Shang Chi - More of the same, but still Fun
I've been an unapologetic Marvel fan, and I love many of their films. My favourite MCU film happens to be Black Panther. Their phase 4 projects have been interesting. I've not been loving most of their projects of this phase. My personal favourite is Falcon and the Winter Soldier so far. But I wasn't looking forward to Shang Chi that much. I had seen few of the director Destin Daniel Cretton's previous films such as Short Term 12, and Just Mercy, and I love those films.
Shang Chi's trailer didn't excite me. After having seen the film, I can certainly say I enjoyed myself and entertaining, but I wish it emotionally engaged me, just like many of Marvel's previous films. The first hour of the film was pretty solid. I liked seeing Shang Chi just hanging out with his friend Katy played by Awkwafina, who plays a one note character. Awkwafina has done better performances, such as in the fantastic 'The Farewell' movie.
When Katy finds out that Shang Chi is more than what she knew, the reveal didn't work because we didn't get enough time with these characters. We see them hanging out, but I don't feel it was enough to really strengthen their three dimensionality. So the reveal that her friend is secretly this Superpowered martial artist lacks any emotional weight.
Visually the film is fine. There are few scenes where the lighting is impressive. The scene where Shang Chi's parents meet (which was very Bollywood like), there's this yellow light which makes the location feel very rich. And some of the night scenes with neon lights in the background provided for splendid backlight. But many of the daylight scenes looked pretty bland, which is an expected thing from Marvel.
The action though, was a pleasant surprise. It was really well directed as the camera glides along with the main character's movement, so we do have one central character whose choreography we not only get to see, but you still feel the visceral nature of the punches and jumps. Many characters have these fight scenes that also partly feel like dances which have this elegant grace, and the camera too feels like its a performer along with the characters.
The special effects are very noticeable. It felt pretty overused which provided a level of artificiality to the locations, and made it hard for me to believe the actors were there. Sometimes there's so much going on in terms of the visual effects, that I know it's fake, and it took me out of the experience couple times. It's not all bad. The mystical creatures looked photorealistic, but mainly the backgrounds just felt unreal to me.
Tony Leung gives the best performance in the film by far. He's actually a good villain and I felt sympathetic for him. Was his motivation completely believable? Not really. But putting that aside, whatever he wishes to do comes from an emotional reason which made his internal conflict feel more personal. The grief he goes through is tragic, and his core flaws as a human being is well written. Tony gives him this suave nature which makes him charismatic, but also this sense of melancholic longing that made him feel like a real person.
Simu Liu is pretty good as Shang Chi. He's earnest and charming. But him as a character was pretty weird because I don't really understand what emotional journey he had been through. The characters say it. But I never really got to feel it because we never see Shang Chi struggling with any of the supposed conflict they say he's going through. I liked that his friend Katy is just a friend, and not a forced love interest. There are attempts of giving her nuance with her conflict being that of finding a passion and pursuing it. But the film doesn't give it enough time. The film has great ideas for themes, but it's half baked.
There are a few moments where the directing of a scene shines brighter than the mystical ten rings. In a scene where Wenwu takes his young son Shang Chi to a restaurant to get revenge, it's masterfully directed. Not only is it an impressive one take, but you see the fight through the perspective of Shang Chi as a boy. We do see Wenwu beat people up with his ten rings, but majority of the fight is shown from the reflection of a mirror, beside which Shang Chi is standing and witnessing. We get to see the impact of this on a young kid, as well as the fight itself without cutting.
Shang Chi is an entertaining film with a lot of heart. But I wished it was more. I wanted the film to actually commit to exploring its themes and for it to feel different than what's expected from Marvel. It was more of the same, but still fun.
Thank Your for Reading
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