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Shang Chi and the Legacy of the Rings : Complete

I do actually like that they pay off the Hail to the King one-shot short film, which was an attempt to rectify the thumb-in-the-eye to comics fans that was Iron Man 3. So we get a nice resolution here, but one that unfortunately goes far beyond what's good for the story and devolves into just having fun on set. I'm sure a lot of that was just Ben Kingsley riffing because he never gets to play characters like this. An experienced director would know to cut the stuff that doesn't serve the story, even if it's well-performed and fun.

Okay, rant over. :) Yes, @tremault I can make time to preview for you. It'd be my privilege.
 
amazing, thank you so much! I'll send you a message just now!
I wonder... maybe I'll make a Ben Kingsley special for my youtube channel...
 
I've had a good set of feedback, and making some changes.
it was suggested that I remove 'first mission' from the intro and flesh out the exposition bit on the plane with it. I think it's a good idea,but I don't know if I've chosen the right moment. The "blood debt must be paid by blood" line is important, but I do wonder if ending on Shaun is working. Maybe the timing is just a little bit off.
 
small update,
I've moved Shaun's first mission from the beginning to the storyteling sequence on the plane.
I've removed the cut back to the battle from Shaun vs Wenwu and trying a cutaway to the gate being impacted instead.
I've inserted the establishing shot of Wenwu walking to his bed at the night scene that I inserted during the village bit.
Due to needing to use that twice, I've flipped the earlier shot, zoomed in and colour graded it slightly.
I re-edited the first cutaway to Shaun underwater, mostly audio, helping some of the 'feel' of pacing.
 
tremault said:
Due to needing to use that twice, I've flipped the earlier shot, zoomed in and colour graded it slightly.
Click to expand...
I like this creativity. Professional editors do this all the time, and audiences never notice. You can look online for movies that reuse frames and just flip them, and I guarantee you never noticed half! lol
 
awesome, thanks!! I'll send you a PM :)
 
It was suggested that this night out scene was important. I really wanted it gone because it felt like it had no Rhythm for me. I decided to have another look at it and thought maybe I can do a more fine edit here and focus on the key points. Not sure if it works or not.
 
Personally, I think that's a really smart piece of editing. It keeps the essentials of those scenes, establishes the rapport and friendship, sets up the themes of the film, and provides a nice couple of funny moments that the end of your edit calls back to. You could even stretch that black title card longer before fading up, for me. It all works great though, but maybe some other people don't care about that stuff and would rather just cut this entirely?
 
I'm colour grading to make this guy's outfit pop out more. While watching, I failed to notice him in many scenes, but I feel like he's supposed to be a significant character. I think the colour of his outfit wasn't different enough from the other goons, so if I boost the colour, he will hopefully have more presence in scenes.
https://imgur.com/GCIzE3i
I removed Xialing's training from Shaun's story on the plane, it doesn't make sense, she was training in secret and he didn't know about it. :/
In Xialing's office, inserted the shot of Shaun standing up a little earlier, and zoomed in to hide him grabbing the postcard in his pocket. then showed his face as reaction shot over "I didn't need you then, and I don't need you now.", just before he reacts to alarms.
fixed slight continuity error from original edit that showed Shaun puling his arm back twice
removed katy's line about how Wenwu is 'on a whole other level'.
trimmed the beginning of 'how i met your mother'.
removed "I'm gonna kill him" from the night time talk with Katy.
inserted some close ups of the characters waiting for the soul suckers to fly over the water. all characters were present in the long shot, but it's a quick shot so it's good to reinforce their presence.
As Wenwu get's captured by Demon dragon, I inserted a shot of the good dragon being owverwhelmed by soul suckers and Xialing watching on worried and angry. This should give a feeling of peril leading to the viewer worrying how Shaun can possibly fight this thing that just kiled his father. I think the whole point of this part is, Shaun could not have fought this thing alone, his sister evidently helps the good dragon and arrives to help Shaun.
I inserted the deleted scene to the end credits. It offers a better resolution to the brother sister relationship.
 
Draft 2 is ready!



I inserted the 'apology' deleted scene, correcting some discrepancies in the shot and scoring.
I graded the training montage before and after Wenwu night scene to change the colour of their clothing, supporting the idea that this is a different day.
added sporadic whisper noises to some scenes where Wenwu looks like he is being influenced.
reframed shot of Wenwu when he mentions learning about the gate.
constructed dialogue of Shaun saying "You shouldn't have left" "you should've been there" to say to Wenwu when Shaun has knocked him to the ground for the first time.

edit: got my line wrong.
 
