On Thursday, August 2, the 25th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be released on the screens of Russian cinemas - the fantastic action movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings by Destin Daniel Cretton. The action of the picture takes place after the events of the film "Avengers: Endgame". The main role was played by the Chinese-born actor Simu Liu ("Space", "Black Matter"). The film also stars Michelle Yeoh (Memoirs of a Geisha, Inferno), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Island of the Damned), Benedict Wong (Avengers: Endgame, The Martian), Aquafina (Ocean's 8 "," Jumanji: A New Level ") and others.
In the center of events is a simple guy Sean.
He lives in the USA, earns money by parking expensive cars, and in the evenings he plays karaoke with his girlfriend Katie (Aquafina).
From time to time, the heroes worry that they have not done anything important in life, they are going to settle down, and then they give up this idea and go to the karaoke bar again.
Everything changes dramatically when Sean is attacked by a gang of thugs led by Razor Fist.
The bandits need an amulet, which was given to the main character by his mother as a child.
Unexpectedly for everyone, Sean fights back at first glance opponents superior to him in strength, but still loses the amulet.
It is revealed that Sean is actually Shang-Chi, the son of the powerful Wenwu, also known as the Mandarin.
The young man owns a whole range of martial arts and has serious practical experience in this area.
In addition, he has a sister who is on the other side of the world and now supposedly needs to be saved.
In addition to the story in the present tense, the film shows episodes from Shang-Chi's past, which gives a general idea of the hero's relationship with his parents, growing up and becoming.
A humorous tone of narration was chosen for the film, which can be considered a good decision: almost all scenes, even combat, dramatic or frightening ones, are diluted with jokes, making the tape look light and fun.
An important element of the humorous component of the picture was the participation of Aquafina.
Her character accounts for a large part of the comic episodes.
In addition, the heroine herself organically merges into the overall plot due to the vivid character of the character, as well as the energy and expressive play of the actress.
The dramatic story is harmoniously intertwined with the comedy one until about the appearance on the screen of Ben Kingsley's character, Trevor Slattery, familiar to the audience from the movie "Iron Man 3".
Probably to balance the narrative and not let the audience get bored, the authors of the tape made Slattery as comical as possible.
However, against the background of what is happening (by that time, the adventures of the heroes become more dangerous, and the picture takes on an increasingly serious tone), it looks rather ridiculous.
Shot from the movie "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings"
© kinopoisk.ru
An even more controversial character was Wenwu. At the very beginning, the viewer is told in paints the story of his victories on the way to unlimited power. As a result, the image of the strongest hero is created, a cruel and invincible conqueror, who will not be forced to abandon his goals. However, soon, at the moment of meeting with Jiang Li's future wife, Wenwu appears in a completely different way. He enters into a beautiful, but boringly tender fight with the girl and throws such languid glances at her that the whole carefully created image immediately collapses.
In the future, Wenwu will surprise more than once with his illogical behavior, absolute inability to resist emotions, willingness to believe a strange voice in his head and go wherever he calls. In addition, the hero chooses extremely strange and unreasonable ways of interacting with his children. For example, sending a crowd of assassins to them to solve a seemingly quite peaceful task is at least strange.
In a word, all the actions of one of the central characters, who have a great influence on the story, do not fit at all with his image and raise a lot of questions. But it is much worse that the whole plot is based on these controversial moments. Wenwu's character, which changes radically several times over the course of the film, kicks off a host of sudden twists and turns and leaves filmmakers room for a variety of maneuvers. Other, secondary characters, who are also capable of surprising with their illogical behavior, help here. In some places, such episodes look funny and only add some variety to the dramatic episodes, but with a general look, the plot only spoils the already imperfect film.
Finally, at one of the key moments of the tape, a “piano in the bushes” appears in the form of a giant fat headless moth from a parallel world.
Yes, and Trevor Slattery is also, in fact, a "piano", but his presence in the picture was somehow justified thanks to the connection of the hero with past events unfolding in the universe.
Be that as it may, without these two "musical instruments" the plot would have fallen apart altogether.
Of course, any film has its own conventions, without which it cannot exist, but sometimes in science fiction one wants to see a little more common sense.
If, for some reason, all these weaknesses are not taken into account, the story of growing up and becoming Shang-Chi unfolds according to a standard and rather predictable scenario and captivates, again, primarily due to humor and spectacular fights.
It was the vivid battle scenes that became the strongest side of the picture. They are not only beautifully set, but also cleverly filmed. There is no quick flickering of indistinct frames, as in the same recent "Black Widow". Different plans allow you to see the exact choreography in detail and fully enjoy the beautiful fights. First of all, the fight on the bus is remembered. There is about the same realism in it as in the whole story, but at the same time the episode looks spectacular and fun. The battle on a skyscraper turned out to be even more virtuoso, remarkable both in terms of shooting and the work of stuntmen and actors. The rest of the action scenes are also filmed on a level and, in spite of everything, hold the viewer's attention to the very end.