TV/Movies Megathread

[The Brain]

If all else fails they can put "The" in front of the titles.

[Barrister]

Now Marvel has proven it can take obscure comic book characters and make a hit movie from them (Guardians of the Galaxy).  But will they be able to keep doing so?

No. And they've already failed once. That won't them stop trying it out again & again.

Which one failed?

[Savonarola]

I thought Shang-Chi could have been better.  For one thing it failed at the basic logic (such as it is) of martial arts movies in that the Shaun learns the ancient, secret technique^TM while he still holds on to selfish desire (he wants to use it to beat up Tony Leung.)  In martial arts movies it's only once the hero has renounced all selfish desire that he is worthy to use the ancient, secret technique^TM.

Awkwafina becoming the mistress of the bow and arrow after an afternoon of practice was weak.  It would have been better if she had been captain of her school archery team, but accidentally killed her coach after he tried to demonstrate his mysterious arrow catching technique.  Though acquitted she was wracked with guilt and never touched her bow again.  That's why she dropped out and became a valet; but in Shang-ba-du (or whatever it was called) she learns to forgive herself and can become the mighty archer she was born to be.

Unlike in other mysterious location stories, like She, Shangri-La or any good Start Trek episodes, there's never any doubt that the residents of Shang-ba-du are righteous.  It would have been better if there seemed to be some possibility that they actually were imprisoning Tony Leung's wife.

While, by the standards of martial arts movies,  there's nothing improbable about Li being an incredibly deadly rhythm gymnast; it does seem to undercut the Girl Power message of the film.  At least give her a naginata or something

That being said I thought the scaffold scenes was one of the better martial arts brawls in western cinema and the bus scene was well done.  I thought this and Black Widow relied too heavily on action sequences (even for superhero films) but Marvel's all star Senior class has graduated so this is going to be a rebuilding year.

[celedhring]

Well, I have decided this is going to be Celed's week of dumb movies, and I will start tonight with Sang Chi.

[Josquius]

Savs review-

Yes. You know watching it when they first showed up in Chinese narnia (how does this relate to the iron fist mystic land?) I did get vibes that maybe all wasn't as it seemed. But then they quickly rushed through that all was fine and we totally trust you outsiders.

More than just overcoming his flaw the way Shang suddenly gained control of the rings didn't make sense at all to me. Zero explanation and I can't even guess. The rings chose him as worthy? Dad had given up on them sub consciously? He has some mystic powers from mammy?

That would have been a nice way to handle awkwafina (what's with the name? Always wondered) better. Wonder if they plan to make her the new hawk eye.

I used to be super into Hong Kong films so I do stand by there being a lot to like about the real world fight scenes. Especially the bus.

The movie started with a man who had lived 1000 years and had superpowers.

That's the supernatural prologue. Which as supernatural stuff goes- long living guy with dynasty warriors fighting strength-isn't really that far out there.
The end of the move stepping out of the real world and into the supernatural with this guy is expected. What isn't expected is him to just be background noise amidst the never ending story business going on.

Superhero movie is too superhero-y. i don't like it. And while I'm at it, have you seen superman? since when can men fly and shoot laser-beams from their eyes?

That would be bad enough in itself. I'm sick of the generic marvel template and a equally good formulaic superhero movie now vs 10 years ago will score lower in my estimation.
But what they did wasn't like a superhero movie at all. Shang chi wasn the main protagonist but not the dominant lone saviour of superheroes. Rather it went wacky in quite a different and not particularly appreciated way.

[viper37]

Shang Chi-starts off excellent. Like Jackie Chan at his peak with just enough special effects to still be within believability. Absolutely great stuff. Such a change from the typical marvel non interactive video game action scenes .
By the ending its just stupid. Takes things much further than marvel and is a nonsensical mess.

Eh?
I've seen some professional reviews broadly agree with this.

I'll go out on a limb and guess the ending involve some gay romance or something and that's why Garb is pissed

Don't be that asshole.

Ok. but please explain why you disagree for those of us who haven't seen the movie yet
What is it you truly liked about the ending that made you roll your eyes to Tyr's comment?

[viper37]

Superhero movie is too superhero-y. i don't like it. And while I'm at it, have you seen superman? since when can men fly and shoot laser-beams from their eyes?

He's not a man, he's an alien

[HVC]

Superhero movie is too superhero-y. i don't like it. And while I'm at it, have you seen superman? since when can men fly and shoot laser-beams from their eyes?

