• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Michael Caine as Scrooge

      The Muppet’s Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 20, 2022
    • Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 1

      2022’s Christmas Movie Watchlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2022
    • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Poster

      REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • Troll: Ine Marie Wilmann as Nora

      REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry with The Hendersons

      Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • Fantastic Four Poster

      The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Elvis Presley

      Elvis's 40 Year Reign (1954-1955)

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 27, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Big Sky S03e05: Kylie Bunbury, J. Anthony Pena and Katheryn Winnick as Cassie Dewell, Mo Poppernak and Jenny Hoyt

      Big Sky S03E05 Review: Flesh and Blood - Glamping!

      By Salome G
      | October 22, 2022
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Big Sky S03e10: Gang

      Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Rick And Morty: S01e03

      Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e09: Dedee Pfeiffer and Cree as Denise and Emily

      Big Sky S03E09: Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire – Stalling

      By Salome G
      | December 1, 2022
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff as Drax and Mantis

      REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S01: The Gang

      The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e08: Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes

      Big Sky S03E08 Review: Duck Hunting – I love a weirdo.

      By Salome G
      | November 19, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Splatoon 3 Screenshot

      A trio of Nintendo Switch reviews!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 28, 2022
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • AEW All Out 2022: Keith Lee. Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn

      AEW All Out 2022 - Review and (wild) Speculation!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
      AEW
    Recent
    • article placeholder

      Which Is Better AEW vs WWE?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Which Female Wrestler Leaves WWE?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Which WWE Wrestler Had a Heart Attack?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Which WWE Legend Recently Died?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Which WWE Game Has the Best Story Mode?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Which GM Should I Pick WWE 2K22?

      By Coder
      | September 29, 2023
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Which Is Better AEW vs WWE?
    • Which Female Wrestler Leaves WWE?
    • Which WWE Wrestler Had a Heart Attack?
    • Which WWE Legend Recently Died?
    • Which WWE Game Has the Best Story Mode?
    • Which GM Should I Pick WWE 2K22?

    REVIEW: Shang-Chi has an imperfect debut but a lot of potential

    By Matthew Martin
    | September 6, 2021
    Movie Reviews

    First of all, if you want the spoiler-free version of this review or, to put it another way, if you want the movie without context, here it is…

    Shang Chi is like...

    Now with that out of the way let’s talk a little about Dr. Strange, a little more about Guardians of the Galaxy and, maybe, get around to Shang-Chi, too.

    Here’s a movie that has a lot going in its favor that is let down by just a handful of things that could have been improved upon with a little more time in all three phases of development…

    Shang-Chi Poster

    In pre-production, the script could have been punched up a ton, especially in the second act. I’m willing to tolerate a degree of exposition in act one, especially when there’s a lot of lore and mythology to lay down in a truncated timespan. It’s easier to dole these things out in a TV series but when you’ve only got two hours to work with, your first act is only thirty minutes or so; that’s not a lot of time to work with when there’s a literal thousand-year history to unfold. That being said, when we move into act two, that’s where you should expect the movie to kick into high gear. There should be a sense of forward momentum propelling you speedily toward the third act’s big confrontation. Instead, the movie grinds to a halt and we get a series of conversations, memories, flashbacks, flashbacks within flashbacks, and more world-building. Occasionally it’s’ very pretty to look at (in the daytime scenes at least) but beyond the eye candy, there’s not a lot going on in the biggest chunk of the film. Finally, the third act, which I mostly loved, nevertheless had some problems, namely in that it felt like three or four TV episodes worth of world-building, escalating tension, and character development crammed into a half-hour or so. Katy goes from a fish out of water to a master archer in the span of like three scenes, for crying out loud. The whole movie needed another draft, I think, just to polish and smooth out the bumps.

