Shang-Chi: Legacy of the Rings

The short of it: This replaces the theatrical version. Go, watch and enjoy!
Technically excellent. Coherent narrative. Clear character development.

There were a few moments that I missed though:
- cagefight of Wong vs Abomination. Yes it's a "WTF?" scene, but it's memorable.
- Katy's amazing arrow. Another memorable moment, and a perfect illustration of Lao Tzu's saying that opens the edit.
- Trevor playing dead on the battlefield.

The last two also would've added to the runtime of the speedy final battle. Despite missing these details, this edit wins over the theatrical with clearer focus on character development and less CGI fest.

Extra praise for tremault's openness to feedback and willingness to incorporate good points in the edit.

I had the good fortune of being invited to preview this edit, and so saw the many thoughtful changes along the way to this final version. What we get here is a faster-moving action film, one that is still fun and funny but that now allows the heart of the movie to shine. I can recommend it without hesitation to anyone as a shelf-replacer.

There are a few central strengths to this edit. Firstly, most of the forced elements and cringey humor are gone. Secondly, the supporting characters no longer threaten to dominate the story and steal focus from the title character. Finally, the narrative is cleaned up and restructured so that it makes more sense and has less obvious plot holes.

I still have a few quibbles with the edit in terms of how I view a few characters and would prefer their motivations to be portrayed, and the ending feels a bit rushed and anti-climatic to me (criticisms I discussed with the editor) but these are easily outweighed by the major benefits to the story. The narrative is now shifted to firmly focus on this one, screwed-up family, and their emotional connections with each other. Xialing now seems worthy of evolving into her comic book counterpart as Shang-Chi's main antagonist, and Katy is treated with more value and less as a walking trope.

Unless someone comes along and massively reworks this into a wild, redubbed, Warriors of Zu type wuxia romp, this is likely to remain the definitive version of the film. Highly recommended for anyone with even a passing interest.