Shang Chi: Maybe I'll give it another chance

Simu Liu in Marvel's Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

I recently watched Shang Chi. I remember my kids raving about it after seeing it in the theater, and I understand why. It's very well made, the performances are solid, the representation is great, and it represents a bit of a different flavor for Marvel films. I liked it.

But I didn't feel it. 

Everyone talks about how great this movie is, and especially its villain. But my impression is just that it was... competent. It wasn't bad. I had no major complaints, despite what I've written below. But it didn't inspire me. Wenwu was a corrupt guy, partially redeemed by a woman, and sent back into darkness by her death. His relationship with his kids was affected accordingly. It all required the standard amount of suspension of disbelief, which I was more than willing to grant it. It mostly made sense, and I appreciated that. The performance by Tony Leung Chiu-wai was admirable. But is that a reason for raving about the character like people have been doing? Maybe. Or maybe it's just what we should reasonably expect from a film with this much money and Hollywood prestige behind it. 

Same went for the action. It was creative. It was on the whole well-executed, though I lost the sense of place in a couple of scenes and a handful of moments didn't seem believable (I'm not talking about the dragons or any of that type of stuff, more that a few of the early fights seemed too dance-like or choreographed). 

This film should have ticked all my boxes, so my lack of response to it doesn't make a lot of sense, except when I think of the way I watched it: split up across three days while lying on the floor of my kids' room, watching on my phone as I waited for them to be fully asleep. 

To be fair, that umbrous pause between the final "sweet dreams" and the certainty of those dreams' beginning, when the breathing slows and the night's silence starts to take hold is where and when I watch most things these days. It's almost the only time I have for such pursuits. But it does tend to create a disjointed experience. 

Maybe that's why some things didn't quite click for me. The ten rings themselves didn't seem as powerful as the film made them out to be, and there was quite a bit of vagueness about what they actually did. In a universe like the MCU, does it even mean anything for a character to be known as "the most dangerous man on earth?" I saw what made Wenwu tick, but I didn't see what made him so intimidating. The rings didn't seem to make him that much more powerful than he would have been just with his martial arts skills and army of nameless followers alone, so when Shang Chi gets them, it didn't seem to really matter. Apart from granting immortality (which also could have used clarification), how were the ten rings any different from the weapons wielded by the whole Wakandan army in the various films we've seen them in? I didn't get what made them any more significant than handing a character a fancy sci-fi gun or something.

I also found Awkwafina's character just a little bit distracting at tiimes. 

Anyway, perhaps the biggest thing I didn't get was a strong sense of thematic development. I didn't sense a powerful story, just another standard one with better execution. This isn't meant to be a huge criticism. I liked the film. It was better than most other Marvel films. I just don't think it was as great as I've heard. 

And maybe that's too high an expectation. Maybe the disjointed viewing experience robbed me of certain key connections. Maybe the fact that I've been watching some of the classics of world cinema with my film history class lately put it in an unfair context. 

Thanksgiving break is coming up, and I'll have more time to do things. Maybe I'll give Shang Chi another chance, just to make sure I didn't miss something important.