Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Trailer

[Bob_McMillan]

First off, God I hate Awkwafina's voice after her role in Raya and the Last Dragon. I don't find her brand of humor very funny, so it's not looking good that she has such a large role in this movie.

But the martial arts actually looks pretty decent. I don't know anything about Shang-chi, except that he once beat the shit out of Daredevil. I'm quite excited for more MCU content that I don't know much about, the last time I felt like that was with Guardians of the Galaxy.

Sort of a sidenote, but this trailer reminded me so much of the live action Mulan and that's not really a good thing.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Sort of a sidenote, but this trailer reminded me so much of the live action Mulan and that's not really a good thing.

That's because Mulan has that same tepid martial arts action you find in most summer blockbusters (that feature martial arts).

And while I'm not too enamored by Awkwafina, she at least has personality, which is more than I can say about the guy playing Shang-Chi. This trailer really didn't make him come across as anything other than 'guy who martial arts'.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

That's because Mulan has that same tepid martial arts action you find in most summer blockbusters (that feature martial arts).

I thought the one on one fights in the trailer looked good. The battle scene with all the CGI whatevers though, definitely looks very generic. China's got some pretty rich mythology, I wonder why Hollywood never gets it right.

And while I'm not too enamored by Awkwafina, she at least has personality, which is more than I can say about the guy playing Shang-Chi. This trailer really didn't make him come across as anything other than 'guy who martial arts'.

Fair enough. I've never really seen Simu Liu in anything other than that sitcom about a Korean grocery store. Wasn't too impressed by what I saw. But I'm willing to give him a chance.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Fair enough. I've never really seen Simu Liu in anything other than that sitcom about a Korean grocery store. Wasn't too impressed by what I saw. But I'm willing to give him a chance.

It's pretty telling when the most outstanding moment of personality in this trailer is when he re-adjusts his jacket.

 

[BrawlMan]

This is what Iron Fist should have been. Considered me hyped!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I like that it was really serious but then they made a joke.

 

[SilentPony]

I don't know what is it, but this trailer did not sell me at all. Marvel gets the benefit of the doubt sure, but something feels off. Maybe its that Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon wire flying stunts that reminds me of a fight scene from the Thunderbirds, or the completely lack of character Shang Chi seems to have been given but...meh?
Not only am I getting meh vibes from this, I worry Marvel itself gave this thing meh levels of attention. Also I hope Shang-Chi is more than just the master of kung fu, because he was always a D-level fighter in a universe of Gods and monsters. If his thing is he's just a good at punching and kicking, in a universe when Thanos was a thing, how is he going to fit in the Avengers? I mean at least Black Widow is a master spy, and Hawkeye is an Olympic level archer and marksman.

 

[laggyteabag]

I mean, i'll watch it, because im a shameless MCU shill - but I can't say that I am exactly blown away by this trailer.

It just looks weirdly low-budget, and the trailer was weirdly paced.

Not the best first impression, IMO, but people seem to like the way it looks, so maybe that is just me.

Also, costume:

 

[Bob_McMillan]

If his thing is he's just a good at punching and kicking, in a universe when Thanos was a thing, how is he going to fit in the Avengers? I mean at least Black Widow is a master spy, and Hawkeye is an Olympic level archer and marksman.

I mean, he's supposed to be the BEST at martial arts. In the whole world. If Hawkeye can run around in Endgame and somehow both survive and be slightly useful, I don't see why Shang Chi wouldn't belong. That said, he certainly doesn't seem like the world's greatest martial artist in the trailer.

Wikipedia says he sometimes has powers, and he uses chi, which may or may not be the same shit they did in Iron Fist, I can't remember. I can totally see them making him just another Iron Fist except all his appendages can glow.

 

[happyninja42]

Yeah can't really say much about his acting, as he literally said a total of 5 words, split between 2 different scenes. So, either his acting is just not great, so they are editing it out, or they just felt like doing mostly action anyway. I'll reserve judgement on his acting chops, since they were so blatant at not including it.

Action looks fine.

That's because Mulan has that same tepid martial arts action you find in most summer blockbusters (that feature martial arts).

And while I'm not too enamored by Awkwafina, she at least has personality, which is more than I can say about the guy playing Shang-Chi. This trailer really didn't make him come across as anything other than 'guy who martial arts'.

