Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021)

[Lizard Lord]

I thought it was solid - Simu Liu is good, action sequences are good, Tony Leung was very good. Awkwafina played, of course, Awkwafina and was give too much to do in the movie. One other odd/detrimental casting choice, IMO, and the usual variable power level mooks problem, but all in all, fun and enjoyable.

Will have to consider more, but certainly in the top 50% of the MCU films for me.

Spoiler: Post-credit scene

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Both post-credit scenes annoyed me, but the mid was far worse. Ragged looking hologram Bruce Banner asking if the Rings were Chitauri? WTF would a slave race that seems focused on organic-interfaced weapons/vehicles be doing making the Rings? And does Captain Marvel really bring any value to this conversation? I mean if you need a warship destroyed, sure, call her...but I don't see a lot that she can bring to the "what are these mystical rings" conversation. At least she pops out after a few moments. I know we're down RDJ and Chris Evans...but instead of trying to cram other Avengers in, since you already have Wong, go with Dr. Strange...or better yet, just give Shang Chi a stringer for his next (even if unrealized) adventure?

- M

Spoiler

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Captain Marvel is there because, assuming they can't reach the GotG for whatever reason, she has more experience with alien civilizations then anyone else they would know and there is the possibility that the rings are extraterrestrial.

I actually don't know why Bruce asked if the rings were Chitauri other than him taking a wild guess with the small handful of alien civilizations he knows of; which I think is just Chitauri, Sakaran, and Asgardian (he has seen other aliens, but doesn't really know what they are. I don't think he was there when Thor mentioned what Korg was, but that would also have been a bad guess anyways). Each of which would be a bad guess, but Asgardian would be the best one since they are at least known to have visited Earth in the ancient past. The earliest known Chitauri encounter was the Battle of New York (and the Sakaran culture never visited Earth, though they could have gained immigrants or prisoners with jobs that did). With all that said, it would have made more sense for him to just say extraterrestrial.

I also don't know why he isn't in his Professor Hulk form, but maybe She-Hulk or another future project can explain that.