Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings General Discussion and Speculation thread

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Nothing happened on 6/4/89.

F-ing sneaky whomever in the SC production.

 

Been looking forward to this one a ton and finally got to watch it today. So awesome, definitely one of my favorites in the MCU. And so far easily the best of the phase 4 films. Haven’t seen Eternals yet but yeah, I think this will still be the best even after I see that.

 

Personally I think Shang-Chi is the best MCU film of 2021 by a pretty wide margin, and I liked Eternals and Black Widow too. No Way Home could very well change that for me but as far as the three Disney/Marvel films from this year, Shang-Chi is the winner.

 

Agreed and like I said I haven’t even seen Eternals yet. I do know the entire film though from the leaked spoilers plus the credits scenes. But I just loved Shang-Chi so much. One of the MCU’s best solo character films as well.

 

IMO it's the best MCU solo origin film since Phase 1 since I don't consider Black Panther or Homecoming to be origin films due to BP and Spidey being already established in Civil War.

My only real big complaint about Shang-Chi is the CGI being dodgy in more than a few places but I'll chalk that up to filming and post-production limitations because of the pandemic.

 

finally got to watch this and i enjoyed it quite a bit.
the ending was a bit bonkers - but i was fine with that.

i didn't have a problem with any of the cgi - but so much was happening in that ending battle, i'll probably have to watch it again.
seeing those chinese mythological animals brought to life was really cool.

it went from a martial arts fantasy to a full on kaiju movie while dealing with themes of family, guilt, and grief.
so i found a lot of it relatable.

my 7 year old liked it but it was probably sensory overload for him - this was the first time he ever watched a superhero movie.
the cool thing about that is his reference point for a superhero now is someone who looks like him and speaks the same languages as him.

 

Gotta give props to the biggest highlight of the film for me.
Meng'er Zhang as Xialing. Loved everything about her, the multiple layers, the physicality, the fighting...

And a nod to Wong who did great with little he had.

 

the karaoke scenes in the beginning and the end reminds me so much of life before i got married and became a parent - hanging out late night with friends, getting drunk and belting out tunes in the karaoke room.

it tied the characters down in a very relatable and down to earth way, even though shang-chi pretty much fights friggin' cthulu at the end. lol.

 

I gotta say some of the CGI was not great at all. It detracted from the overall quality of the film.
The Ta-lo stuff in particular was more miss than hit. Ta-lo looked both big and small in scale, we kind of visit a tiny lake-side village in what looks like an expansive parallel dimension. Some cool creatures appear periodically but i wish where explored more as well while other creatures like that furry thing are just a hard pass.

I felt like the overall execution of Ta-lo wasn't great from the development of the mythology to the execution of that particular world and even aspects of the final battle where a bit off. It's almost like they bit more than they could chew and it shows.

 

That's cool. I don't ever pay any attention to CGI when I watch the MCU (I watch mostly for story and character development), but if you do, great.

 

If the CGI sticks out like a sore thumb then it’s a bit of an issue because, in my eyes, it detracts from the quality of the film.

Of course I also watch it for the story, characters/character development, hero journey, action set pieces, comedy, dramatic impact, adventure, the visuals, soundtrack/score…

 

I don't usually pay attention to the score.

 

I can really appreciate a good score and soundtrack. If done right it can really add to the overall experience.

 

I think the CGI is rarely SO bad that I find it annoying. I can think of a few (Last Airbender movie and Wrath of the Titans LOL). I had the misfortune of watching them in what they referred to as "3D".

 

The thing about CGI is that when you realize "oh that's a big green screen behind" it doesn't feel like a real place anymore, nothing tangible about it, and all of the sudden it just feels exactly what it is: a bunch of people in a big green room with a fake background. And yes, that brings the experience down for me.

 

This is cool:

How an action designer and an actor fell in love on the set of Shang-Chi (torontolife.com)

 

That was an awesome and touching read.

 

Disney Campaigning For Shang-Chi In Nearly Every Oscar Category

Disney: For your consideration

Among them:

BEST PICTURE
Kevin Feige, p.g.a.
Jonathan Schwartz, p.g.a.

BEST DIRECTOR
Destin Daniel Cretton

BEST ACTOR
Simu Liu

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Awkwafina
Meng'er Zhang
Fala Chen
Michelle Yeoh

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Florian Munteanu
Benedict Wong
Yuen Wah
Ben Kingsley
Tony Leung

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Dave Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham
Story By
Dave Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton

 

Good movie. Seemed like the reason the father died was for 'narrative' purposes. Would have been interesting if he lived.

 

I feel most people would have said that Shang Chi would have been the lowest MCU movie because of a variety of reasons. I would have liked to see how it would have done pre pandemic but I'm glad it did as well as it did.

 

Over the last month, I watched the latest MCU entries, and this is how I'd rank:

Shang-Chi > Black Widow > Eternals

I enjoyed the three, but really loved Shang-Chi! I agree with some wonky CGI, but it didn't take me out of the film.

 

This concept art doesn't make any sense (mainly because Proxima Midnight is super dead and it'd be a tad odd to have this be Deadpool's introduction), but it makes you wonder who else they might've considered for the fight that Abomination and Wong ended up having.