Just came out of the cinema tonight seeing this and I have to say it is probably my favourite MCU origin movie now! Unlike other MCU movies this one had so much heart and emotion. At first I thought it’d be cliched kung fu stuff but wow was I wrong!
Who else has seen it and what did you think? I definitely feel like this movie has breathed new life into the MCU!
It was a cheesy movie, focusing on East-Asian mythology. With some kung-fu thrown in there.
Really wasn't an MCU movie, more like little bits thrown in there randomly.
Had the same feeling about Black Panther, just thematically different to the MCU flavour. And that is a movie that I found to be quiet boring. This, Shang-chi, I actually liked it…. but again not as an MCU film. Contrast these with Iron Man 1, Captain America 3, Spiderman Homecoming, for a more MCU-style movie.
Agreed, and
I couldn't agree more. You hit it spot on.
apparently can beat anything whenever it is convenient, but is also not at all powerful when it suits.
This sort of thing really annoys me.
Like the hero showing how good a shot they are, but when it matters, they miss by a mile, or the machine gun operator not being able to hit the side of a barn.
yep thought it was really pedestrian to. whole plot was pretty basic.
ppl must have really been dumb down during lock downs lol
The whole time I was wondering why Awkwafina character come along? Like in the post credit, if I was Wong, I would have said "Sorry, hero only". She serve no purpose,
No no did you miss the memo? She's Asian Hawkeye now.
Also Ben Kingsley's character whatever his name was… it served absolutely no purpose other than a awkward translator for the thing with wings and just kinda vanished later.
Totally agree, but would also say it is still a great movie to watch at the cinema. Nothing wrong with a bit of pulp cinema.
I agree completely with this sentiment. I felt I cringed a lot throughout this whole movie. I couldn't get past how awful the Katy character was. Rally car driver pro ? Becomes a pro archer in a day ? The whole thing just seemed full of tropes and I couldn't identify with any of it.
What bothers me is that if the lead character is of X ethnicity, they must be live in community X surrounded by everyone being of X ethnicity. The lead character seemed kind of secondary to the female characters.
Overall it was ok, but seems to be grossly overrated (like black panther in which the ratings seem to be boosted just because of the ethnicity of the lead as opposed to the strength of the story.
As for the bus scene, it made no sense at all. If you were the bad guys, would you not find a more discrete place to approach and attack. Would you not be better prepared to know who you are up against ? Sure it was a fun fight scene, but when you take a step back, the whole premise is just weak.
That being said, it's great that it was filmed in Australia.
I couldn't get past how awful the Katy character was. Rally car driver pro ? Becomes a pro archer in a day ?
Agree, found it even harder to believe that 1 small arrow to the neck distracted/affected the dragon soul sucker for enough time for Shang-Chi to do his thing.
Just some major plot holes in the movie.
lol especially when the cutaway shot showed them way way way out of the height range of a handbow, or any bow.
Do you think it was a release by Marvel with the purpose of dispersing their whitewashing image. Yet it seems like Hollywood still have to stereo type the theme or character background to have an Asian character.
The issue i have and i am a dark skinned migrant, Is i am not sure why Hollywood gets blasted for having a lot of "white" movies, when there are so many other very large media / movie industries in the world (in other countries) and i see no-one going after them. From Bollywood, to pretty much a lot of the Asian countries have massive TV and movie industries where they all will pretty much have a certain race and look as the main characters for the most part….
Fact of the matter is, Hollywood is by far more progressive and have far more movies and roles for different races compared to the other movie industries around the world.
Yeah but it’s Hollywood. Most of which I presume is run by white men. So you can’t have white men making movies about white people cast primarily with white people.
Other skin colours and ethnicities it’s ok though.
Kinda like the female ghost busters and the rumoured black and or female bond. Other way around and there would be a effing riot.
Having said that. I enjoyed the movie. Not my favourite MCU movie, but I didn’t think it was terrible.
@digitalbath: That female Ghost busters was a shocking movie. And the way they made the male character in that. If that had been done the other way around there definitely would have been an uproar
the difference is that people are immigrating in droves from those countries to 'western' countries, and they aren't the other way around. So if you walk down the street in a western country, it's very multicultural, however if you walk down the street in India/China, it's not, so the population is representative of what's in the show
@Jackson: Well that would be because the western countries are more welcoming and have a better standard of living in general. But you are only comparing if there are westerners in these other countries. And there are some. But more importantly there are many other races in these other countries who don't get treated fairly and cop alot of racism from these countries. So I find it a bit rich when these same countries then come to western countries and complain about racism.
