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Friday, February 16, 2024
#IReadsYou Movie Review: MADAME WEB
Friday, November 10, 2023
#IReadsYou Movie Review: THE MARVELS
Friday, August 18, 2023
#IReadsYou Movie Review: BLUE BEETLE
Friday, June 23, 2023
#IReadsYou Movie Review: THE FLASH
Monday, June 19, 2023
Two Musical Tracks Released from "'The Flash' (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)"
Friday, May 5, 2023
#IReadsYou Movie Review: "GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3"
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
"Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham" Animated Movie Has Arrived on Blu-ray
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
#IReadsYou Movie Review: SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
Animated Film, "Legion of Super-Heroes," Arrives on Blu-ray Feb. 7th
Friday, April 1, 2022
#IReadsYou Movie Review: MORBIUS
Morbius (2022)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, some frightening images, and brief strong language
DIRECTOR: Daniel Espinosa
WRITERS: Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless; from a story by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (based on the Marvel Comics)
PRODUCERS: Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Lucas Foster
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Oliver Wood
EDITOR: Pietro Scalia
COMPOSER: Joe Ekstrand
SUPERHERO/FANTASY/HORROR/ACTION
Starring: Jared Leto, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Matt Smith, Al Madrigal, Charlie Shotwell, Joseph Esson, and Tyrese Harris and Michael Keaton
Morbius is a 2022 superhero fantasy-horror and action film directed by Daniel Espinosa. The movie is based on the Marvel Comics character, “Morbius, the Living Vampire”/Dr. Michael Morbius, which was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (cover dated: October 1971). This is also the third film in “Sony's Spider-Man Universe” (SSU) series. Morbius the film focuses on a scientist who tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease but instead turns himself into a new kind of vampire.
Morbius introduces Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto). He is a genius, a scientist, and has a talent for fabricating technology. He is also suffering from a rare blood disease and has spent his adult life looking for a cure to that disease which often kills those afflicted with it at a young age. Michael is 35-years-old, and he recently refused a Nobel Prize.
Michael is currently engaged in illegal experiments involving vampire bats that he stole from a cave in Costa Rica. Although she is critical of him for these experiments, Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona), Michael's fellow scientist and girlfriend, works with him. Once he believes that he has finally created the cure for his rare blood disease, Michael injects himself with the formula. Michael's body is transformed into that of an Olympic-level athlete, but the cure also turns him into a vampire – one with a powerful blood lust. Now, the bodies of people with the blood drained from their bodies are being found all over the city. Is Morbius the killer … or is Morbius responsible?
Morbius is about Morbius. The only other character that this film allows any traction is Martine Bancroft. It isn't that the screenplay is shallow; I find that it attempts a serious contemplation of both Dr. Michael Morbius' character and Morbius the vampire's dilemma. I wish the film's story had taken more time with the two FBI agents hunting Morbius, comic relief Alberto “Al” Rodriguez (Al Madrigal) and the really serious Black man, Simon Stroud (Tyrese Gibson).
Morbius may be Jared Leto's best performance in a film in years. I prefer Leto's Dr. Michael Morbius to “Rayon,” the drug addicted, HIV-positive trans woman he played in the 2013 film, Dallas Buyers Club. Leto won a “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar for playing Rayon, a character I found shallow. In Morbius, Leto's good looks, his vanity, his obvious acting talent, and his imaginative approach to fashioning characters and performances serve both him and film, quite well. I found both Dr. Michael Morbius and Morbius the vampire to be endlessly fascinating characters and not at all shallow.
It feels weird for me to recommend this film for Jared Leto's performance, but I am. Morbius is officially part of a superhero film universe. Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) from the 2017 film, Spider-Man: Homecoming, even makes an appearance in Morbius in order to solidify some connections between Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). That connection thrills the fanboy in me. I like Morbius, and I am giving it a higher grade than I probably would. And that is because of Jared Leto's outstanding work in Morbius
B
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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Friday, March 4, 2022
#IReadsYou Movie Review: THE BATMAN
Running time: 175 minutes (2 hours, 55 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language, and some suggestive material
DIRECTOR: Matt Reeves
WRITERS: Matt Reeves and Peter Craig (based on Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger)
PRODUCERS: Dylan Clark and Matt Reeves
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Greig Fraser (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: William Hoy and Tyler Nelson
COMPOSER: Michael Giacchino
SUPERHERO/FANTASY/ACTION and DRAMA/MYSTERY
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Paul Dano, Colin Farrell, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, Peter Sarsgaard, Jayme Lawson, Gil Perez-Abraham, Alex Ferns, Rupert Penry-Jones, Hana Hrzic, Charlie Carver, Max Carver, Luke Roberts, Stella Stocker, and Barry Keoghan
The Batman is a 2022 superhero action-drama from director Matt Reeves. It is the eighth film in the modern Batman film franchise that began with director Tim Burton's 1989 film, Batman, and it is a reboot of the Batman film franchise. In The Batman, a sadistic serial killer begins murdering key political figures, forcing Batman to investigate his city's hidden corruption, which may involve both his father and mother's side of the family.
