Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

[samadriel]

After recently pointing my superhero organ towards the fairly dull Black Widow movie, the definitely dull Snyder Cut, and the adequate The Suicide Squad, this was a pleasant surprise. The leads are pleasing, the fights are good, the

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supernatural wildlife are a great use of CGI

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. It's not amazing, but it feels like the best bit of Marvel I've seen in ages (I haven't been interested in the TV shows).

[surreal]

I saw this yesterday and did enjoy it - I'd put it around Captain Marvel / Black Panther kind of level but it's better than both of those.

It's funny too, Awkwafina surprised me at how likable she was as I'd heard her silly name and assumed the worst but she's actually really good comic relief.  The fighting for the first 2/3s is good, mixing in some Wuxia-style stuff and nods to those kind fo movies like "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" particularly.  The cameo (don't get spoiled on this as it is fun) was well done and unexpected tbh.

I thought the bad guy was well handled for a change, they actually spent a good bit of time putting some work into his character so he was much more than just the big bad.  My only thing was it did feel quite long and dragged a bit in the last third.

Mid- and end-credit scenes give me good hope for the next phase of Marvel movies.

8/10

[samadriel]

Awkwafina had already proven herself to me as the pickpocket in Ocean's 8, but then, I already liked her hip-hop albums, so I've been keeping an eye out for her.

Quality bad guy, it's true; I didn't see the post-credits scene (I tend to leave after the mid-credits scene), but from what I've heard, it sounds promising for the future.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Awkwafina stole the show in that Jumanji film she did. The big question with this concerns the lead actor. He didn't seem all that charismatic in the trailers, which is not how these Marvel films usually do things.

Also, those aren't rings, they're bangles.

[samadriel]

Simu Liu's a charming young fellow, but the character isn't a huge personality. He's not dour like Hawkeye, he's more like, say, Paul Rudd's Scott Lang, a fairly light-hearted character, but with a bit more history than Scott. His history with his parents is dark without dragging the movie down, and it also helps flesh out the antagonist.

[surreal]

Also, those aren't rings, they're bangles.

I think they were originally rings from a dragon?  Anyway, they change size etc and tbh the different ways they find to use them in the combat is pretty good.

[Gulftastic]

Are they rings he gives his Mam to let her know he's got home safe?

[The Culture Bunker]

Watched it this afternoon and enjoyed it a lot, albeit I'm a fan of the Marvel stuff in general so perhaps that tempers my judgement. I thought Black Widow was standard fare, but this was a lot better. It perhaps helped that - the two Bens aside - I don't think I've seen any of the main cast actors in anything before, so it was a lot of fresh faces whose work I had no familiarity with.

Mid/post credits scenes:

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I did wonder if Banner was back to being just a man again because using the gauntlet had drained the gamma out of him, or whether he can change from puny Banner to Professor Hulk at will now? Not sure about the post-credits scene - so his sister is keeping the name going, still as a terrorist group?

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They had a trailer for the Eternals before -

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99% sure I saw Galactus in there, unless someone can correct me, and I did wonder if the 'homing beacon' that Wong discussed was related to him? Maybe a sign that there was lots of lovely energy for him to come and gobble up?

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[druss]

Not many standalone Marvel films I've enjoyed as much as this. Easily the best single appearance baddie they've had too (admittedly a very low bar).

[letsgobrian]

They had a trailer for the Eternals before -

Spoiler alert

99% sure I saw Galactus in there, unless someone can correct me, and I did wonder if the 'homing beacon' that Wong discussed was related to him? Maybe a sign that there was lots of lovely energy for him to come and gobble up?

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It's

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Arishem The Judge, one of the Celestials from the original Jack Kirby Eternals comics. The MCU has confused things somewhat by referring to other characters as Celestials who in the comics are not.

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[The Culture Bunker]

Thanks for clearing up - it didn't half look like who I thought it was though, unless the caffeine hadn't kicked in by that point and I was imagining things

[beanheadmcginty]

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Was Trevor a scouser in Iron Man 3? I don't remember him having the accent in that and assumed he was from Croydon as that gets mentioned.

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[The Culture Bunker]

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He seemed to have a generic 'English' (ie a bit London) accent in Iron Man 3, and it does seem a bit odd to make him Scouse here when being a Manc would have made more sense given Kingsley's roots - certainly the Liverpool accent didn't really come across at all, but then I suppose if he laid it on too thick, nobody outside England would have understood a word.

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[Glebe]

That was decent, felt like a refreshing change for Marvel. Pretty entertaining and funny throughout. Conclusion of mid-credit scene in particular tickled me.