If you genuinely care about racism then you would want to stop it whether it affects you or if it's your own race that is the perpetrator and it is affecting another race. Having lived in quite a few countries before finally migrating to Australia, Australia was by far the least racist out of all the countries I lived in.
Talking about movies and tv shows, western movies and tv shows have far far better representation multiple races and different skin colours as opposed to any other movie industries. Almost all movies and tv shows have some characters at the very least.
What I am not a fan of is people only complaining when it's to benefit them but they stay silent if it doesn't benefit them or if it infact does the opposite. That is not stopping racism and that doesn't mean the person cares about racism, it just means that person is selfish and wants to make it easier for him to get job.
The sister stands around watching as her brother trains daily by fighting people who are physically stronger than him such that he has to learn and adapt.
She then becomes some kind of master by effectively shadow fighting by her self such that she can start an underground fighting empire where she knocks out the main character when he wasn't even trying to fight her. (which is intended to be viewed as funny). Try to play that out with the genders reversed and there would be all hell to pay.
Hollywood pushing aside whitewashing to promote the girl power agenda instead. The next movie will probably be the ring gap and fight for equality of ringcome.
Its due to the whole woke / uproar about hollywood and not enough movies / roles for …. insert whatever you want. Plus with Disney and their agendas.
Whats good about it. Probably 7/10 the most.
At least the camera didn't have extreme movements I guess. I wish they kept the camera focused and avoid having it held by camera crew with Parkinson's.
you mean Michael Bay movies?
The fight scenes were absolutely spectacular, especially on the bus,
Not necessarily disagreeing with you but have you seen old kung-fu movies? Way better fight scenes.
Doesn't even shape up to Marvel's own stuff, Daredevil had significantly better scenes than this
Nothing quiet tops those classic Jacky Chan movies for me. Those moves, choreography, and humour are just *chef's kiss *
I grew up watching Jet Li in Once Upon A Time In China. It had pretty creative and memorable fight scenes like the one on the ladders and the cloth pole. All cheesy by today's standards but then again, every kung fu flick is cheesy. IP man is what comes to mind for more modern movies with good choreography.
Point by point…
- As is stated above the fight scenes were often too fast and captured on a flyline camera, meaning you missed alot that was going on. IMO one of the best fight scenes was the one at Ta Lo with Wenwu and Ying Li because it was at a pace and filmed in a way you could appreciate.
- What about it oozed family emotion, the mother dying and dad is a psycho bad guy is fairly over done, ala GotG.
- Forgetting Wong? How about Drax? Bautista is half Filipino? Also the only Asian 'super' in the film was a bad guy, if we don't include the residents of Ta Lo and their powers… But only Ying Li and her sister seemed to possess those powers, also which was never explained
- I don't think I laughed out loud at anything and the styling was a bit over the top to keep to the cultural theme, imo the best styling of the film was in Macau during fightdrome and the fight with Abomination and Wong, I was sad we didn't see more of that
- In Australia, yay, can't argue with that I guess
- Thought acting was a bit soft, especially from the lead who didn't emote well and looked to just be "standing around waiting for a cue" in a few scenes, I even made this point to my partner whilst watching it.
Additional points
- CGI was awful at points, especially the final battle, which has alot more wrong with it, plot holes and other problems already stated by others above.
- The cultural part seemed forced alot of the time, trying to throw in quirks how Asian parents are always so demanding with expectations and the breakfast scene where none of those characters were explained and seemed to be put it at the last second.
Overall, the storyline felt rushed and full of plot holes (how did they all get the car to Ta Lo in one scene? Is it right next to Dad's evil lair?). A solid 6.5.
watch the bus fight scene in nobody
If you think those fight scenes were spectacular you need to watch more martial arts films….
Wow you paid money now to see it when it's already on disney+? Not to mention its been out for a while!
Location
Melbourne
Ohh
My location isn't accurate, I'm in Sydney actually, but yes was in lockdown when it released in September.
Wow you paid for disney+ when you can pay less for hotstar
its free to watch on disney +
What you mean is that there are no additional fees to watch on Disney+ .
Watching on Disney+ isn't free.
I found it a it a bit weird with how deliberate Marvel movies have been to include black people to see their almost complete absence in this movie (except a few bus passengers). Would kinda work better if they'd just gone all asian. I'm not usually about that stuff, it just felt weird and made it feel a bit agenda driven. Aquaman was the same for me, weirded me as Atlantis was completely devoid of women besides a couple of princesses.
There was someone in Aquaman apart from Jason Momoa? Even his shirt only had a guest appearance.
