To preface my criticisms of the movie, I thoroughly enjoyed the big action set pieces and the fight/stunt choreography is well deserving of an Oscar or some other big name award. The martial art sequences are clear and easy to follow, and it just gives you a sense of “wow!” The acting itself is well done, and especially Tony Chiu-Wai Leung as Xu Wenwu. His eyes had more emotion conveyed than most of the rest of the cast. Awkwafina also deserves a shoutout for finally being in a movie and not being totally annoying. And our main star, Simu Liu, bridging that gap between martial arts and acting, reminds me of Donnie Yen, I look forward to seeing more of him in the coming years.
Here’s my faults with it. Story is incredibly simple and follows the marvel formula to a T. Kevin Feige clearly has these screenwriters follow a guideline/stylebook. There’s like no deviation from the path. Must have a bad guy which isn’t the main bad guy, who is being manipulated by the real baddie. Must have the solo movie of a hero end in a giant CGI fest of a fight. Need a quirky yet comedic best friend to be the character lens for the audience to slowly understand what’s going on. There’s probably a few more, but that’s off the top of my head based on recent movies (Thor, Black Panther, Spiderman, Doctor Strange) – to name a few. Imagine an original storyline without the need to have these checkmark plot points for a marvel movie. That would be the future.
Those minor grievances aside in regards to plot, this is one hell of a September movie and deserves all the praise coming its way. I wish nothing but the best of luck to all responsible in the creation of this majestic martial arts comic book movie. If there’s one movie you want to watch in theaters, that would benefit immensely from a large screen and booming sound, it’s this one. I recommend it!
Bogdan's Review Blog 