The Batman opens on Halloween. The Gotham City mayoral race is in the final stretch between incumbent Mayor Don Mitchell Jr. (Robert Pattinson) and challenger, Bella Reál (Jayme Lawson). A sadistic new serial killer, who calls himself "The Riddler" (Paul Dano), murders Mayor Mitchell. Thus, begins The Riddler's wave of murder and terror.
The Batman (Robert Pattinson), a vigilante who has operated in Gotham for two years, works alongside Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) of the Gotham City Police Department, much to the chagrin of many rank and file officers and higher-ups in the department. They discover that with each of his murders, The Riddler leaves a message for Batman.
Batman is really reclusive billionaire, Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson), who obsessively protects Gotham. So focused on his mission is Bruce that he pushes away his loyal butler and mentor, Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis). However, Batman ends up partnering with Selina Kyle ( Zoë Kravitz), a waitress who is something of a cat burglar – a “Catwoman” – who is trying to find her missing roommate and girlfriend Annika (Hana Hrzic).
The Batman will be forced to reckon with Gotham City's hidden corruption and also face tough questions about his late parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne's (Luke Roberts and Stella Stocker) involvement in that corruption Especially, troubling is Thomas Wayne's connection to a notorious Gotham crime lord, Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).
The Batman is a film that borrows liberally from the recent film and comic book past of Batman. I recognize story elements borrowed from Batman comic book stories like “Batman: Year One” and “Zero Year.” There are allusions to Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film; even composer Michael Giacchino's score seems to reference composer Danny Elfman's score for Burton's film.
However, director Matt Reeves, in making The Batman, seems obsessed with or bewitched by director Christopher Nolan's hugely popular Batman films: Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), referred to as “The Dark Knight trilogy.” Nolan's film were “dark” and edgy in terms of subject matter, plots, and characters, but Nolan filled the films with invigorating and tense action set pieces.
The Batman is just dark. It is as if Reeves took Nolan's aesthetic and through a coal black filter over it. The Gotham City of this film seems like a real-life city, and it is dark as all Hell at night and damp – really damp. Reeves and his co-screenwriter, Peter Craig, fashion a story that is overwhelmed with political corruption and depraved criminals that are dark in personality and even darker in motivation. Bruce Wayne is morose, as if both actor Robert Pattinson and Matt Reeves are determined to make him a caricature of the caricature that has become iconic rock musician, the late Kurt Cobain. It is an utter waste of Pattinson's potential as both an actor and a movie star.
On the other hand, Pattinson's Batman has more layers. Pattinson makes him formidable and dangerous, but also introspective and capable of mercy. This Batman is also a fierce fighter, but is physically vulnerable; Bruce's body is marked with the scars of his Batman activities. Batman is often knocked down by his opponents in hand to hand combat and seriously injured by gunfire.
Too bad that The Batman does not have better villains. They aren't really worth talking about, but I do want to point out the really terrible version of The Riddler that is in this film. He is a whiny, boring incel, and as The Riddler, actor Paul Dano is more doofus than diabolical.
The Batman does have good supporting characters, but the script does not give them much with which to work. Zoë Kravitz is full of fire and talent as Selina Kyle, and when she is allowed to show her acting chops, she steals entire scenes. Most of the time, however, it feels like all the filmmakers really want her to do is pose and look bad-ass slash alluring. James Gordon is a mostly one-note character, and even the supremely talented Jeffrey Wright cannot make the character be more than that. I won't get into how much the brilliant Andy Serkis is wasted as Alfred Pennyworth.
The Batman is truly at its best during the fights, chases, and action scenes. The film also gives us a monster-like Batmobile that is more muscle car than mobile, and when Batman uses it to pursue the Penguin (Colin Farrell) in his car, the film seems to explode off the screen.