Disney has become agenda driven for a few years now. First noticed it in 2017 with Cars 3.
Their agenda is to make a lot of money. It seems to be working.
This.
People get worked up about businesses being 'too PC' or whatever. They aren't doing it for the warm and fuzzies. They are doing it because that's what their highly paid execs believe will bring in the most $
@andresampras: It's true, like when they released Star Wars in China and the posters were edited to make John Boyega smaller because he's black.
@andresampras: Average move with a large target audience makes more money than a brilliant movie with a small target audience. It's going to get worse with more analytics from streaming being available, they'll be able to find the exact sweet spot were a movie is good enough to make money.
@Krankite: Another factor is that people are way less picky with what they watch via Netflix, compared to the decision making process before physically going to the cinemas.
A lot more random romcoms / lowest-common-denominator comedies / B-grade movies being consumed, I'd wager.
@andresampras: Friends is the number one show on netflix apparrently, which speaks volumes about the level of what people watch
Disney is only money driven.
Can't sell to China with those alterations you mention (more accurately the CCP will ban entertainment involving dark skin people and powerful women)
Yeah, that's mostly why I noticed it, and once I did the movie felt hypocritical considering how much Marvel/Disney bangs on about diversity.
Your comment shows how much you really know about the mainland Chinese.
To me personally Simu Liu is just average looking. Yes he has a good body but he is not what the mainland Chinese would consider good looking.
In this modern age I would say the Chinese gender equally is up there with the west or very close. Refer to the phase "Women hold up half the sky" and there are more female Chinese billionaires then the rest of the worlds female billionaires combined.
Are you referring to movie "Dune" when talking about ban entertainment involving dark skin people? This has been proven false, even in the west there are posters without the actor in question but somehow it is racist when that same poster is used in China and yes there are posters WITH that same actor in question around in China. In my opinion the person who started that accusation should be sue for defamation to be honest.
Simple google search shows what they are cracking down on:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58394906
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-radio-tv-body-stre…
Now review the movies banned in China and see if there is a consistent pattern:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_censorship_in_China
@JoBevo: It's pretty common, despite what you read on heavily chinese influenced and censored facebook/twitter ;)
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/05/china-covid-19-discrimin…
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/18/covid-blackface-tv-china…
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/25/asia/china-anti-african-a…
https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/racism-is-alive-and-well-in-…
https://abcnews.go.com/International/foreigners-black-people…
https://qz.com/945053/china-has-an-irrational-fear-of-a-blac…
@7ekn00: Congrats you finally found some articles on racism, china, and africans.
So tell me which one of the above articles you just posted says "CCP will ban entertainment involving dark skin people"? None.
You have the whole internet and that is the best you can do?
@Montyjpm: Yeah, you get a police visit and possibly free state accommodation in a re-education camp if you meme it on WeChat ;)
@7ekn00: haha…thanks for the info mate but it was a sarcastic comment to Winnie and the CCP or who the f…ever running Beijing now.
I agree with your thoughts on women. But Disney's editing out Finn from The Force Awakens poster for China was freaking transparent.
@tonka: I'm not across this one but did the article say it was Disney editing Finn out themselves or is the CCP forcing them to do it?
@JoBevo: I'm not aware of any article about the CCP or commentary from Disney. It's just obvious that the black guy has been hidden by making him tiny on the Chinese poster compared to western ones. I just assumed Disney did it for marketing reasons. Personally I don't care, I just don't like the way they have condemned others for being intolerant when they do stuff like this.
@tonka: As an Australian, I agree with you but I just find the amount of hate that CCP gets is completely unwarranted and they get blame for all sorts of crap without question whether it is true or not. This is where I take issues with. I only care about facts and I am old enough to know that the world does not work in binary which unfortuncately alot of people seems to think it does.
@JoBevo: I'm Australian and find it laughable we critique CCP. Governing 1.4 billion people is not the same as governing 25mil. There is no way that could be done without some uncomfortable compromise. And considering how often we screw up or our government points to security as a need to infringe human rights, ie boat people, Afghanistan etc. Everytime we try and boss around a superpower I cringe. Not saying CCP is perfect, but they have a massive responsibility and huge population that will suffer if any social experiments or economic experiments fail.
@tonka: Certainly I’m no fan of the CCP, some if the things they do are appalling, but Australia really needs to look at our own record. Especially seeing the Feds are currently trying to, literally, white wash what will be taught in schools.
It is a valid stance to find both Governments unacceptable.
Frankly I have no idea on how you Govern large populations. The Givernment that are, currently, doing it aren’t doing a great job.
