I think the “hidden city” is new to the character, unless it’s been recently added.
I saw the movie this past weekend. It was the first movie I’d seen in the theater since 2019. Did you know at Cinemark they’ll bring your food right to your seat?!
Anyway, I wanted to see it in the theater cuz it felt like one that should be seen on the big screen, and I’m a big fan of kung fu movies, moreso than I am of Marvel movies (but I have seen all of the MCU movies).
To be honest I didn’t really like the movie. I thought the actors were great. Tony Leung should be in a lot more American movies, gosh is he handsome! He has such a compelling presence. I was familiar with Simu Liu from “Kim’s Convenience”. Awkwafina is fun no matter what she’s in, and Michelle Yeoh…yes. Also nice to see Benedict Wong!
The featuring of the BMW really took me out of the movie. I mean, yes they had to get to the forest somehow and it’s not weird for the cast to pile in a car to get somewhere but for some reason I really felt like I was watching a product placement in those scenes. So awkward.
I also was not sharp enough to know what the hell was going on with Ben Kingsley. As I said I’ve seen all the MCU movies but I just haven’t been paying attention enough to the 500 characters to remember who the heck he was supposed to be. He “explained” it but quickly. And then a cute CGI creature as his sidekick?? Sooooo weird (later I was clued in to the fact that it represented a mythical Chinese creature, and there were lots of other mythical Chinese creatures in the film that I DID recognize). But still, Kingsley and his little furry friend seemed sooooo out of place to me.
Anyway, I’m glad I saw it. Yes there was good kung-fu in it, and I always enjoy seeing cultures other than mine in film. I’d give it about a 5/10, and I look forward to seeing more Shang-Chi now that we’ve got his clunky origin story out of the way.
The one Shang-Chi story I’ve read tied him directly into that stuff, including a personal rivalry with Danny Rand, but it was an alternate reality spun out of the Secret Wars event. On the other hand, a lot of the stuff from Secret Wars got folded back into main continuity when the event ended (it’s how they got Miles Morales into the 616) so maybe that stuck too?
In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark is attacked by a terrorist calling himself The Mandarin. When he tracks the guy down, it turns out that The Mandarin is actually a dissipated British actor played by Ben Kingsley, who was hired to play the role to distract Tony from the real villain.
Which was in itself weird, as I never got the impression that anything was going on that needed a distraction-unless they were planning on “selling” the Extremis soldiers as a solution to the “Mandarin’s” attacks. It’s been awhile since I watched it.
I could be misremembering, but wasn’t the whole ‘Mandarin’ thing (at least initially) just a cover up for Extremis blowing up left and right? Like, the first one went pop, and the thing starts getting some media and law enforcement attention, and so the AIM guys are just like, well, it was probably them terrorists, you know? And then it just became that whole thing, but they’re kind of committed at that point, so they have to keep adding new bits and pieces, and before you know it, they’ve abducted an actor to give all those speeches and whatnot—you know how it goes.
In the movie, Michelle Yeoh says that their village was part of a larger realm with great cities, which was destroyed by the Dweller-in-Darkness. I have to assume K’un Lun was part of that realm. If they bring Iron Fist into the main MCU continuity, presumably they’ll make the connection explicit.
I didn’t mention it in my critiques of the movie upthread, but that was another aspect of the movie I didn’t care for - they seemed to be rolling elements of Iron Fist’s character and backstory into Shang-Chi, which makes both characters less distinctive.
IIRC, that was exactly the plan. Of course, in a world of gods and monsters, where even SHIELD is hopelessly, hilariously outgunned, it’s not really clear to me why Killian thought he needed to create yet another threat in order to sell his Extremis project…
That’s very likely it. I just wasn’t clear if the Extremis explosions meant they had to create the Mandarin, or if they created the Mandarin to cover any Extremis booms.
Thanks for the clarification. I guess this sort of gives them a means to streamline the whole backstory to some degree—rather than having several unrelated hidden mysterious Asian kung-fu realms with dragon protectors, they could retcon the whole thing into fragments of one original hidden… Uh, you get the picture.
Still, though, in comics, they always seem to kinda half-ass the whole age of exploration-thing… Seems like there’s another hidden realm under every other stone you turn.
That was exactly it. Except they didn’t abduct Trevor - they paid him with drugs, and a palace, and plastic surgery, and a lovely speedboat.
And there was a Marvel One-Shot on the Thor 2 bluray/dvd, where Trevor is broken out of prison by agents of the “real” Mandarin, to answer for his crimes. Which explained why he was in the dungeon.
Disney+ users - have you watched it on this platform yet? It says something like watch with enchanced Imax. I can’t see if it costs extra to watch it. I want to see it, but not pay any more fees.
That’s included with regular Disney+ and they added it to all the Marvel movies that had segments filmed in Imax. It will open up the aspect ratio to full Imax dimensions during the sequences that were filmed that way.
I haven’t watched Shang-Chi yet, but am this weekend. You have to make sure you pick Imax format for any movie it is offered on.
I’m glad to finally see this!
Saw it last night on Disney+, liked it a lot. I think it’s good enough to be in the second tier of MCU movies - alongside Dr Strange and the Spider Man movies (and a few others), IMO.
Watching it with the family in a few minutes! Full IMAX aspect ratio version for sure.
Just watched it on Disney+. It was fun. Probably about average for Marvel movies, which is plenty entertaining.
For the most part, I agree with people’s comments in this thread. One thing that seems like a plot hole: who sent the letter to Shawn that he thought was from his sister, and why? Presumably it was his dad’s organization. But if they already knew where both his son and his daughter were, and already had plans in place to capture them both and get their pendants, then why alert Shawn, and why give Shawn his sister’s location so they could potentially team up?
I also REALLY disliked Caty become an archer hero in one day. That’s just not how it works. If you want to find something heroic for her to do, find her something heroic to do which doesn’t involve mastering a very difficult skill overnight. (Or give her a backstory of used-to-be-a-competitive-archer and then her parents were disappointed when she stopped competing or something.)
I assumed it was to test them first-hand and grab both siblings at the same time. He’s not concerned about their team-up-after all, he’s an infamous crime lord ( and really, he had no reason to be worried anyway).
There’s got to be a reason why Wong brought Katy along to be part of the Avengers ongoing, and it has to be overnight mastery of archery skills. Something’s going on with her that’s worth his investigation.
Yes, I’ll be curious to see what’s going on with her. She’s not a canon character (not that it matters). And on a side note, I’m glad they only gave Razorfist one blade. In the comics, he has two and it leads to all kinds of weird questions. Also, he has a whole cult thing there too I think.
The archery skills would be enough, regardless of their origin, for an Avenger (or just a New Yorker). Lots of people with only skills with weapons in the Marvelverse, from Hawkeye to Punisher.
Until she is. Part of the fun in the MCU is trying to figure out what hero or villain from the comics an apparently new character will become. I don’t remember what she said her Chinese name was, but I wonder if that might be a clue to her comics counterpart.