Careful, spoilers ahead
Starring:
Simu Liu
Awkwafina
Tony Chiu-Wai Leung
Meng’er Zhang
Ben Kingsley
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Watch Order: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Rankings
Likes:
- I’ve said this before, but representation is important. Kids (Adults. People. Everyone.) need to see that being a superhero is for anyone. They can be women. They can be disabled. They can be people of color. They can be immigrants. The more we see this, the more normalized it becomes. The more normalized it becomes, the more opportunities creators in those marginalized groups will have. The more opportunities people have, the more original content we’ll have to consume. And then everybody wins.
- Some of the fight scenes were well-choreographed and fun to watch. Some of the visuals were pretty to look at. And the humor was just right.
- There’s a dragon. Who hates dragons? No one, that’s who.
Dislikes:
- While Shang-Chi (Liu) and Katy’s (Awkwafina) friendship was a fun and refreshing dynamic to see, I couldn’t help but wonder if Marvel was falling into the stereotype that Asian men aren’t attractive or sexually desirable (are they blind?!). Shang-Chi did get the obligatory shirtless scene Marvel affords all its hot actors, though, so maybe I’m mistaken. (There’s some intimate hand holding in the final scene as well, so maybe all those protestations of friendship were just hints at a later romance.)
- Here we go again, yet another climactic battle in the sky (but at least there was a dragon this time!). I could barely even tell what was going on in the fight scenes—blurry in part due to the fast-paced action and animation sequences, but also because of the fugue state I lapse into when the action gets too wild. When will it end?
- Shang-Chi’s father (Leung) harbored no ill will toward his children, yet still sent assassins to forcibly take their BFF necklaces from them, no explanation? This could’ve been an email.
