Film Shang-Chi from an ABC perspective (why it resonates with me)
I understand why this movie isn't everyone's vibe. Shang-Chi isn't doing great with mainland Chinese folks because it's very firmly for and by a very complicated cultural divide in the form of the ABC ([north] American-born Chinese), and in the native west, folks are becoming more weary of the MCU. I personally wasn't interested much in this movie in the buildup; I saw it as a thing that would come and go, for better and for worse.
But it didn't "go" right away, because upon release, my parents were talking nonstop about it. My folks come from Guangzhou and immigrated to the US just before I was born, and they wanted me to come with them to see this - an MCU superhero movie. This was not normal; they aren't particularly entranced by Hollywood blockbusters nor ABC culture at large - they didn't care much for Crazy Rich Asians - but there was something very special about the way they heard Shang-Chi approach it that they not only wanted to see on the big screen, they really wanted me to see too. I'm glad I came along, because honestly, it got...gets me.
Again, the movie is very much an ABC film. That distinction is important from it merely being "Chinese" or made by Chinese creators, because being ABC is a very muddled, but unique conflict too nascent for the group itself to fully learn how to digest (let alone the rest of the western world). The worship of tradition and pride of the family clashes with western society in ways we have yet to learn how to articulate because so much is lost in translation; being ABC is a desire to be yourself in a new world but tied to an increasingly anathema past that one simply can't let go of. The baggage and guilt is harsh. But we all must learn to live with it, a task easier said than done.
Shang-Chi oozes this desire to illustrate and make peace with this conflict. At times it's to a fault, namely when it plays for humor; I get it, ABC folks get a big opportunity to lay out all the jokey jokes to a prominently non-Asian audience, but it does kinda make the pacing/tone of the first act full of ABC jokes a little awkward - but once it's played for drama, that's easily its greatest strength, and its most resonant.
I adore Shangchi/Xialing's dynamic with Wenwu. Folks joke about it representing the "disappointed asian dad" dynamic, but it really understands the cultural roots of it. The want to let go of a troubled cultural history no longer adjacent to yours, the understanding that what pushes this conflict is a desire to find happiness, the fights in wanting peace because we're family... this is very real, and it sucks to deal with. But it's also beautiful.
I get why many folks seem underwhelmed by the formulaic bones of the film, it's MCU. But I think through that, the creators captured something very special about a culture and inert feelings that need to be seen and explored. It may not be the most elegant, but that doesn't mean we don't need it.
Film Whelp. Time to swim against the stream on a comic book movie, again.
I get why the critics I've seen were kind of down on this movie, specifically the third act. I really do. But... I'mma have to politely disagree.
Let's start with a major problem: the technical side. The music's generic, the CGI's just okay at best and distracting at worst, and the camera is often out of focus or the scene poorly lit, I suspect to mask poor computer effects and doing a disservice to genuinely entertaining stuntwork. And this is not isolated to the much-maligned third act of the movie; an otherwise excellent fight on the scaffolding outside a skyscraper is marred by many of these issues.
And while I missed the very start of the film en-route to topping off popcorn and drinks for my viewing party, I feel the finale could be better foreshadowed overall; as it stands it does kind of come out of nowhere, and contributes to the undercooked feeling of the later parts of the script.
Beyond that... yeah, this movie was kind of my jam. Not my favorite Marvel film in the world, or anything, but pretty entertaining. I like that it zigs instead of zagging on many traditional "origin story" first films, for one, and I do appreciate that early emphasis on martial arts and stuntwork over superpowered brawling as much as the next guy. I understand why critics felt disappointed when it turned into CG later on, but I suppose in the moment it felt like a natural progression and escalation for the characters. Also, I'm a sucker for chain weapons and rope darts, and there's a lot of that towards the finale.
Also, while it's a comic book film, it kind of turns into a more traditional fantasy piece halfway through? I was fine with that, though I do see where critics are coming from when they express disappointment at it.