@try2bhelpful: Well By that logic I guess then the Nazi regime had its merits too. They had to control their Jewish population somehow right?
When is it ever OK to actively commit genocide and then state we’re not that bad cos those western countries have also done bad in the past.
The CCP and any wester democratic nation cannot compare. Yes the US/Europe/Au have their flaws and things that need to improve but the CCP has leagues to go to be within the same universe when it comes to equality and inclusivity.
Basically the PRC is a richer North Korea at this point.
@maxyzee: This is exactly what I mean by people who can only think in binary. The reality is that there is no good or bad but the truth is somewhere in the middle. No white or black but shadies of grey. same for every nation, country, or culture. To think otherwise is just pure ignorance.
@JoBevo: Well the CCP is much much darker shade of grey than every western county in the world.
Yes there is bad that western governments do but then there’s really bad, atrocious, despicable acts that the CCP does.
A thief is bad and should be punished accordingly. A mass murderer is much worse and the punishment should be greater right.
Don’t try and convince anyone the CCP (the governing party) has any redeeming qualities. Economics, they rode the tidal wave of western investment and blatantly stole IP and claimed it was their achievement. Society, they have one of the worst dog eat dog mindsets in the world (why do you think child kidnappings are really common in broad daylight, also one of the least giving societies in the world). Equality, it is one of the most chauvinistic societies in the world, I don’t see women in the upper echelons of power or LGBT rights enshrined in law.
Of course they’re going to be called out. What erks me is the west turning a blind eye to an active genocide because of their economic interests.
@maxyzee: I’ve seen with my own eyes as to how mainland Chinese has prospered throughout CCP rule and in turn gaining more and more civil liberties. Oh don’t you worry about LGBT and more females in upper CCP government, they will come sooner then you expect and these problems are not unique to China.
Also don't try whitewash the crimes of western government and somehow claim the moral higher ground so you or the western media gets judge who is more evil.
Let me remind you it was the British which plunder, impoverished, and drugged China via the opium wars, followed by the west that came in to split it up further. It was only when the CCP came into power that the country itself was able to regain it’s footing to become what it is now.
You say the western government are bad but not as bad as the CCP, I would say otherwise. Western nations have a massive history of imperialism and genocide (ask the aboriginals in Aus, and Indians in the US and Canada). Also let’s not forgot about the bombing of the middle east turning their nations into piles of rocks and the millions upon millions of people which has died because of it.
I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about regarding “child kidnappings are really common in broad daylight”. I'm sure you would also agree that they have one of the best surveillance tech there is to ensure the safely of 1.4 billion people so that s*** won’t fly in China. Not sure what sort of rubbish you read online but I guess you do you.
@JoBevo: Yes I’ll do me. Since I’m actually from China, I was born there, I immigrated here, I have had actual first hand knowledge goings on there.
This right here people is the exact CCP propaganda that’s spewed out by the CCP shills all the time.
Western imperialism
Opium wars
Western atrocities
What aboutism over and over
You really think that the CCP and western governments are on level pegging. I’ve seen how people are treated there and nowhere near how the west treats its people. And I can’t believe we have people here in Oz that even think spewing this CCP manure is remotely ok.
@maxyzee: I give you facts, context, and history to backup my points and the best you can do is brush it all away and call it propaganda and manure it shows how mature you are. I don't even know why I try, you know what stay ignorant.
If you can't accept different opinions and point of views then I question whether a democracy government system is even meant for you. An authoritarian system which aligns with your believe I think fits you better.
@JoBevo: What facts have you given? You seem to be very aggressive to me stating my opposing view.
Here are some facts from history.
China’s great leader created biggest, most costly famine in human history. The death toll from Mao’s policies outnumbers both Hitler’s and Stalins’s combined.
The poverty line in China is measured at $1.25 per day. So if you earn $2 a day you’re not in poverty according to the CCP.
The CCP is committing the largest scale internment of an ethnic group since the Nazis. I have relatives currently trapped in those camps and there is no way to communicate with them whatsoever. For all I know they could have been shipped off to different provinces or even dead.
I wonder if we could have this conversation on WeChat or webou. Yes the CCP would be totally Ok with dissenting voices.
Australia is one of best countries in the world and I’m so grateful that I live here and it has its issues but at least I’m able to live my life and also speak my voice without worrying about my or family’s safety.
If you’re gonna try and puppet for the CCP here in AU fine, your prerogative, but don’t expect anyone that has a brain to agree with you.