[The Culture Bunker]

Something I think (!) I'm right in saying is that nobody in the film seemed to have been clicked away for five years - bar a couple of references, could almost believe it was largely written prior to Infinity War or with no regard for the wider MCU at all.

[Magnum Valentino]

Wong was clicked away, per the script for Endgame.

[The Culture Bunker]

Wong was clicked away, per the script for Endgame.

Fair enough, even if it's not been shown/mentioned on screen, but I should have said the main cast really (as for all we know, some of the people on the bus could have been clicked away). Wong's appearances was one of the references to the wider MCU that did feel slightly forced in - it did a good job of creating it's own world. Or worlds, even.

[Magnum Valentino]

Aye sorry about that, I didn't mean to derail your point with a 'well ACTUALLY'.

I agree, too, that what's nice about this film is that it feels like its own thing rather than that it's shuffling pieces into place which so many of the others did.

[Twit 2]

Don't like Marvel films much, shit for cunts really, but daughter's got into them and I wanted a trip to the cinema with her, so I took a punt on this. I liked it! It was good! High praise indeed, then.

[touchingcloth]

Was there a lot of Chinese (Mandarin?) spoken in the version in UK cinemas? I saw it in Portugal with English audio and Portuguese subs, but the first ten minutes or so was exclusively spoken in Chinese so I really gave my pidgin Portuguese a workout.

I enjoyed it quite a lot. That hillside in San Francisco has taken quite the beating in the course of several Marvel films. I enjoyed the fight choreography, and I was pleased to see that even Marvel writers and producers can't resist a dust-up on some bamboo scaffolding.

Liu, Awkwafina and Leung were all very well cast, I thought - most enjoyable cast of fresh faces since Black Panther. Not sure I enjoyed the big baddie fight at the end, as it went on a bit too long and I couldn't really make out what was going on with a lot of it. Nice to see Ben Kingsley back at things.

One of the characters in the post-credits scene was in a very unusual guise - it wasn't explained, and it wasn't until leaving the cinema that I realised that the last time we saw that character on screen they were quite different...

[The Culture Bunker]

One of the characters in the post-credits scene was in a very unusual guise - it wasn't explained, and it wasn't until leaving the cinema that I realised that the last time we saw that character on screen they were quite different...

I wondered in an earlier post whether using the gauntlet

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had somehow drained away all the gamma radiation from him.

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Unless you meant

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Captain Marvel having long hair again?

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[touchingcloth]

I noticed the second thing, but then that sort of thing happens all of the time to varying extents. It was the first thing that confused me in hindsight - your theory on it seems plausible.

[druss]

I wondered in an earlier post whether using the gauntlet

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had somehow drained away all the gamma radiation from him.

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Would seem a strange choice as I can't imagine many people are more excited by his intelligence over his ability to turn into a strong green fucking mental cunt.

[The Culture Bunker]

Would seem a strange choice as I can't imagine many people are more excited by his intelligence over his ability to turn into a strong green fucking mental cunt.

It may be more a way of

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cutting Ruffalo's commitments down to just the odd cameo, as in this case.

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[touchingcloth]

It'd be easy to get

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commitments from him if all it involved was some voice acting for the Hulk rather than being on camera as well

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, no?

[The Culture Bunker]

It'd be easy to get

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commitments from him if all it involved was some voice acting for the Hulk rather than being on camera as well

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, no?

Maybe,

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but my understanding was that he did all the Hulk scenes through motion cap or whatever the correct term is, so that when you see big green on screen, Ruffalo has been on set for it. And if he's back to being puny Banner full-time, it's easy to only use him every now and then (if at all).

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Not sure if all this needs spoilers, but just in case.

[touchingcloth]

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I quite like spoilers myself.

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[beanheadmcginty]

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Surely it's just much cheaper to film Ruffalo chatting and put a hologram effect over him than rendering a big realistic looking Hulk and then putting a hologram effect over that?

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[madhair60]

saw this. the same as every other marvel movie, rubs. lifted the tazer face joke from guardians of galaxy 2 as well.

like the bit with the thing near the end. you know the thing, come out of the water.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I went to see this, first cinema trip since before covid, and the projector broke during what I assume was near the end of the big finale. I enjoyed what I'd seen before that though. It was very nice of them to keep the camera steady in the fight scenes so you could see what was happening, quite a novel idea.

lifted the tazer face joke from guardians of galaxy 2 as well.

That must've been in the last 10% because I didn't catch that at all.