Was she the bus driver? I'll admit I did chuckle at her content. Felt VERY much like they were channeling Speed 1 with that scene. Which was fine, it was where I actually sort of focused in when casually watching the trailer. Everything else was just action cinematics, and training montage. That was something like a "real" situation that this marvel hero was involved in. And if we're going for more low-key action (at least at first), with his heroics, like Defender (C scale hero) stuff, then a guy using his extreme physicality and martial arts, to bodily protect people during an extended car accident, by basically Kung Fu-ing them around the bus to avoid injury....yeah I can dig that. Kind of reminds me of...some martial arts film...I can't recall which one, but the fighter guy was tied up to someone they were protecting, and they spent the fight, simultaneously using the bondage as a weapon/defense, bodily using the ward as a weapon, while also having to relocate the person to avoid them being hurt. So if that bus scene is mostly like that, I can dig it.

 

[happyninja42]

I mean, he's supposed to be the BEST at martial arts. In the whole world. If Hawkeye can run around in Endgame and somehow both survive and be slightly useful, I don't see why Shang Chi wouldn't belong. That said, he certainly doesn't seem like the world's greatest martial artist in the trailer.

Wikipedia says he sometimes has powers, and he uses chi, which may or may not be the same shit they did in Iron Fist, I can't remember. I can totally see them making him just another Iron Fist except all his appendages can glow.

Well I mean "Fighter dude with energy/magic powers" is hardly a rare thing in Marvel/DC. If his character sheet says "Badass fighter, with magical power enhancement" yeah that should be more than enough for the MCU in general. Like others have said, 2 vanilla humans with nothing but government training were capable of filling out 2/5's of the Avenger roster. Magical ancient martial artist with ancient chi powers sounds like an upgrade to me.

 

[SilentPony]

I mean, he's supposed to be the BEST at martial arts. In the whole world. If Hawkeye can run around in Endgame and somehow both survive and be slightly useful, I don't see why Shang Chi wouldn't belong. That said, he certainly doesn't seem like the world's greatest martial artist in the trailer.

Wikipedia says he sometimes has powers, and he uses chi, which may or may not be the same shit they did in Iron Fist, I can't remember. I can totally see them making him just another Iron Fist except all his appendages can glow.

Yeah if he can pull a Dragon Ball and be a great fighter who can cast chi blasts or fly or have super speed or something, I can fully get behind his addition.
I guess my worry is we already has Sam Wilson, regular dude, taking the place of a super soldier. On the Avengers team we had max 2 normal dudes, Black Widow and Hawkeye. So with Sam as new Cap, and potentially Shang-Chi as really good at fighting normal dude, that's our quota. Everyone else needs to be a super hero of some kind, which we have Bucky, Spiderman and Dr. Strange, so that fits. And War Machine with a suit. And I'm guessing Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel are on the team? And I think Black Knight and Nova have powers.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Also, costume:

The guy's comic book costume is hardly iconic, but I really thought they could have done better than that. I'd have preferred a Bruce Lee inspired look.

And I'm guessing Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel are on the team? And I think Black Knight and Nova have powers.

It's totally possible that they aren't planning to make everyone Avengers this time (although admittedly, not as likely as the opposite). We have what could be the new Black Widow, Moon Knight, Black Knight (who I think only has a magic sword and not much more) and the new Hawkeye. Lots of normal people that I would be totally fine leaving out of the Avenger's lineup.

 

[happyninja42]

Yeah if he can pull a Dragon Ball and be a great fighter who can cast chi blasts or fly or have super speed or something, I can fully get behind his addition.
I guess my worry is we already has Sam Wilson, regular dude, taking the place of a super soldier. On the Avengers team we had max 2 normal dudes, Black Widow and Hawkeye. So with Sam as new Cap, and potentially Shang-Chi as really good at fighting normal dude, that's our quota. Everyone else needs to be a super hero of some kind, which we have Bucky, Spiderman and Dr. Strange, so that fits. And War Machine with a suit. And I'm guessing Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel are on the team? And I think Black Knight and Nova have powers.

Ok but...where is it written that "you must only have 2 normies in the roster at any given time." ? I mean I agree, super powers are pretty mandatory when the whole point of the avengers is to deal with supernatural (and almost without fail, thus superpowered) threats. But, there's nothing saying it's written in the shield charter or whatever.

