Spoilery Review of Shang Chi

The most frustrating thing about Shang Chi is it had the potential to be a very good movie. However, there are just too many plot and story problems to kick it up into that category. So here is a list of character names for brevity in the rest of the review.

• Dad - Shang Chi's father. AKA The Mandarin. AKA Fu Manchu. AKA Xu WenWu. Played very well by Tony Leung.
• Mom - Shang Chi's mother.
• Sean - Shang Chi. AKA Xu Shang Chi. Played by Simu Liu
• Katy - Marvel's Katy. AKA Katy. Played by Awkwafina.
• Sis - Shang Chi's sister. AKA Xu Xialing. Played by Meng'her Zhang
• Auntie - Ying Nan. Seans Auntie. Played by Michelle Yeoh

All the acting was good. No complaints there.

Plot Overview

The story is broken in 4 main parts.

Part 1: Meet Dad, Mom, and Sean

So the movie starts out with with Sean's Dad. He finds these magic bracelets (not rings, let's call them bangles) which make him super awesome and immortal. Where did he find these bangles? Don't know. Where did they come from? No idea. He beats up some Babylonians and some Romans. He then decides he wants to exploit the magic kingdom of Ta-Lo. Anywho, his men get killed in the enchanted forest surrounging Ta-Lo. Dad survives. He meets Mom who is the guardian of the forest. They fall in love fighting. End result is Shawn and Sis.

Part 2: Family Trouble (Shown in Flashback)

What happended to Sean's family is covered in flashback so I'll summarize here. So Sean's parents get married and have Sean and Xialing. To his credit, Dad gives up his criminal empire to raise a normal family. Anyway, one day he goes shopping for groceries. Bad guys show up and want revenge. Mom fights them and is beaten to death.

Anyway, Dad returns and is sad. He immediately rehires all his goons and plans his revenge. He begins training Sean ruthlessly to take part in the revenge. Sis however, does not get any training, but trains in secret and become even better than Sean!!! (We know this, she saws so in the movie.) Sean and Sis eventually run away from Dad.

Plot Stuff

No security for your bad guy compound makes no sense. Not a single bodyguard. Not even a dog? Wouldn't you at least have guns? A sling shot? A stick? A knife? Nope. Hell why not run and get the magic bangles? Nope. Just hand to hand, no bangles allowed.

Also, even without her guardian magic, Mom is still a super badass. But the less than impressive bad guys just take her out.

It is implied that Dad blames Sean for not helping his mother. But clearly, Mom and Dad are to blame for not having ANY SECURITY of ANY KIND!!!!

Part 3: Meet Sean and Katy

So 10 years after Sean ran away, he is living in San Francisco and working as a Valet. He spends his nights drinking and doing karaoke with his friend/girlfriend Katy. Like two peas in a pod, they are two slackers in a pod. Its implied both are college educated, but have no ambition.

One day while riding the bus to work, Sean is attacked by bad guys. They want a pendant given to him by his mother. A cool fight ensues with lots of damage to the bus. Sean wins the fight, but loses the pendant. Katy drives the brakeless bus to eventual safety. This was a cool fight scene if a tad a long.

Plot Stuff

Katy has never seen Sean fight, which seems a little ridiculous after 10 years. Also, we never get to see Sean train. How does he stay in shape if all he does is party? Fighting is just like anything else, without practice your skills diminish. It would have been better to show Sean helping people with his skills before the big fight. Maybe leave for the karaoke bar from a dojo or gym? Just a thought.

Travel to Macau

Anyway, Sean realizes these were his Dad's goons. His sister might be in danger! He recieved a postcard from her some months earlier with her address. Sean and Katy immediately hop on a plane for Macau. During the flight Sean explains his past.

They arrive in Macau and go to the address which is turns out to an "underground" fight club in a half finished sky scraper. Sean is immediately drafted into a match against the reigning champ. Who could that be???? Hmmm... Yep, its Sis. She immediately kicks him in the privates and beats him up. Then while explaining how mad she is with him, they are attacked by Dad's goons. A cool fight ensues and the good guys are captured.

Plot Stuff

The fight club thing is just kinda strange. Gambling in Macau is legal. Fighting probably is too. Didn't seem like they were fighting to the death, so why the cloak and dagger? Of course Sis is the bestest ever with better Kung Fu skills. Why not make her the hero of the 10 rings? The movie should be Xialing and the 10 rings as she is a better fighter and definitely not a slacker.

