So I finally watched Shang Chi on Disney Plus last night, and I’m not sure what it is with Asian led films from Disney, but these ain’t been hitting the way they supposed to since the animation version of Mulan! And I don’t know WTF IS GOING ON! It’s starting to piss me TF off!
Similar to Raya and the Last Dragon, I felt an emotional disconnect with Shang Chi. The story itself feels weak AF, although thankfully not predictable.
But it still wasn’t as entertaining as I thought it would be. It felt pretty basic. And I don’t get why! So let’s see if I can unpack these feelings while I write this Shang Chi review?
Shang Chi is now streaming on Disney Plus, so here’s my full review.
I’m not sure what it is about Shang Chi, but the overall amazement factor Marvel films usually have was nil to none.
Thank goodness for Morris though!
And all the other cool concepts for magical creatures. I love me some magical creatures!
They still weren’t enough to completely wow me though.
Maybe the film itself was just too long? An hour in (to the almost two and a half hours long film) and I still felt like we had gotten no where!
Why did this story move so incredibly slow? Where was all the action?
There were a few moments, filled with awesome fight choreography that I think were cool. But once those incredibly hard to believe fights were over, everything went back to a boring normal day. And maybe that’s my problem?
Normally sci-fi stories, especially Disney films, transport me into a whole new world! But Shang Chi felt incredibly fake?!
And it wasn’t the fighting, or the magic, or the set of ten rings felt like they were stolen out of a Sonic video game! Those we clearly know are fake!
It’s everything in between those moments that bothered me.
Like the bus driver who had to take his headphones out of his ears so he could drive the bus better?
SINCE WHEN ARE BUS DRIVERS ALLOWED TO WEAR HEADPHONES?
And you’re telling me that whole fight went down in the bus without not one person trying to escape the drama?
So everyone just sat there and watched a man grow a sword from his arm and waited to see what would happen next like they were watching a damn movie and couldn’t die at any moment?
Ironically, none of them did die, so maybe they knew something I didn’t!
Then there’s the moment where everyone but one man survives a car falling off a cliff, and he only survives because he somehow magically flips out of the car while it’s falling?
Even shit like … two friends staying up all night to do karaoke, instead of being “responsible” and resting for work the next day bothered me. How the hell did they magically wake up the next morning perfectly fine for work? They got like what four hours of sleep?
They weren’t tired at ALL the next day?
You’re trying to convince us that these two friends are a disappointment to their family, and make poor decisions as adults, but then they don’t even suffer any actual consequences the next day when they make a “bad” decision?
How sway!
Maybe they’re like 20 and still have “pull an all nighter” energy? Who TF knows!
Please don’t just write Asian led films just for the sake of it DISNEY!
Don’t keep making the same Soul mistake! Y’all know what I’m talking bout!
Please make your POC led films just as badass as your others! Cause I’m looking at y’all sideways now.
And I’m still not sure how I feel about the dad being the villain in a POC story just yet. But I’ll unpack those thoughts on another day because whew lawd!
I do like that red represented the protagonist in this, since I know red is an important color in Asian culture. So having blue for the villain instead of red was a nice touch.
Oh and I did notice the string music in the scoring! Which I also thought was a nice touch.
But yeah, this has to be the worst out of all the Marvel releases recently and since this was Asian led I’m completely disappointed! I was really excited to watch Shang Chi and now I’m sitting here like what the f*ck!
Someone please explain to me what you liked about Shang Chi so I can see if it’s just me. Maybe the moon got me in my feelings and I’m tripping y’all!