@maxyzee: It seems like your interpretation of "opposing view" is to cancel opinions that doesn't sit well with you by calling it “propaganda, “manure”, and now "puppet for the CCP" this is exactly what a dictator would do just before sending them to gallows to be hanged. Unfortunately for you, in Australia you will have learn live people with different type of believes, cultures, and even point of views.
Looks like you practice that Whataboutism quite faithfully yourself. Good work.
@JoBevo: How am I trying to cancel your opinion? You can voice it all you like. It doesn’t matter how dumb or crazy an idea or view is you have the right to express it. A shame you can’t do that in China.
And with any stupid or crazy viewpoint like an anti vaxxer or flat earther or whatever they’ll get called out.
Your statements happen to align exactly to the statements CCP talking points. Almost word for word so no I don’t think what you’re saying is your own viewpoint. You’re simply expressing what you’ve been told to say.
Who knows maybe you’ll turn around some day realise what you’ve been saying is actually wrong. If that day comes we here will still welcome you, we believe in second chances. No matter how wrong you are or were and no matter how appalling the crimes against my family and people are, you’re still person at the end of the day.
@stealthpaw: The compromise I refer to is around controlling things like union movements to protect supply chains and hard line stances on crime and civil disobedience. And population growth control. When I've heard examples of this 'genocide' it's always about birth control, which the rest of the Chinese population also has to comply with. I don't believe in the religious freedom to have a dozen kids sorry, we can't keep growing the earth's population at this crazy rate. And really what is the western way of dealing with incompatible cultures……..bomb the crap out of it from a distance.
@tonka: Cos forced sterilisation, mass internment camps and mass surveillance is so much better.
I agree population growth needs to be controlled but China has its own example of how that didn’t work out. Now they’re faced with massively ageing population that’s gonna put massive strain on their economy.
Also I don’t see AU or the US bombing or employing mass internment of their indigenous populations. Maybe once upon a time but not the in the modern age. Western societies have come to see that’s not something you do. There are still systemic issues that exist but nothing like blatant purposeful attempt to completely exterminate an entire ethnicity.
@JoBevo: Maybe when they stop locking up and killing muslims, or trying to cover up potential pandemics we might be more leniant.
China has set up many factories across Africa and in various industrial cities on each side there are plenty of Africans and Chinese mixing well together. The Chinese are investing heavily into Africa now.
Have a down vote for your Chinese propaganda. Soon you'll be trying to convince me they didn't unleash COVID-19 on the world from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
It was censored due to this scene.
https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/qs6zzu/shang…
The locals have been censored out for so long many don't know the meaning of these banned digits. You dare write this on mainland social media or a WeChat and try to enter into the country then you might have gotten yourself a free education in their camps.
go woke go broke
wish I was as broke as Disney…
Has anyone watched Eternals? I found it slow and boring to watch. Shang-Chi was much better in comparison (subjectively for me).
I liked Eternals better. Better story. I thought Shang-Chi was just an average action fantasy movie. Still better than Mulan though.
Mixed feelings with Eternals. Felt like there was a distinct lack of direction and main villain until the last act of the movie. The Eternals' powers seemed odd - like each had a single ability but Ikarus had flight and laser eyes.
The scenes with the Celestials were great visually though.
both kinda flopped
Hard to say Shang-Chi flopped, the ratings are decently high and it pulled in $430 million from the box office.
Watched Eternals on the weekend and the only thing I thought about that movie was "well, there is 2 and a bit hours of my life I'm not getting back."
Christ it was boring. There is so much filler. The movie could have been trimmed down to 90 mins and it still have gotten the point across.
They just seem to be churning out tripe at the moment, sticking a MARVEL banner at the start, slapping it on the arse and saying "good luck out there…"
@pegaxs: Agree, it was so dull and painful to watch. I will avoid watching the next Eternals and will get updated on the MCU story line with the review from Youtube.
Not looking great for this Marvel phase at the moment…
6/10 for me…
sorry wasnt great
acting with akwafina and simu wasnt great
tony leung and fala scenes were good - except for the falling in love with a guy who wants to become a tyrant over ur people part…
im asian btw… not that it should matter
Also it's not great to depict a guy trying to beat a woman as romantic and especially have her find it romantic. It was beautifully done but the concept was yuck.
Enjoyed the movie overall, agree with the above comment saying that it felt different from other MCU movies though.
Fight scenes were entertaining, some iffy CGI scenes.
8/10.
It's should've been Wenwu: The Legend of the Ten Rings instead.
I would've rather watched Thanos whipping out those 10 rings in Infinity War and Endgame instead of the Infinity Gauntlet.