My hope is that Trevor is being kept alive in constant torment by the Mandarin. Would be a good way to show what an awful bastard the Mandarin is, using the mind control ring to make Trevor act as his footstool, punch himself in the face, stuff like that. Shang Chi witnesses this at the Mandarin's court, and later when he is inevitably captured gets thrown into a cell with Trevor who has gone even crazier as a result of his endless psychological torture. This of course results in Shang Chi talking Trevor into helping him escape, with their escape plan being complicated by Trevor's increased looniness.
Damn, that genuinely looks slick as hell. Hopefully the editing doesn't cut the choreography to hell. Also, hoping that Awkwafina has some serious moments to chew on, since she does have acting chops when she's not typecast into the loud comic relief role.
A lot of people would rightfully call Hail to the King bending to whiny fan backlash, and I honestly can't blame them. But it looks like Marvel has really made lemonade with it.
A lot of people would rightfully call Hail to the King bending to whiny fan backlash, and I honestly can't blame them. But it looks like Marvel has really made lemonade with it.
While the backlash to Trevor was obviously primarily about fans not getting their "badass" yellow peril villain, I think the reveal also suffers due to the infamous Ike Perlmutter meddling with the production of Iron Man 3 (the meddling that got Kevin Feige to have disney make Marvel Studios fully independent from Marvel comics).
Like, in the Iron Man 3 that we got, you have this great reveal of Trevor being a manufactured stereotype to prey on US fears in the war on terror and the rise of china... but what does the reveal actually support? In a shocking twist, the villain is really the bland white guy villain who was already obviously the main villain. I'd suspect the original script (that Perlmutter ordered altered because "female villains don't sell toys") had Maya in the same role she had in the original comics Extremis storyline, as the actual mastermind playing at helping Tony investigate, and didn't obviously set anyone other than Mandarin up as a villain only for the rug to be pulled out from under the audience. And if Killian were actually in it he would have been killed off early on, as he is in the original Extremis storyline.
So you're left with a movie that reveals its main villain is exactly the same as the other Iron Man movies, Corporate McEvilguy, who is boring as fuck.
So while Hail to the King does detract from the original reveal, I feel like the original reveal was already sabotaged itself in production, so it feels like less of a loss to me than it could have been.
Like, in the Iron Man 3 that we got, you have this great reveal of Trevor being a manufactured stereotype to prey on US fears in the war on terror and the rise of china... but what does the reveal actually support? In a shocking twist, the villain is really the bland white guy villain who was already obviously the main villain. I'd suspect the original script (that Perlmutter ordered altered because "female villains don't sell toys") had Maya in the same role she had in the original comics Extremis storyline, as the actual mastermind playing at helping Tony investigate, and didn't obviously set anyone other than Mandarin up as a villain only for the rug to be pulled out from under the audience. And if Killian were actually in it he would have been killed off early on, as he is in the original Extremis storyline.
So you're left with a movie that reveals its main villain is exactly the same as the other Iron Man movies, Corporate McEvilguy, who is boring as fuck.
So while Hail to the King does detract from the original reveal, I feel like the original reveal was already sabotaged itself in production, so it feels like less of a loss to me than it could have been.
Rebecca Hall in fact did confirm that was the plan, and that she signed on expecting she were to be the main villain, until suddenly mid-production she got a new script that said Killian, the obvious bait villain, was the real villain and she a reluctant associate who gets shot. It would have explained some loopholes, like why JARVIS was glitching during the attack on Tony's home because Maya did something after they invited her in.
And we probably would have said Rebecca Hall and Gywneth Paltrow fight each other in undies
Like, in the Iron Man 3 that we got, you have this great reveal of Trevor being a manufactured stereotype to prey on US fears in the war on terror and the rise of china... but what does the reveal actually support? In a shocking twist, the villain is really the bland white guy villain who was already obviously the main villain. I'd suspect the original script (that Perlmutter ordered altered because "female villains don't sell toys") had Maya in the same role she had in the original comics Extremis storyline, as the actual mastermind playing at helping Tony investigate, and didn't obviously set anyone other than Mandarin up as a villain only for the rug to be pulled out from under the audience. And if Killian were actually in it he would have been killed off early on, as he is in the original Extremis storyline.
It also gave us the blisteringly stupid moment at the climax of the film where the bland villain whose whole stated characterization is "I realized anyone could be a supervillain so I made an incredibly obvious decoy to conceal my true organization" who then suddenly rips his shirt off to reveal his Chinese dragon tattoos and declares "I AM THE MANDARIN" like this is supposed to be a brain-blowing reveal and not the most idiotic attempt at a superhero movie having one's cake and eating it too ever made.
Eh, I don't think it was ever going to be a surprise. Now mysterious masked figure who apparently trained Shang-Chi and is now attacking him is probably gonna be some kind of big reveal.
IT looks like it's basically just a one scene Cameo, making me suspect we won't get an explanation for how he's out of cryo prison. Wonder if Sharon had anything to do with that.
Honestly they could do either or both and I'd be fine with it.
I knew Abomination was coming back for She Hulk but it's still a surprise to see him here. And honestly it's not a bad decision, functionally he serves as a way to demonstrate just how fucking good Shang-Chi is, in a very "this isn't Netflix Iron Fist, this is someone who can believably win a fight" sort of way.