He's not a man, he's an alien

Fine, why can the flash run really really fast

[celedhring]

Ok, finished it. I agree with Sav, most of the "story" just feels like an afterthought to deliver the set pieces, even more so than in other Marvel films. It's all really super-flimsy and the internal logic is really contrived (I almost turned it off after the whole bit with Slattery and the flurry that gets them inside the village).

Now, I love wuxia films so the action and aesthetics at least felt different from the usual Marvel fare. The lead is absurdly likeable, too.

That being said I thought the scaffold scenes was one of the better martial arts brawls in western cinema and the bus scene was well done.

Less balletic, but I still put the Crazy 88 fight on top.

[garbon]

Ok. but please explain why you disagree for those of us who haven't seen the movie yet
What is it you truly liked about the ending that made you roll your eyes to Tyr's comment?

I enjoyed it for reasons that celedh has now mentioned (plus I enjoyed the soundtrack) - though I also agree with some of the items that he and Sav mentioned about weaknesses of the film. And so overall, I found it quite enjoyable and contrary to the suggestion by Tyr on critical reception - RT has a 92% score.

I also found Tyr's initial and subsequent posts about the lack of realism to be ridiculous in judging the film. The film doesn't even try to start on a note of realism. He might be tired of the MCU formula (and fair as it really takes away any tension in the films, you know the good guys will win however undeserving they may be) but that's not really a reason construct a flimsy argument to bash it.

[Sheilbh]

The movie started with a man who had lived 1000 years and had superpowers.

Sure. But - I haven't seen the film which will not restrain me from wading in - but I think it's fair to say there is Marvel action sequence formula that we've all seen a lot of now and it might be getting a bit tired. Introducing a wuxia element for some films might be a way of getting around that contempt through familiarity - but I think the current superhero thing is a bit like Western films in the 50s and 60s and at some point we will push at the edge of interest if it doesn't innovate. And that's my pitch for a more gritty spaghetti MCU

Separately I think there is a problem for a franchise in making us care [spoiler]when they've already killed of literally 50% of the universe.[/spoiler] Most Marvel films have been a bit poor at stakes - I think that might now be an issue for the whole franchise.

Having said that I know a few people who absolutely loved it.

[Josquius]

The trouble with marvel films overall is something that you see in a lot of genre series whether it's dragonball, buffy, stargate, etc... That is power bloat.
Every new villain has to be bigger and badder than the one that went before.
This... Really grows tired. In shang chi they've pretty much got a totally undeveloped big bad world endangering threat of the week popping up in the last half hour, not even mentioned before that, and promptly beaten by a handwavium magic dragon also out of nowhere.
Where I was hoping shang chi might stick with its earlier established more grounded realistic schtick was as a step away from this universal threat never ending bloat.
The world doesn't have to be at stake for a story to be exciting. Properly written a story can be just as good with the most minor of stakes. Even with superhero films there's plenty of good stories to be told with lower level heroes.
Shang chi was kind of going with this... Could be a good story of shang chi vs his dad. A powerful guy but realistically if shang chi fails then thor or somebody steps in to slap him down before daddy conquers the world. The stakes are more the personal ones for shang and his sister.
Then no.
What even happened at the end there? This isn't multiverse stuff. Rather it's...parallel realms. Is that happening now alongside the multiverse?

[viper37]

Ok. but please explain why you disagree for those of us who haven't seen the movie yet
What is it you truly liked about the ending that made you roll your eyes to Tyr's comment?

I enjoyed it for reasons that celedh has now mentioned (plus I enjoyed the soundtrack) - though I also agree with some of the items that he and Sav mentioned about weaknesses of the film. And so overall, I found it quite enjoyable and contrary to the suggestion by Tyr on critical reception - RT has a 92% score.

I also found Tyr's initial and subsequent posts about the lack of realism to be ridiculous in judging the film. The film doesn't even try to start on a note of realism. He might be tired of the MCU formula (and fair as it really takes away any tension in the films, you know the good guys will win however undeserving they may be) but that's not really a reason construct a flimsy argument to bash it.

ok, thank you very much.    I had read bad reviews (really, really bad), and was wondering if I should see it or not.

I'm leaning toward seeing it for now.

[Grey Fox]

Now Marvel has proven it can take obscure comic book characters and make a hit movie from them (Guardians of the Galaxy).  But will they be able to keep doing so?

No. And they've already failed once. That won't them stop trying it out again & again.

Which one failed?

The Inhumans.

[The Larch]

Now Marvel has proven it can take obscure comic book characters and make a hit movie from them (Guardians of the Galaxy).  But will they be able to keep doing so?

No. And they've already failed once. That won't them stop trying it out again & again.

Which one failed?

The Inhumans.

That was a TV show, not a movie.