One of the most common themes running through our re-watching of old films has been the comment, 'I don't/didn't remember that.' That might have more to do with not having seen whatever film we were watching for 30 years, but it's increasingly becoming more common with films less than five years old. I came up with a theory for that - other than our advancing years - while watching the second of the two films up for review. It's the sense of expectation, especially with the Marvel Cinematic Universe films; I am expecting to be thoroughly entertained and blown away by yet another Marvel MCU Winner. Or to phrase it better, my expectations aren't met because I don't really know what I expected. Therefore on second viewing I'm watching it from the point of view where I've seen it, I know what happens (vaguely) therefore I'm watching without any sense of expectation, I'm watching it simply as a film. It has surprising results with critiques.
We decided, at the wife's request, to rewatch Black Widow the other night and it turned out to be a pretty decent film, far better than my original review suggested. It had a story, that was contextualised well; it answered some unanswered questions and was pretty much an action movie from the word go. It's pacing is what makes it a film worthy of grouping with the Captain America films and much of the first couple of phases of the MCU. In fact, had this film been released in, say, 2016 it would have been a blockbuster.
There's a little too much of the jokey Russians and it underplays the utter horror of the abuse that young Black Widows endured just so that the villain - played badly by Ray Winstone - could get his kicks. It's also a little contrived, but that fits with the story and the timeline quite well and rounds off a circle quite nicely. The set pieces are dynamic and full of fun and even if the conclusion feels a little tame compared to the preceding 20 minutes, it was a fitting 'finale' for Natasha.
I'm not sure that Florence Pugh has the presence and persona to carry off being the new Black Widow; but she's a worthy addition to this film (and the universe) showing a range of acting skills that have propelled her high in the acting world and Rachel Weiss and David Harbour are interesting, if flawed, support. This film obviously ties into the Hawkeye TV series, by virtue of the post credit scene, which, in my opinion could have been handled better (the post credit scene not the TV show).
Marvel seems to do two types of film now - Mission Impossible styled Earth-based thrillers and cosmic spectacles; the former tend to be the better received by the general viewing public [Obviously the Spider-Man films fit into a slightly different slot, but they're not strictly MCU films] and the interlinked nature of them - moving forwards - is what drives the franchise; this film suffers from something the comics also suffered from - the untold story from the past tended to be a 'fill in' issue, regardless of who was creating it.
Overall, Black Widow is a quality MCU film let down by timing, which had a lot to do with Covid but can't be used as an excuse; this simply should have been earlier in the franchise's life.
Which brings us nicely to something that could have been introduced much later in the franchise's life but the lure of Chinese money hastened its arrival, I'm in no doubt. It had been almost a year since we first watched Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Gold Rings, so more of it was familiar; looking back on past blogs I realised that it has the ignominy of being the only MCU film I haven't properly reviewed. I gave it a six line 'review' of sorts in a Pop Culture from last November.
It's an odd film in many ways; its main purpose, at times, is to hoover up some of the loose ends from other films - the Abomination's reappearance (considerably less eloquent than his subsequent appearances in She Hulk), the return of Trevor Slattery - in one of the most contrived shoo-ins to essentially dismiss the entire plot of Iron Man 3 - and what Wong had been doing (given that he would become extremely prominent over the last couple years this makes perfect sense). That's probably being unfair, the loose ends were obviously shoehorned in to tie the film to the MCU, but it's the thing that sticks.
The opening 40 minutes is cracking fun; Marvel does this kind of thing extremely well - the rollercoaster opener and that is only let down by the back story explainer, which appears to be an homage to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, especially given Michelle Yeoh managed to get herself cast in this. Then it all gets a bit silly; I'm all for worldbuilding by the MCU, but Marvel appears to be worlds building, adding extra layers that literally overcrowd a shared universe that was progressing nicely at walking pace and now seems to have gone into light speed in its need to introduce more and more stuff to muddy satisfyingly murky waters.
There is genuine chemistry between Shang-Chi and his oldest friend Katy (played by Awkwafina surprisingly well and without too much goofiness), but after that it all gets a bit superficial; even Shaun's sister's back story seemed a little convenient, which didn't escape Awkwafina in an almost 4th wall moment. Then we enter Ta Lo - the mythical kingdom of cute manga creatures and belligerent peaceniks - and it swaps a decent romp for monstrous silliness, dragons and other things that make this film less than it could have been.
It's disappointing because this film has some excellent parts, but it also feels... a bit fake, a bit forced into the schedules to tap unclaimed markets rather than expand the oeuvre.
I was never a fan of Shang-Chi in the 1970s, despite having a cracking award-winning creative team working on it for a long time, but I never really got Kung Fu with David Carradine either and wasn't a big fan of Bruce Lee or those genre of films; so expecting me to fall for this kind of film was always going to be unlikely; the fact that Shang-Chi existed inside but was very much outside the Marvel Comics Universe was a really good reason not to read it and while I have no idea what has happened to the comics character in the last 25 years since I stopped reading comics regularly, trying to force him into the superhero world seems a wee bit desperate and you could argue that this film could have existed as a Marvel film but without added MCU baggage; it might have worked better. Shang-Chi also didn't have a sidekick and his dad was Fu Manchu and, if I remember correctly, often references to Sax Rohmer for inspiration and use of certain characters, but the last time I read a Master of Kung Fu comic was about 1980.
Simu Liu is a slightly unorthodox Shang-Chi, who was originally modelled on Bruce Lee, and he's a genuinely likeable actor/character; his superficiality isn't at all like he was in the comics, where you imagined he did everything from eat to shit with gritted teeth and a brow full of sweat, but the MCU isn't really doing earnest is it? Even Daredevil's recent (re) appearance felt like a comedic Marvel Comics mid 1970s guest appearance, completely out of character for the character. I mean, I read DD for 30 years, Matt Murdock rarely if ever smiles.
The Pokémon aspect is also new and while some of the 'monsters' were okay, they were let down by poor visual effects and a cuteness that seemed misplaced. I enjoyed it more second time around, but it's never going to rank anything but low on a list of MCU films.
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