I know this isn’t the review thread but just some overall thoughts with spoilers:
Had a pretty good time with this movie, overall. Definitely looking forward to a sequel/ seeing the characters again in the MCU (Shang, Katy, and Xialing). Including Wong as a supporting character moving forward could be fun as well.
The Abomination/Wong fight seemed fixed as others are suggesting? I didn’t understand why that’d be the case; maybe the MCU is reconfiguring Blonsky as reformed/anti-hero ahead of the debut of whatever team Val is putting together? Not sure how I feel about that, to be honest. I like having straight-up villains in these movies, like Crossbones. Even Razor-Fist ends up helping the heroes in this movie.
And was Trevor Slattery necessary at all? I mean, he’s a terrorist—the characters even say as such. And yes I get he wasn’t clean at the time and he implies that Killian was manipulating him in Iron Man Three, but come on. What kind of mileage are we actually getting out of this character? There was much more interesting things the film could have been focusing on in Act II.
The writers needed to figure out a better way for the heroes to find a path to Ta Lo; at this point in the story, the mystical creature was very jarring; though, I suppose we already saw Abomination. It felt off. As the characters journeyed to Ta Lo, I thought the movie went down a weird path for a while, with Slattery acting as some weird sage character almost? Interpreting mystic creatures and directing our heroes? Weird choice for the character, if you ask me.
The creature from Ta Lo could have easily ‘spoken’ directly to Shang-Chi and Xialing, recognizing them as the children of Ying Li, and then Shang could sit shotgun and give Katy directions through the forest.
Wenwu was a great villain but I wanted more of him, the Ten Rings (the bands and the criminal organization), and his spiral into madness. Maybe it would have helped if we saw his visions too? It would have been interesting if we (the audience) and Shang Chi were genuinely torn between believing his father and her mother’s people. Could his mother actually be alive? Just a thought; the plot seemed very cut-and-dry and I think there were opportunities to add nuance in some places.
Awkwafina as Katy really surprised me; she was a fun inclusion and didn’t impede any action or plot development. Was excited to see her invited along Shang by Wong and included in the post-credits scene. I wonder where her story continues; seems like she’ll be an archer? Though I could Marvel avoid treading on Hawkeye’s turf and see Katy acting more as Shang’s Robin—a “monkey wrench” (as Frank Miller put in in TDKR) to aid situations while he does the heavy fighting.
Kudos to the movie when Shang admitted that actually did kill that man as his father sent him to do. It gave the character pathos and helped differentiate him from the squeaky clean heroes of the MCU. I was expecting the lost souls to return to bodies after the final battle, so I was happy that this movie wasn’t shy about highlighting the death toll the Ten Rings’ crusade wrought.
The last scene with Xialing seemed to be filmed after the crew saw the end of Mandalorian S2 and the tease for Boba Fett—with her in the chair and assuming control of a criminal empire. It was cool nonetheless.
