Painfully generic movie with copy / pasted script.

Let's just admit it, MCU is literally falling apart at this point. In current phase we've already got three movies and neither of them looked promising in trailers. Black Widow was doomed since very beginning and naturally, it ended up being the worst MCU movie ever made, while Shang-Chi... well... It's not as bad as I expected. And yet yes, it's quite bad.

The biggest problem with the MCU right now is the fact that there's nobody to stand out. Tony's out, Cap's out, T'Challa is tragically out too (RIP, Mr. Boseman, we all miss you very much), Thor's about to become secondary character like Benner and so on. And who did we get in return? The original Human Torch (who, technically, is already there)? Namor (again, already shown as an Easter egg)? X-Men? Ghost Rider? No, sir! We've got ourselves a generic Russian assassin and boring martial artist. I mean, with all due respect to Simu Liu, the writers totally screwed him up here. His character is literally just “that guy” with nothing special about him. And that's, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the biggest problems with Shang-Chi movie. I mean... seriously. You know there's something really wrong with your movie when the most interesting character there is Awkwafina. Who's just doing her “Nora from Queens” thing without even trying anything else.

That exact thing that created MCU back in the days is killing it now. I mean, you know how it all started. There was one man who just came out and said “I'm Iron Man!”. And he was so good at it, he was such a perfect fit for his character that something just clicked and the next thing we knew – MCU was born. And now? It's just sinking in the swamp of generic characters and generic developments. I'm not trying to insult Shang-Chi as a character, of course. It's just the movie didn't do him any justice AND he's one of those characters who only look interesting to those who loved the original comics. To the rest of the world? He's just yet another “Kung Fu dude”. Everybody knows Cap. The man who punched that Hitla sucker right into his ugly face during World War II. The real one. Everybody knows Iron Man. Everybody knows Hulk. Everybody knows Spidey. But how many of non-geeky people know about Shang-Chi who looks boring even on comic book covers? To be excited about him BEFORE watching the movie you need to READ comics first. And even if you'll do exactly that, you'll be very disappointed because, like I said, MCU writers totally screwed Simu Liu's character here.

And even if we'll close our eyes on that... the movie still sucks quite a lot. It's just so generic that you'll want to cry. Take Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, put some “Wakanda Forever!” on top of it, add some dragons and boom! The new MCU movie's here. From very beginning and until the very end – there's NOTHING here you haven't seen before. Up to the point where it'll feel boring. Blah-blah-blah the past and the family, blah-blah-blah the gate, blah-blah-blah let's hold our grand and fight some baddies. The end. It's THAT generic. I didn't even bring Hobbs & Shaw for nothing. At some points here it feels like the script was copy / pasted from there directly, without any changes. In this scene our guys are fighting some assassins, in that scene they're fighting on their home territory, etc. It's a bloody Hobbs & Shaw! Well, not really, since Hobbs & Shaw is just yet another generic movie and there were tons of the same things before it, but... you know what I mean. It's like watching the same exact thing again and again and at this point? It's just not funny anymore. We... need... new... scripts! Desperately!

It's still better than Black Widow, though. Like... a million times better. Even though the main characters in Shang-Chi are exactly as boring as in Black Widow (I mean, even though Florence Pugh did OK, who cares about Yelena Belova, right?), it has some nice fight choreography and that certain satisfying feeling you get from good comic book adaptations? I can't say it's fully there, of course, but still, unlike Black Widow, Shang-Chi has its moments. Even though CGI is surprisingly bad this time and even the green screen parts look surprisingly cheap. And yet, it's better than Black Widow. Way, WAY better.

The problem is – that's pretty much the only good thing I can say about this movie. It's better than Black Widow. But on the other hand – ANYTHING's better than Black Widow. So... yeah. Let's just say that MCU just keeps sinking and our only hope now is Spidey / Dr. Strange duo. There's some hope for Shang-Chi too, though. I mean, Simu Liu is great and with the right writing? He can do miracles in sequel / crossover. Unfortunately, that's exactly what we didn't get here. A good writing. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings looks so sad that post-credits scene is way more exciting than what we've seen in the actual movie. And it's literally just some old faces appearing and looking important. So... yeah. There's still a way to save Shang-Chi. Let's just hope it'll happen one day. Dixi.