    In production, the line-delivery could have been fine-tuned a lot more, especially in the first act, where some of the dialogue comes off as very stilted, very exposition-heavy, and very bland. At times it was like listening to placeholder dialogue, or the kind of “generic on purpose” stuff you’d hear in a parody comedy sketch about superhero origin stories. Some of this is just my own pet peeve, I know this: Some people simply don’t care about clunky dialogue, but it drives me insane. Anytime someone suddenly tells their longtime friend who they are, what they do for a living, and how long they’ve known each other I want to fire the writer out of a canon. Also, this was one movie where the now-expected Marvel style of quippy humor fell flat more than it worked.

    In post-production, the lighting could have been digitally altered to make it a bit easier to see what was going on in the nighttime scenes. Whenever it was daylight the visuals were stellar but too much of the film was at night, and it was shot very darkly. If it had been shot on film it might’ve added to the artistic flair, but digital “film” and night-time scenes rarely work well together, and this movie was an example of why.

    Now for the positives…

    Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Meng'er Zhang, Simu Liu and Awkwafina

    Shang-Chi is the first Marvel movie since Guardians of the Galaxy that feels like it expands the Marvel Universe. Before GOTG, the MCU was a grounded, earth-based series with only Thor offering hints at a bigger playing field. What GOTG brought was an entirely new sci-fi element to the universe, opening the doors for spaceships, laser guns, aliens, and more to exist side-by-side with Iron Man and his armor suit, and Captain America and his super frisbee. There really hasn’t been another movie that felt like it opened a new door. Dr. Strange did a little bit, but that movie was mostly grounded. Cpt Marvel was mostly an extension of the sci-fi-heavy world Guardians of the Galaxy introduced.

    As mind-bending as it was to see Groot and Rocket on screen for the first time—a giant anthropomorphic tree and a sassy, talking raccoon—Shang-Chi has its own wild and weird world that is fully realized and, by extension, at home in the whole Marvel universe. The climax of the movie features a giant dragon, looking like it flew out of a Studio Ghibli movie and came to life in live-action, fighting a giant tentacle monster dragon thing that sucks souls…and it absolutely works. It made me excited to see these new elements spill over into some future Avengers movie, which is exactly how I felt watching GOTG and wanting to see Rocket and Tony interact.

    Shang-Chi is also the first movie since GOTG to feel almost entirely separated from the rest of the MCU. There are a few cameos and references that keep it linked to the larger universe, but for the most part, this is a solo adventure. That worked to its advantage when things were clicking; it sometimes felt like a first outing to a great film franchise that can stand on its own, ala GOTG. It also put a spotlight on its problems when things weren’t clicking; it sometimes felt like an early-2000s Fox-produced Marvel movie, like a Fantastic Four or DareDevil, albeit with a ton more polish. But enough negativity; when the movie worked it really worked: The action choreography was breathtaking, the mythos was intriguing, and the relationship between the Shang-Chi, Xialing, and their father was my favorite part of the whole picture. The film’s chief villain is not a one-note baddie who wants to take over the world. In fact, he started out that way, gave it up for love, turned bitter and broken when his love died and, in the end, almost accidentally ushered in the end of the world simply because he couldn’t accept the fact that his wife was really gone. You never fully hate or love Wenwu; he straddles the fence perfectly and, in the end, you end up just feeling bad for him. Great character, great writing, and great acting all around for him.

    If the whole movie had been so finely tuned I would be gushing over it.

    8/10 – Shang-Chi is not a perfect debut but there’s a lot of potential there and the hero himself will be a great character going forward. In that sense it’s a lot like Dr. Strange’s debut movie; solid but with enough seeds planted to sprout into something special down the line.

    Tags

    Comic Book MoviesMarvelMCU

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest

    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest

    0 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    You might also like

    • Loki: Season 1 Review – Consequences…

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 19, 2021
    • REVIEW: Black Widow is a fitting coda to a departed hero

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 11, 2021
    • Avengers: Infinity War SPOILER-FILLED thoughts and reflections

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 27, 2018

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Movie Topics

    Recommended for you

    • REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
    • Spirited Away remains Studio Ghibli’s “greatest” film

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 16, 2022
    • Read the Book Instead: The most disappointing book-to-film adaptations

      By Oliver Johnston
      | September 20, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2023 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz