Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

It's been some time since I've written an entry just about an MCU property, hasn't it? Maybe since I posted weekly reaction shots to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Most of my MCU reviews are finding their way into Monday Media instead, which is fine, but I feel like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings wants to stand alone. Not necessarily because it was so amazing that I don't want to bury my thoughts in the Monday Media post -- although I did enjoy it, quite a lot -- but because this was probably my most anticipated Marvel movie of the year, and I want to give it a little extra room to breathe.

When SCL10R first came out, I was really irritated that this, of all Disney's big movies, is the first one they didn't make available right away on streaming to Disney+ subscribers. It was the first such movie I would have actually paid extra for, but I didn't have the opportunity. Although no one said this, I'm sure it was due to ScarJo's lawsuit, which, fair enough -- she had a legit complaint and I'm glad it seems like it was settled in her favor -- and I suspect they wanted to avoid any further potential breaches of contract with big-name actors. Still, I was bummed, and actually thought about seeing the movie in theaters, but it was early September, Delta was still peaking in the SF Bay area, and it just didn't feel like a good idea. (Depending on case counts, Spider-Man: No Way Home might be my first movie theater experience since I saw Little Women in January 2020 because 1. I'm pretty excited for it and 2. the contract situation with Disney and Sony suggests that it might be a long, long time before it comes to streaming.) Fortunately, it sounds like it did pretty well in theaters -- at least I haven't heard that it was a box office disappointment -- but imagine how much better it would have done in the before times?

Anyway. So we watched it on Friday, the first day it was available, and I'm very happy to have done so. ( Cutting for length, spoilers. )