What keeps The Batman from being a really good film, to say nothing of being a great film, is that it is too long. It is half kick-ass action and half plodding melodrama, and I wish the plodding melodrama had been cut in half. Honestly, I would only recommend The Batman to people who enjoy watching Batman movies, regardless of whether they are comic book fans or not.
B
Friday, March 4, 2022
The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.
Friday, December 17, 2021
#IReadsYou Movie Review: SPIDER-MAN: No Way Home
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Running time: 148 minutes (2 hours, 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, some language and brief suggestive comments
DIRECTOR: Jon Watts
WRITERS: Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (based upon the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko)
PRODUCERS: Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mauro Fiore (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Leigh Folsom Boyd and Jeffrey Ford
COMPOSER: Michael Giacchino
SUPERHERO/DRAMA/ACTION/ROMANCE
Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx,Willem DaFoe, Alfred Molina, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, Angourie Rice, Arian Moayed, Hannibal Buress, Martin Starr, J.B. Smoove, J.K. Simmons, Thomas Hayden Church, Rhys Ifans, Charlie Cox, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire
Spider-Man: No Way Home is a 2021 superhero film and drama from director Jon Watts. It is the eighth film in Columbia Picture's Spider-Man film franchise, and it is the third entry in a film trilogy that began with 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming. No Way Home is also a co-production between Columbia and Marvel Studios, making it the 27th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In No Way Home, Peter Parker turns to fellow Avenger, Doctor Strange, for help in making the world forget that he is Spider-Man, with disastrous results.
Spider-Man: No Way Home opens one week after the events depicted in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). Peter Parker's (Tom Holland) identity as Spider-Man has been revealed to the world, and Spider-Man has been framed for the murder of Mysterio/Quentin Beck, whom some in the public see as a hero and a warrior. Although his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) takes the news better than expected, Peter is stilled concerned with how the news is affecting the lives of his girlfriend, Michelle “MJ” Jones-Watson (Zendaya), and his best friend, Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon).
Peter turns to Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help. He asks Doctor Strange to cast a mystic spell that will make the world forget that he is Spider-Man, but Strange's mentor and friend, Wong (Benedict Wong), warns him about casting such a spell. Strange casts the spell anyway, but Peter damages it by constantly asking for changes in who can remember him, which destabilizes the magic. That in turn destabilizes the multiverse, causing cracks in reality. Yes, the multiverse is real, and now, people from other universes who know that Peter is Spider-Man start showing up in Peter's world. And that includes some dangerous villains who have previously engaged Spider-Man in death matches. Peter does not know any of them, but he is determined to save them from their fates. Is our young hero willing to pay the costs and make the sacrifices that it will take to make everything right in this world and in the wider multiverse?
Sony Pictures is determined to keep social media and media in general from spoiling the many surprises contained in its film, Spider-Man: No Way Home. The film does a number of things very well, but it does two things particularly well. Talking about the first could reveal spoilers, so what I will say is that this film gives us the appearances by certain characters and actors that many of us have wanted since we first heard the rumors that this film would deal with the multiverse. Most of the character appearances are not cameos, and they contribute significantly to No Way Home. The audience which with I saw No Way Home this past evening cheered with gusto for each special appearance. They cheered as much as I ever heard an audience cheer during a superhero film.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is a joint production between Sony Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures' Marvel Studios. One of the many things that Marvel's films do well is character development and drama. No Way Home is the first film in the Sony/Marvel Spider-Man trilogy in which Peter Parker is confronted with the high costs of being Spider-Man. Until this film, he has been relatively unscathed., but now, he learns that the decisions he makes can have ruinous consequences. He suffers humiliations, setbacks, and heartbreaking loss. He learns that with great power there must come great responsibility, and he learns that true heroes often make tremendous personal sacrifices for the benefit of others. In No Way Home, Spider-Man becomes a man.
Don't get me wrong. Spider-Man: No Way Home is certainly a true crowd-pleaser, and it is also one of the best films that I have seen this year. As Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Tom Holland gives a wonderful performance in a film that requires him to express a wide range of emotions, sometimes from one extreme to another. Holland, in layers, with textures, and with art, shows us the evolution of Spider-Man and especially of Peter Parker. Spider-Man: No Way Home is one for the ages, and it is a great way to end one Spider-Man trilogy … so that the next one can come home.
