Ok I’m behind a week again so the next two post will be out close to one another. Both posts will be thoughts on recent movies I watched. Originally, I was going to make these posts as reviews on this movie, but honestly, I don’t like doing reviews. I feel like reviews need to be objective and I’m not very good with that when it comes to films and television. So basically, these posts are more so my thoughts on it than an actual review.
For this post, I want to share my thoughts on the new Marvel movie, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. I believe this is the first Marvel film that is part of Phase 4. I guess the Black Widow movie is part of Phase 4 but that film took place before End Game so to me, it’s not a true Phase 4 film. There’s also short series on Disney+ that is part of Phase 4 but this is the first film.
I will be spoiling the movie!
One of the standout features of Shang Chi is the martial arts. The first and second act was full of amazingly choreographed martial arts fights. I really enjoyed the the fight between Xu Wenwu and Fala Chen when they first met. While it was a fight, Fala Chen’s style was more beautiful than Xu Wenwu’s more strength focus style. And I loved seeing the “dance” between the two while they’re fighting. Just a beautiful scene overall.
I also really liked how Xu Wenwu used the rings. He used it as an extension of his fists and there was just something so satisfying seeing the actor Tom Leung martial arts performance in combination with the rings’ CG action.
The biggest downside to this movie is the third act where Shang Chi teams up with his mom’s village to stop his dad from unwillingly releasing a soul sucking monster. The whole moment just lost all of the martial arts sequence I enjoyed so much and was more supernatural battles. I guess it was typical Marvel fight scene so it worked but I loved how different the movie started off with the martial arts.
Also the overarching bad guy was just a monster with no good motivation. Xu Wenwu was definitely a good bad guy. He had a relatable motivation for wanting to attack the village but it was downplayed by the monster.
I love Shang Chi’s development throughout the whole movie. He’s the son of an evil man but also of a pure woman. When his mother dies because of the enemies his father made, he’s torn because he wants to avenge his mother but know murdering is wrong. Because of this, he ended up running away from his father. His process of accepting both the good and bad of his family history made for a great character development.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie! I would still recommend it to fans, especially if you’ve enjoyed the MCU. While the movie has that typical MCU feel, it still feels more fresh with the introduction of this new character.
I hope you enjoyed this post and I will see you shortly for my next movie thoughts post!
