I liked the first half of this film and I thought it was a fine addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The backstory with the father and the mother was a nice wuxia inspiration and a cool way of introducing the Chinese theme to Marvel. The protagonist and Awkwafina had a believable friendship that struggled to balance enjoyment with living up to expectations. The tensed family relationship was a great focus as the father's gravity and charisma almost matched that of Thanos and feels like a truly deep human being. Throughout, the fight choreography was amazing, especially the bus scene.
The second half was an obligatory CGI mess that takes the focus away from the family relationship. The epic legendary city of Ta Lo (Chinese version of Wakanda) is about thirty people living in a wooden village. That's all that stands between the world and a world-destroying demon, apparently. The hyped up final battle involves about ten soldiers with tasers. Wasn't the Ten Rings supposed to be a world-spanning empire? The fight between the dragons was so fast-paced that I couldn't tell what was going on.
That said, there are flaws that occur in both of the halves. The Ten Rings (the organisation) is very vague in its nature and impact. Why are they so feared? How have they taken over the world? What are they capable of? Show, don't tell! The Ten Rings (the artifacts) don't seem to do much beyond flying around and projecting energy. This is cool, but it seems like a step down from other cosmic jewellery and probably didn't deserve the praise in the post-credit scenes.
P. S. Trevor and Morris were definitely highlights of the film! Keep this up, Marvel!
The second half was an obligatory CGI mess that takes the focus away from the family relationship. The epic legendary city of Ta Lo (Chinese version of Wakanda) is about thirty people living in a wooden village. That's all that stands between the world and a world-destroying demon, apparently. The hyped up final battle involves about ten soldiers with tasers. Wasn't the Ten Rings supposed to be a world-spanning empire? The fight between the dragons was so fast-paced that I couldn't tell what was going on.
That said, there are flaws that occur in both of the halves. The Ten Rings (the organisation) is very vague in its nature and impact. Why are they so feared? How have they taken over the world? What are they capable of? Show, don't tell! The Ten Rings (the artifacts) don't seem to do much beyond flying around and projecting energy. This is cool, but it seems like a step down from other cosmic jewellery and probably didn't deserve the praise in the post-credit scenes.
P. S. Trevor and Morris were definitely highlights of the film! Keep this up, Marvel!