A+
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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Friday, November 5, 2021
#IReadsYou Film Review: ETERNALS
Running time: 157 minutes (2 hours, 37 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for fantasy violence and action, some language and brief sexuality
DIRECTOR: Chloé Zhao
WRITERS: Chloé Zhao, Chloé Zhao & Patrick Burleigh and Ryan Firpo & Kaz Firpo; from a screen story by Ryan Firpo & Kaz Firpo (based upon the Marvel Comics by Jack Kirby)
PRODUCERS: Kevin Feige and Nate Moore
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ben Davis (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Dylan Tichenor and Craig Wood
COMPOSER: Ramin Djawadi
SUPERHERO/DRAMA/ACTION
Starring: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Barry Keoghan, Lia McHugh, Bryan Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Don Lee, Harish Patel, Haaz Sleiman, Esai Daniel Cross, and David Kaye (voice) with Salma Hayek, Kit Harringston, and Angelina Jolie
Eternals is a 2021 superhero film directed by Chloé Zhao and produced by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the 26th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) series. The film is based on the Marvel Comics stories and characters created by Jack Kirby and first appearing in the comic book, The Eternals #1 (cover dated: July 1976). Eternals the movie focuses on a race of immortal beings who have lived on Earth for millennia, protecting and shaping its people.
Eternals begins with the story of the “Celestials,” the great beings that created the universe. They also created a race of immortals, known as “Eternals,” to do their bidding. Seven thousand years before the present day (5000 BC), ten of these Eternals arrive on Earth from their home planet, Olympia. They are Sersi (Gemma Chan), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (Lia McHugh), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), Druig (Barry Keoghan), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), Thena (Angelina Jolie), and Ajak (Salma Hayek), their leader. They are human-like and have super-powers.
The most powerful Celestial, Arishem (David Kaye), has sent these Eternals to Earth to protect humanity from monsters known as “Deviants.” Over several millennia, the Eternals protect humanity from the dangers posed by Deviants, but they are not allowed to interfere in the development of the humans and their civilizations. In 1500, after believing that they have killed off the last Deviants, the Eternals break apart as a group because they have different opinions on what their responsibility is towards humans going forward.
In the present day, Sersi and Sprite live together in London. One night, they are attacked by a Deviant, but the powerful Eternal, Ikaris, arrives to drive the creature away. Sersi, Sprite, and Ikaris decide to reunite their group in order to be prepared for the renewed threat of the Deviants. However, not all the members are willing to reunite as some have new lives and others hold old grudges. Meanwhile, dark secrets from their past and about their future hinder the Eternals ability to deal with “The Emergence,” an event that threatens to destroy the world.
Eternals is Marvel Studios most unique film to date. For all the talk of there being a formula to Marvel's films, Eternals is like nothing else that Marvel has done and like no other superhero film, for that matter. The costumes, special effects, technology, art direction, and graphic design are key to creating a film that is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also feels separate from it, in a way.
Eternals co-writer and director Chloé Zhao won two Oscars for her work on the 2020 film, Nomadland, a film filled with characters that are fiercely independent, unique, and contrary. Eternals is a film about a group of ten people who essentially form a family, but these ten are individually disparate people. After their mission is complete, the Eternals discover that they have very little in common. They know enough, however, as they saying goes, to hurt the ones they love.
Zhao deals with the ramifications of being a hero confronted by the question of which is more important in a mission – the orders or doing the right thing. Zhao reveals that it is not so easy because individuals have differing views on the mission and what it means to “do the right thing.” Zhao also delves into the complicated nature of a family unit, how the bittersweet can become downright sour when there are secrets and lies and also betrayal. Eternals is a film about difficult relationships and about the heartache and pain that can come when differences cannot be bridged.
Some may find Eternals too long and boring. There may not be enough action for fans used to the humongous action set pieces of the Avengers films. Also, the film's ostensible lead, Gemma Chan's Sersi, is a female superhero that is nuanced in ways not seen in superhero films, especially compared to Marvel heroines like Black Widow, The Wasp, and the Dora Milaje. Chan creates a Sersi that is beautifully gentle and compassionate, while being vulnerable in a way that makes her a better hero. Even Angelina Jolie's Thena, an elite warrior, is as vulnerable as she is fierce and violent.
That is not the formula for girl-hero kick-ass and that is fine by me. I find Eternals endlessly fascinating, and while I watched it, I always wanted more of it. After all, each Eternal has 7000 years worth of stories to tell, and that's just what happened before they arrived on Earth. Whether there is another Eternals film or not, Eternals 2021 is important to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, simply because it is the kind of entry that will stand out and show that there can be truly different things in that cinematic universe. Eternals is one of the year's best films.
