jaystevens’s review published on Letterboxd:
My first time back in theaters! Glad it was this, I loved it. I've got a ton of thoughts rn and the rating is probably influenced by the theater experience which was great so I'm gonna go with the good, the mixed and the bad since I can't really organize my thoughts
Good:
-The best compliment I can give to the movie is that it felt refreshing. Most of the MCU origin stories feel kinda rushed but that's NOT a problem with Shang-Chi. It takes its time to establish the character and his reasons to become a hero and not instantly wear the suit and that was so refreshing.
-The action. It's honestly the best action in the MCU. If the academy had an oscar for best choreography this should win. It's genuinely amazing. If you're not interested in the movie, then watch it for that
-Gotta say that I disagree with all of you and thought Awkwafina was great. Sometimes her humor didn't land (gonna talk about that later) but overall she was great
-Kinda predictable but also not? I mean it was obvious how it would end but it had a few turns that kinda blew me away. Not gonna go into spoilers though
-Made me wanna rewatch Iron Man 3 specially but all the MCU movies in general so I can say it's definitely an improvement over the nothingness of Black Widow
-Also: impressive visual effects
Mixed
-THE HUMOR. It's so mixed. There's a scene (spoilers but really minor skip this part) where Shang is doing exposition (another complaint i have) but then this flight attendant enters and she asks if they want beef or vegetarian and it's so akward. My theater laughed but I... hated it personally. There are some good jokes tho
-Villain was kinda mid. Not gonna expand cuz I'd have to spoil it but it's mixed. Mid-tier villain
-EDITING. It's SO mixed. It's great at times and horrible in others. Not amazing
Bad
-I hate when stuff happens just to move the plot and there's a ton of that in Shang-Chi. No spoilers but there's randomly something that obviously make the plot easier and i just hate that
-Yeah exposition. TOO MUCH EXPOSITION. And specially with the voice-over narration. I hate exposition in Nolan's movies (I love Nolan tho) specially in Tenet but this one feels so forced. At least Tenet put exposition at the right moment
-I have some other complaints but I'd have to spoil the movie and I don't really wanna do that so yeah gonna leave it at that
Overall I do think the rating is influenced by this being my first theater experience since, like, Sonic the Hedgehog but I still think it's great. Might rewatch Iron Man 3 tomorrow