Also, we clearly see some magical monsters and mystical shit in the flashbacks, so odds are basically 100% in my book that he's got "magical martial arts powers"

 

[McElroy]

I like that it was really serious but then they made a joke.

Haha, took you 13 years and an untold number of movies to figure out the formula!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Haha, took you 13 years and an untold number of movies to figure out the formula!

I like that they're serious but then somebody tells a joke. And that you learn about teamwork but also friendship.

 

[SilentPony]

Ok but...where is it written that "you must only have 2 normies in the roster at any given time." ? I mean I agree, super powers are pretty mandatory when the whole point of the avengers is to deal with supernatural (and almost without fail, thus superpowered) threats. But, there's nothing saying it's written in the shield charter or whatever.

Also, we clearly see some magical monsters and mystical shit in the flashbacks, so odds are basically 100% in my book that he's got "magical martial arts powers"

I mean its true there is no 2 or less rule, but Feige has said things are going to get more cosmic and larger and threats even more serious. and the Avengers barely pulled off a win against Thanos, and they were almost all super heroes of one stripe or another. I cant imagine Marvel bring like Galactus or Magneto or someone similar and the Avengers are like "We need that Kung Fu master to punch God."
I just don't want them setting it up that the Avengers are assembled, but its all really just Captain Marvel because she's the only one strong enough to fight.

 

[happyninja42]

I mean its true there is no 2 or less rule, but Feige has said things are going to get more cosmic and larger and threats even more serious. and the Avengers barely pulled off a win against Thanos, and they were almost all super heroes of one stripe or another. I cant imagine Marvel bring like Galactus or Magneto or someone similar and the Avengers are like "We need that Kung Fu master to punch God."
I just don't want them setting it up that the Avengers are assembled, but its all really just Captain Marvel because she's the only one strong enough to fight.

Yeah well, the problem is that the threat of Thanos, as presented in the films, is disjointed at best. He's powerful enough WITHOUT any of the stones in Endgame to hold off the entire Avengers, but was weaker WITH the stones (and also fighting fewer Avengers), in Infinity War to be a threat? It's entirely down to plot armor. So it's entirely possible that they introduce some BBEG with cosmic powers, that are cancelled out because of Secret Magical Ninja Kung Fu Chi Guy, in classic yin/yang logic. I mean come on, this is Marvel, shit doesn't make sense, and they don't care. It just has to make narrative sense, and even that's debatable.

 

[Piscian]

The trailer was....fine? I hate to say they might as well just renamed one of Jet-lee movies Shang-chi, put it back out and theaters and people might not have even noticed the difference, just dub in a couple marvel references. All this to say jit seems like a generic kung-fu action flick. It looks like 3 or 4 Jacky chan movies I've already seen. That said it also doesn't look partially offensive which is good at least. I will parrot OP, I can not stand Awkwafina. Props to her for falling as backwards into hollywood work, but I don't find her remotely funny.

 

[happyninja42]

I will say that I enjoyed a tiny bit of editing of the soundtrack with the dialogue. First, the singer kept doing the "woooop!" high pitch sound, that made me think he was doing a Bruce Lee impression. He mentions awakening/angering the dragon, again sounding like an Enter the Dragon reference. And then, when the narrator, his father says, at around 1:18 "You can't run." The song immediately says "I run from none!" Which I thought was a nice blending of music with character intention. Good editing there.

I will say that I find myself mildly interested in this, more than most of the other MCU stuff I've heard tidbits about. I admit I'm a bit biased to ancient mystical martial arts stuff, and a story about the son of a crime family, defying his traditional legacy, to...you know...not be a murderous asshole for the sake of power, I can totally dig that shit too. So a lot of the elements are there for it to be something I enjoy. Whether the writing/acting/plot actually pans out to make it enjoyable remains to be seen. It might just be all spectacle, and if so, I won't enjoy it much. But there is definitely room for it. I mean he is of Chinese origin, the character I mean. And one thing I've learned from the, admittedly limited, series of Chinese wuxia films, is they LOVE some tragedy. So it could theoretically go somewhere pretty dark, given the genre they are using for the story. Probably won't be too dark, or sad ending, because Disney. But, it's certainly got room for some depth to it.