Part 4: To the Magic City of Ta-Lo

Well the Shawn and the gang meet Dad. He has sorta gone crazy. He believes his dead wife is in Ta-Lo waiting for them. Anyway, he puts the necklaces in a statue and it activates a magic map showing a way through the enchanted forest. Kids tell Dad that Mom is dead and they will not help him. So he throws them in jail.

In the rather run down jail, they find Ghandi hanging out with a faceless winged magic animal, a rabbit-chicken. The rabbit-chicken talks to Ghandi telpathically and says he can get them through the forest. So the good guys eaisly escape from jail and head to the enchanted to forest. Using a standard SUV, they eaisly avoid the trees and come to a tunnel that is the entrance to Ta-Lo. No guardian is posted so they just drive in and voila! They are in Ta-Lo.

Plot Stuff
This is where stuff really starts to fall apart. Just driving through the magic woods with a rabbit-chicken and you can get to the tunnel any time. Where is the new guardian? There are no guards posted??? Dad apparently does not like guards either, because back at Dad's compound, not a single guard outside. Escaping sure was easy.

Back to our Story
Well there are magical creatures in Ta-Lo, but the people seem to be magic free for the most part. The seem to be living at a medievil level. Steel weapons, swords, staffs, bow and arrows. Sean meets his Auntie. She explains that Ta-Lo is another dimension that was once a vast advanced civilation. But they were attacked by some evil dragon thingy. Ta-Lo sealed the evil dragon thingy in a nearby cave, but it wiped out everyting but the 100 people in the village.

Every so often, the evil dragon thingy tricks someone from Sean's world into trying to let it go. Alas, this is what is happening to Dad. So Sean and gang hang out in Ta-Lo and wait for Dad to arrive. So to prepare, Katy learns archery, Sean learns Ta-Lo kung fu and Sis ties a knife to the end of chain to make a really dumb weapon. Their weapons and armor are made of super duper tough dragon scale. Where they got the armor?

So Dad shows up with 5 SUVs full of bad dudes. Drives into town and announces he is gonna release the evil dragon thingy. A fight ensues. They bad guys fight with electric staffs that can shock you. The Ta-Lo with their weapons.

Comment
The fight village fight scene is just pathetic. Basically, the good guys and the bad guys just sort of pair up and fight one on one. They mostly seem to be using staffs. But no modern weapons. Boy what would happen of you brought a gun perhaps? Or what if the village posted guards at the tunnel entrance? Or at the tunnel exit? The whole thing is just silly. No real weapons. No real stakes. Heck if that had ACTUALLY used their bow and arrows, they could have killed all the bad guys the moment they stepped out of their SUVs.

Back to the Story
So Dad slips past the fighting and heads to the cave with the evil dragon. Sean goes to stop him. They fight. Sean loses. Dad cracks the cave and flying face sucker things start flying out of the cave. The immediatly attack the people at the village. They attach themselve to a person, then suck out their soul killing them instantly. This is bad.

Dad evenutally ruptures the seal on the cave. The evil dragon grabs Dad and starts sucking out his soul. Before he is killed, he realizes his mistake and gives Sean his bangles. The evil dragon knocks sean into a lake and he starts sinking. The face suckers start giving the evil dragon souls making it stronger. Things look grim.

Before Sean drowns, he notices a dragon is with him at the bottom of the lake. It turns out to be a good dragon! Yay! Sean hops on the good dragon. A very confusing dragon fight ensues that is very hard to follow. Anyway, Marvel's Katy shoots the bad dragon with an arrow. The weakens the bad dragon enough for the good dragon to win. Yay!

The movie ends with Sean and Katy eating dinner with friends explaining their adventures. Then Wong from Dr Strange shows up and tells them they are super heroes now and life will be different. Yay!

Comments
I could not follow the last fight at all. The bad dragon was winning. Why? Beats me. Anyway, at lost after Katy shot it.

Anyway, the biggest problem with the movie is Sean has no agency. He basically is just pulled through events by the other characters. What motivates him? Does he want to be a hero? Is he good or bad? We know more about Dad, Sis, and Katy than we know about Sean.

Anyway, not a terrible movie, but probably not a movie I would add to my collection.

tags: #movie #fantasy #marvel #action