It was an okay movie. Simu Liu is the son of the seemingly immortal master of the Ten Rings --always good to see Tony Leung, and I hope he soaked Disney --who winds up opposing his dad, and Awkwafina is his slacker sort-of girlfriend. They are fine in the leads, as is Meng'er Zhang as his sister, and Michelle Yeoh as their aunt -- always good to see her, and I hope she soaked Disney too.
I have grown increasingly fond of martial arts films over the last couple of decades, and the decline of the movie musical is the reason why. They don't make movies like that any more, and when they try, they're often embarrassing. People don't like the unreality of people bursting out into song, or expressing their emotions through dance. No, they prefer the solid commonplace of people floating through space to kick each other in the head. To me, the fight choreography is its own dance, and the fight between Leung and Fala Chen when they meet and before they fall in love is a challenge dance as graceful as any between Astaire and Rogers.
There are problems aplenty with this film. There's an immense amount of exposition, starting off with twenty minutes of it in Chinese. I'm not sure why Ben Kingsley as the fake 'Mandarin' from IRON MAN 3 is present except for a certain remnant of star power and connecting this to the rest of the MCU. Still, with my expectations not set particularly high, I had a good time.
I have grown increasingly fond of martial arts films over the last couple of decades, and the decline of the movie musical is the reason why. They don't make movies like that any more, and when they try, they're often embarrassing. People don't like the unreality of people bursting out into song, or expressing their emotions through dance. No, they prefer the solid commonplace of people floating through space to kick each other in the head. To me, the fight choreography is its own dance, and the fight between Leung and Fala Chen when they meet and before they fall in love is a challenge dance as graceful as any between Astaire and Rogers.
There are problems aplenty with this film. There's an immense amount of exposition, starting off with twenty minutes of it in Chinese. I'm not sure why Ben Kingsley as the fake 'Mandarin' from IRON MAN 3 is present except for a certain remnant of star power and connecting this to the rest of the MCU. Still, with my expectations not set particularly high, I had a good time.