an activity someone does when they can't think critically about media they consume. They're not an audience of anything else,they're a cult.
Last edited by Something Underneath; 09-16-2021 at 02:57 PM.
Brian.
Mostly I'm just annoyed that people have to ask directors about this. it makes for juicy headlines and hate-clicks but otherwise it's a lazy interview question.
You want hate-clicks, as them about what working with certain people is actually like. Kevin Smith and Bruce Willis comes to mind in that regard as you don't usually see people burn bridges that big to the ground.
Shang Chi....6/10.
Overall I was entertained and I actually want to see it again ASAP so I can take it all in a little more clearly. But this thing def has it's problems. Overall, I felt like they went for the grand slam when all they needed here was a double or triple. They crammed SO MUCH into this. Were they really afraid of not getting a sequel? Cuz I feel like we could have focused on the father/son & daughter conflict here, and maybe build towards the supernatural village & the creatures. Like maybe have him go toe to toe with dad in this one somewhere else and then this movie ends with Shang Chi & his sister arriving in the village for the first time? By having so much martial arts scenes & then the relatively absurd final big battle with all the (terrible looking CGI orgasm) supernatural creatures, it felt all over the place.
Another criticism I have was how pandering the restaurant & family around the kitchen table scenes felt. I'd love to know what an Asian/Asian American thinks, b/c to me it just screamed LOOK WE ARE TREATING THE CHINESE CULTURE WITH DEFERENCE AND LOOK AT ALL THE REFERENCES WE ARE MAKING. A little subtley there might have helped.
oh GOD and then exposition dumps! Jesus. The one that their dad did was just absurd. And that was after Shang Chi's airplane exposition dump. Then we got the aunt's exposition dump a little bit later (her's was the most tolerable of the 3)!
But overall, still an above average MCU film. Bus scene was bananas. Need to see that again. Loved the commentary from the chubby beardo dude from "You" streaming it all for his followers.
I was dealing with some loudmouths next to us in the theater during the fight club shit (as I outlined in the Matrix thread). Was there any part. reason I should be aware of that Wong was fighting the Abomination? Did I miss it? What did they say to each other?
Awkwafina was annoying at times, and funny/fine at others. I love how she didn't bother at all to lose her NY accent despite her character being a Cali girl.
Kids need to be taught media literacy instead of treating a corporate brand like their religion. Or maybe their manchildren parents indoctrinated them in the first place...
https://twitter.com/Stuntman_MIK3/st...82574583812099
That ending of What If was a trip. Side note: I read somewhere that it looks like The Watcher is becoming more corporeal in each subsequent episode, possibly leading to the episode where he brings together the guardians of the multiverse.
OTOH:
Marvel Suing to Keep Rights to ‘Avengers’ Characters From Copyright Termination
Wow who could have seen Disney suing for copyright.
Too bad this a fan made trailer, but if they would have released something like this fom the beginning I'd be more than pumped:
I still can't wait to see that movie! I just love Venom too much to let the dubious humor take away from it... and maybe it turns out cool, let's see.
Just got out of Venom... Not nearly as enjoyable as the first, about the same length, but somehow felt shorter. CGI looked unfinished and worse, with the entire film feeling like a jumbled mess. At least the first at some sort of order when it came to editing and pace. Still had fun, really wouldn't watch it again, but the first I usually watch whenever it is on.
Only read if you have no plans on seeing this and you want to know the end scene.
Spoiler: They did it though... The end scene is them merging this universe with the MCU, showing JJ at the end of Far From Home on TV, with Venom licking the television while Peter is on the screen!
Venom 2 was an absolute mess that lacked the charm of the first one. Woody Harrelson just wrong in this role, and the character is very terribly written. That girl Eddie Brock is into is just a horrible bully, too, what's up with that? The pacing is wrong and the direction just doesn't work
Just caught up on What If...
daaaaaaammmnnnn...