On Sept. 3, 2021 Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings was released to movie theatres. Unlike Black Widow, Shang-Chi was not available to purchase through premier access on Disney+.
This likely marks the end of Disney movies having the option to stream them during their theatrical release.
Before this movie’s release it was noticeable that there were a few oddities with the marketing.
First, they only released one official trailer and a few clips. This stood out to me because usually they have two or three that they put out as the release gets closer.
Additionally, not a lot of people knew of this movie to begin with. Most of my friends at the theatre didn’t even know that there was a Marvel movie coming out. Needless to say we were all still really excited because it was the first movie that we all got to see in theatres together.
For whatever reason it seems like Shang-Chi got the shorter end of the stick. It feels like it was jammed in between the release Black Widow and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
If I had to guess why I would say that it was probably meant to be a smaller project with a smaller budget similar to Ant-Man and the Wasp.
That of course does not mean it was a bad movie. Let’s start with what I did not like. The plot felt kind of straightforward. Without spoilers, I will say that it was quite predictable.
It doesn’t feel like they were taking any risks with plot twists or other things of that nature. It was a very simple plot, but sometimes that is all you need out of a Marvel movie.
One of the central themes of this movie is family which I appreciate, but it could’ve been crafted a little more complex.
Another negative aspect of the movie was the amount of flashbacks that we were shown. I understand that they are introducing a new character to the MCU, but feel like flashbacks were a third of the movie. It definitely could’ve been handled better.
Other than those two things, I really do not have much to complain about. I just about enjoyed everything else in the movie.
One thing I found exceptional was the choreography. The fight scenes were really good. Especially combined with the crazy VFX that Marvel is known for.
They are shot in such a way that you can tell each person’s intentions by the way they are fighting. It’s usually pretty rare to see expressions in hand-to-hand combat, but I think it is more than welcome in the MCU.
Another thing that I really enjoyed was the VFX. It is clear that Marvel knows what they are doing when it comes to this kind of art. They constantly have great VFX and that has not changed in this movie.
This lets me segway into the coloring of the movie. This is something that is usually present in Marvel movies but here it was noticeably really good.
The different locations that they go to all have their own feeling and sense of character. It feels like you are there with them.
There was not really anything to complain about with the actors’ performances either. Simu Liu was well cast as Shang-Chi and Awkwafina was well cast as Katy.
Both of them had good chemistry, and more importantly, they made the jokes funny. This is good because a lot of times when the jokes in an action film are not funny, it makes the whole thing more difficult to watch.
The editing was also very well done. It had to be for some of the fight scenes, so I am glad that the editors stepped up to the plate and made the fights and the entire movie easy to follow.
When it comes to a martial arts movie, it’s important that the editing is top-notch.
Overall, I think that this is one of the stronger movies made by Marvel. It was in my opinion better than Black Widow. The question now is how will it stack up against Spider-Man No Way Home that comes out this December. Only time will tell.