Something I've seen is talk about the person Abomination is fighting in the trailer being Wong.
Also the dragon in the water, which may or not be Fin Fang Foom but probably won't be called that if it is.
Marvel's 'Shang-Chi' dominated the Labor Day box office while delivering a milestone of Asian cinematic representation.
variety.com
The Marvel adventure is on pace to rack up a mighty $83.5 million over the four-day Labor Day weekend, trumping expectations that had anticipated a debut of between $45 million to $50 million while also shattering barriers for Asian representation on screen.
The film's three-day figure is the second best of the pandemic era, falling just behind "Black Widow's" $80.3 million haul and edging out "F9's" $70 million bow. It also marks a record for Labor Day openings, which is traditionally a sluggish weekend at the box office, besting the previous high-water mark set by 2007's "Halloween," which pulled in $30.6 million more than a decade ago and at a time when catastrophic, global pandemics seemed like the stuff of sci-fi movies.
Unlike "Black Widow," "Shang-Chi" was showing exclusively in theaters. ... Globally, "Shang-Chi" has pulled in $127.6 million after opening in key markets such as France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Brazil and Mexico.
Well it came at the cost of letting Perlmutter get his win, so it's a price NOT worth paying.
Though the shift from Thaddeus's thunderbolts to Madame Hydra's Thunderbolts, I am going to assume a major theme of the Thunderbolts in the MCU is learning to not only live with the legacy the Avengers left behind but also their very real flaws as people.
I'll be watching this on Disney+ once it shows up on the service (6-8 weeks post-theatrical release iirc?), as my state in Australia is currently in lockdown and thus no cinema are available. Should be interesting seeing how Marvel pulls off a martial arts film.
My headcannon now is that the TR guys from IM1 were a rogue cell that split during Wenwu's retirement and whose leader got too ambicious for his own good.
On one hand I'm happy there's wide interest in an Asian superhero and that we will likely see more characters, for example a better chance of seeing Ryan Choi be the first Atom in DC or a proper Cassandra Cain, but on the other making it theater-exclusive means forcing people to risk themselves unnecessairly.
I liked the movie, but the third act was like some 90's TMNT shenanigans.
Okay, so normally I would let this pass, but your phrasing here feels like an attempt to stake out some faux higher moral ground, so I gotta call BS.
comics Cassandra Cain has a very white sounding name. Every appearance of her I have seen has been in a skintight fetish outfit bat suit, so there's no visual "Asian" indicator. And the back story makes clear she was raised by a nucking futs white guy, so I'm pretty sure she doesn't have any socialization in any Asian culture or language.
In short, her being Asian is basically just an Informed Ability that doesn't actually matter to anything.
BoP Cass may not be a "proper" batgirl, but she's a "proper" asian, at least. Her (short but present) backstory is grounded in immigrant generation gap issues that are familiar to most Asian-American kids.
- Why does everyone keep ignoring his sister?
- as if both the writers and the characters didn't know what to do with her
- which is surprising considering that Xu Xialing's origin story is basically Chinese Modesty Blaise. The Disney Plus series practically writes itself
- sweet fight scenes like old school Jackie Chan with MCU gloss
- Awkafina is very typecast at this point
- but we like her anyway
- Wong! Woohoo!
- Abomination? How why
- and they're like punch clock pugilists? Dafuq?! My heart can't hold all this kayfabe
- dark web streaming empire Golden Daggers Fight Club? She is sooo Modesty Blaise (specifically, the Modesty Blaise Expy written by Matt Fraction in his amazing comic Casanova, the one who semi-retired to run the world's coolest casino)
- Extremis enhancile fighting a junior Black Widow IN THE OCTAGON!!!!
- Trevor Fucking Slattery lol
- Poor Razorfist, he knows his boss is crazy but he is loyal
- Looks like the Mandarin doesn't know how to use the rings fully (to be fair, nobody does) Like towing your car with an F-16. Even so, he got pretty good at popping wheelies and Tokyo-drifting within those limitations
- Unless the rings don't have their comic powers. Guess we'll see in future movies
- they are probably dragon-related
- actually really liked the aesthetic of the rings and all the possible configurations. Same kind of design thinking that went into Falcon's wing configurations
- like Kamar Taj sorcery done in metal instead of light
- could probably get some really good video gameplay out of those rings with the right development studio (or in VR)
- brilliant wuxia fight scene between Wenwu and Jing Li. The contrast between sufficiently-advanced bracers and dragon-powered airbending was fucking sweet and loved how the fight almost turned into ballroom dancing at points. Much graceful, such magnificent, wow.
- Death Dealer was cool, the kind of role Luke Goss or Ray Park would have knocked out of the park ten years ago
- One of the Iron Gang had a really awesome leather jacket and I want it
- Dweller in Darkness and its monsters, could they be Deviant-related? As in Eternals?
- I love the Cthulhu-dragon aesthetic contrasting with the dragon-dragon aesthetic
- the regen special effect for the soul suckers was super-creepy
- Hotel California brick joke punchline lol
- Platonic Besties for the win
- hehehehe Gen-Z Ten Rings heeheeheehahaha
See? IRON FIST doesn't look so impossible now DOES IT?!!!!
Verdict: 8.5/10, would be higher if not certain G-rated Disney touches.
variety.com
