Marvel's Shang-Chi & The Legend of the 10 Rings

Teaser trailer



Okay as I feared this looks NOTHING like the Shang-Chi introduced in Marvel's Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine back in 1974 and through out the 80's "Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu". The character's origin has been changed and more Marvel scifi shit added which is truly unneeded. Shang-Chi was never a superhero, did not possessed any extraordinary powers bla, bla, bla. He was just trained since very young in martial arts to become a master of kung fu to be used as an assassin by his father, Fu Manchu (not the Mandarin like in this movie). Also why they hired this non-martial artist Canadian actor when there are more capable true martial arts action stars out there with better marketable faces who could have done this job without the need of stunt doubles and CGI? Color me uninterested. Marvel is done.

 

The director is from Maui and is a classmate of my friend's. Only reason I'll watch this. After 2021, I'm not a fan of chinks.

 

Okay I finally watched this (for free on a flight from Kansas City to Orlando) and this is what thought about it: it is mildly entertaining if you park your brains somewhere and have no knowledge of the actual comic book. If you don't do this it will be very infuriating. I opted to park my brains and forget that this film has NOT A SINGLE RESEMBLANCE to its original source, except the main character title name. While the original Shang-Chi was in a nutshell Kwai Chang Kane in modern times and not the wild West with lots of borrowing from Bruce Lee and James Bond, it was still set in the real world and its core theme was martial arts Tao. Shang-Chi was thinker, a silent type warrior, always deeply meditating and pondering every aspect of his daily life and struggles. That plus the fights made the character cool. Now this Shang-Chi is nothing like that: he is a party animal who is only pushed to react to circumstances. The film is more fantasy than anything else. It is more Doctor Strange than Bruce Lee. And that is fine to link it to this current Marvel phase 4, but in the process it destroyed its source. The special effects (and there are LOTS of it) are acceptable, but nothing to marvel at. The two main actors have zero chemistry and by the end apparently they became a couple, but nothing even hinted at romance, so this was head scratching. Akwafina is not funny at all, even though she is the comic relief here. The actor that plays Shang-Chi (forgot his name) either doesn't have much acting range or simply decided to imitate Chuck Norris school of bland, expressionless acting...plus he lacks lead actor charisma. And could go on and on, but I will finish my review by saying is watchable, one time watch and then you will forget about it immediately...if you weren't pissed by this convoluted mess.

 

Agreed. It’s a piece of shit one time viewing experience on the level of Mortal Combat, Aqua Man or The Eternals.

 

The original Mortal Kombat has replay value. Dunno about the new version as I haven't watched yet. I enjoyed Aquaman. It was dumb by the numbers fun.