But, as a comic book movie, a major draw is the characters. I won't pretend I'm super familiar with Shang-Chi's comic book counterpart, but I actually appreciated many of the ideas on display based on what I did know. Changing out Fu Manchu for the Mandarin is a fairly inspired choice, for instance. And speaking of which, I also appreciated some harsh but necessary course-corrections on a lot of adventurously mistaken decisions made in Iron Man 3. His American friend Katy didn't feel nearly as useless or annoying as I feared, and she provided a fair bit of comic relief that worked much better than Thor Ragnarok's, while never afraid of occasionally being sincere or feeling the need to slather inappropriate irony all over itself when it was. A particular highlight in both regards is a character I was genuinely not expecting, and whose presence rather threw me, so I guess I'll just say that their comedy and heartwarming friendship with another character that'd otherwise be a transparent plot device was a huge highlight of the second third of the film.
Overall, I did like the human drama, how, despite mostly being screwed-up people, they had comprehensible emotional connections to each other. And I liked the subtle way the film slowly peels back the layers of what, exactly, happened in the past to leave them where they are now. In a film that was going to live or die based on that part, it stuck the landing in a way that, as a kung-fu fan, worked for me.
I've tuned out of Marvel for a while, and theater films in general for that matter, but I got enough of what I wanted out of it that I can't complain. I don't know how useful this'll be to you... but at least for my part, I walked away happy.
Film A Boring, Bloated, Wasted Affair
Shang Chi is a film that never starts because it keeps killing the momentum with flashbacks. It has a good hero, a great villain, and a decent premise, but the result is so utterly botched. Plodding exposition is doled out at a constant rate up until the climax. No action-scene is allowed to play without some comic-relief character saying 'Well that just happened.'The longer the film goes on the the greater it on relies on bog-standard CGI. It honestly feels like a PG-13 movie that morphs into a G-rated cartoon by the end.
Why have all these talented actors if everyone outside the main two is just stock and boring?
Why have cool hand-to-combat scenes and completely drop them after the first act?
Why tell us in advance exactly how the climax will play out, then have said climax play out to a T?
What's the point of the final battle being from a videogame, only you can't play it?
Honestly I had these problems with the Spider-Man and Captain Not-Shazam movies two years ago. It's just this latest MCU offering has helped remind me of the stagnation the series is undergoing.
By the end of Shang Chi I was so utterly drained that I wished I could have seen The Suicide Squad a second time instead of seeing this even once. Shang Chi is a movie so shuffled and unfocused that it even loses sight of its title character. The movie is such a nothing-spectacle that it completely evaporated from my mind as I drove my car home.
Film 2/3s of an excellent movie (Mild spoilers)
Shang-Chi is quite possibly one of the best Marvel origin movies since the original Iron Man. Like Infinity War, it has an amazingly memorable villain who, with just a tiny bit more screen time, could have been the main character of this movie. The entire character development and the relationship between Shang-Chi and his father is quite possibly the most intricate and emotional dynamic between protagonist and antagonist in any MCU film ever.
The film also pays plenty of homage to classic kung-fu films like Jackie Chan films. It is also probably the best close-up, hand-to-hand action in the MCU ever.
With that said, there is one big problem with the film (and a few small ones). It's the ending. It's predictable MCU, giant-world-ending CGI-fest. Quite frankly, it was the most boring part. Big, grandiose, CGI with tons of explosions and stuff doesn't automatically make things interesting. Worse, it's only very vaguely hinted at prior to Act 3, and at the beginning of Act 3 there's just a long, talk-y infodump (basically telling them that there's gonna be a big CGI demon fight.) Then there's a big CGI demon fight. Yawn.
Give me more of Shang-Chi and the dynamic between his father and sister.
The other problem is that it flashes back and forth between current day and flashbacks a lot, which can be jarring for pacing. Yet they cut out some of the most important (and possibly character-defining) flashbacks - the characters just sit around and talk about it.
Still, despite Act 3 and the minor issues, they don't detract from the amazing parts. It's still a very enjoyable film. 8/10