9 of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
Friday, September 3, 2021
#IReadsYou Movie Review: "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings"
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Running time: 132 minutes (2 hour, 12 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and language
DIRECTOR: Destin Daniel Cretton
WRITERS: Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, and Andrew Lanham; from a story by Dave Callaham and Destin Daniel Cretton (based on the Marvel Comics)
PRODUCERS: Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz
CINEMATOGRAPHER: William Pope (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Elisabet Ronaldsdottir, Nat Sanders, and Harry Yoon
COMPOSER: Joel P. Best
SUPERHERO/FANTASY/MARTIAL ARTS
Starring: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Leung, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Michelle Yeoh, Wah Yuen, Florian Munteanu, Jayden Zhang, Elodie Fong, Arnold Sun, Harmonie He, Ronny Chieng, Benedict Wong, Tim Roth, and Ben Kingsley
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a 2021 superhero film directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the 25th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) series. The film is based on the Marvel Comics character, Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu, that was created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin and first appeared in the comic book, Special Marvel Edition #15 (cover dated: December 1973). Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings focuses on a young martial artist who is forced to confront his past and his father's deadly criminal legacy.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (or simply Shang-Chi) opens one thousand years ago and focuses on Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung), a warlord who found the “Ten Rings,” mystical weapons that grant their user immortality and great power. Wenwu establishes a secret society of warriors called the “Ten Rings,” and begins to conquer the world. In 1996, while searching for a legendary village, “Ta Lo,” Wenwu meets the village's guardian, Jiang Li (Fala Chen). The two battle, but eventually fall in love and have two children, a boy named Xu Shang-Chi and girl named Xu Xialing.
Decades later, Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) has adopted the name “Shaun” and is living in San Francisco. Along with his long time best friend, Katy (Awkwafina), he works as a valet at a fancy hotel. One day, while taking the city bus, Shang-Chi and Katy are attacked by a Ten Rings squad led by the assassin, “Razor Fist” (Florian Munteanu), who wants to steal a pendant given to Shang-Chi by his mother. Fearing that the Ten Rings are going to steal a second identical pendant given to his sister, Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), Shang-Chi decides to track her down. Waiting for him, however, is a conspiracy that will inadvertently free a great evil known as the “Dweller-in-Darkness.” To stop that, Shang-Chi will finally have to confront his past and grasp his destiny.
If I am honest, I will admit that I love martial arts fighting scenes in television and especially in movies. I prefer fighting as performed by Asian or Asian-American actors. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings gives me both, and the fight scenes are spectacular, so much so that they movie could never give me enough to satisfy me. The general choreography of the action scenes is quite good, as seen in the bus-battle sequence, and it is clear that Shang-Chi's fighting style and techniques are influenced by the martial arts films of legendary Chinese actor/stuntman, Jackie Chan.
With flashy visual effects, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings also explores Asian culture, offering nice peeks into both family dynamics and Chinese culture and myths. In a way, Shang-Chi is a movie that blends a story of family with an an exploration of a fantasy world that is similar to the one in Disney's recent animated film, Raya and the Last Dragon. This immersion in a different world and culture allows Shang-Chi to set itself far apart, the way Black Panther stood out from other Marvel Studios films.
Shang-Chi also offers the combination of the prodigal son and the gifted-kid motif that both Raya and other Marvel films (like Iron Man and Black Panther) offer. In that role, Simu Liu is versatile as Shang-Chi, an incredibly talented fighter who is also a happy-go-luck every man. I found Liu's Shang-Chi likable from the first moment I saw him on film. Tony Leung is an intense, dramatic heavy as Shang-Chi's shady father, Xu Wenwu; it's a gritty, edgy performance that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings needs in order to keep the story from flying away in its flights of fancy.
I do think that Marvel tries a little too hard to convince us that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is part of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. We got that with the appearance of Wong (Benedict Wong), a character that appeared in Doctor Strange (2016), but an end credits scene is ready to pound it into our heads, as if we never had a clue. The film, especially its flashbacks and in its quiet moments, sometimes falls flat. That keeps it from being the kind of next-level Marvel film, that Black Panther and the better Avengers and Captain America films are.
Still, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is an exceptional film, both in its story and in what it represents. Shang-Chi is Marvel Studios' first film with an Asian director and a predominantly Asian cast, and it shows those distinctions with pride, while being wonderful and entertaining.
A
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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