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tremault said:
constructed dialogue of Shaun saying "You shouldn't have left" to say to Wenwu when Shaun has knocked him to the ground for the first time.
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Wow, all the changes in the past couple of posts sound really interesting! About this last one, I'm a bit confused... Shaun says "you shouldn't have left"? But, he's the one who left, right? Is it that this just makes sense in the context of their conversation, or am I missing something else?
 
oops sorry, I confused myself, I should have written "you should've been there", my bad.
I struggled to find any line that fit the situation and had the right inflections, a mix of regret and/or resentment mixed with angst.
The context is a little ambiguous, but fits a number of possible meanings, Wenwu wasn't there with Shaun's mother was killed, and he wasn't 'there' for them due to being obsessed with the rings.
 
tremault said:
It was suggested that this night out scene was important. I really wanted it gone because it felt like it had no Rhythm for me. I decided to have another look at it and thought maybe I can do a more fine edit here and focus on the key points. Not sure if it works or not.
Click to expand...
I'm gonna be real...not a huge fan of the scene. You don't really need it. I mean, it's exposition that establishes Sean's backstory in the US, but tbh...it's not hugely important to know. All we really need to know is that he stayed in the US, and that he and Katie have been friends for a while. I really loved starting Sean's journey out a little more contemplatively, with him getting ready and walking with music, honestly. It felt right.

If I may make a suggestion, I kind of think it would work a lot better with a smash cut from Shang-Chi's face looking horrified at his father's carnage to him waking up. I'd suggest lining it up so the smash cut is on a sound cue from the attack in the diner. It can be any of the ring hits or when the guy smashes into the mirror. You can also add a distorted cymbal effect to cover the cut and snap into the next scene if necessary (feel free to ask if you don't know what that means lol).
 
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mnkykungfu said:
Personally, I think that's a really smart piece of editing. It keeps the essentials of those scenes, establishes the rapport and friendship, sets up the themes of the film, and provides a nice couple of funny moments that the end of your edit calls back to. You could even stretch that black title card longer before fading up, for me. It all works great though, but maybe some other people don't care about that stuff and would rather just cut this entirely?
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I'm kind of in the latter group on this one. I think the callback jokes at the end work just as well solo. There's so much corny humor packed into this movie already that I'd say less is more. Plus, easing into Sean's life with his morning routine feels a lot smoother than starting with an exposition fest. Show, not tell in my opinion.
 
It's really helpful to have this opposing view. I really appreciate it.
I should probably take some time to really think about that, consider all the feedback and then decide what I want from the edit.

Although it's a shame that no matter what I do, I'm not going to please everyone 😅
 
^I think it really comes down to what you want from the movie. For people who liked the movie less, who want less jokes, less character, less story: just getting on with it and keep things brisk is going to be better.

For people who liked the movie already and liked the characters, cuts to their development lessen the film instead of improving it. I'll be the first to admit that the opening dinner scene does not have the best acting and I can understand not being drawn in by it. Otoh, I think it's vital to setting up the themes to the film, and it's only on watching it a second time, with the benefit of having already seen it, that it feels like it could go. The real test would be showing someone the film for the first time and seeing how they respond to the edit. How much do they love Katy and Shaun, how thin does the story feel? On balance, I feel like the lesser of two evils is including those scenes, but it's totally an editor's preference.

It's the eternal debate on FanFixes, you see it on this site all the time. A faneditor cuts some stuff out and some reviews praise the edit and say they turned a mediocre movie into a good one. Other reviews say too much was cut and it turned a pretty good movie into a mediocre one. It's really the faneditor that has to weigh the pros and cons and decide what they like best, what they want their name on.
 
mnkykungfu said:
^I think it really comes down to what you want from the movie. For people who liked the movie less, who want less jokes, less character, less story: just getting on with it and keep things brisk is going to be better.

For people who liked the movie already and liked the characters, cuts to their development lessen the film instead of improving it. I'll be the first to admit that the opening dinner scene does not have the best acting and I can understand not being drawn in by it. Otoh, I think it's vital to setting up the themes to the film, and it's only on watching it a second time, with the benefit of having already seen it, that it feels like it could go. The real test would be showing someone the film for the first time and seeing how they respond to the edit. How much do they love Katy and Shaun, how thin does the story feel? On balance, I feel like the lesser of two evils is including those scenes, but it's totally an editor's preference.

It's the eternal debate on FanFixes, you see it on this site all the time. A faneditor cuts some stuff out and some reviews praise the edit and say they turned a mediocre movie into a good one. Other reviews say too much was cut and it turned a pretty good movie into a mediocre one. It's really the faneditor that has to weigh the pros and cons and decide what they like best, what they want their name on.
Click to expand...
Totally agree. To clarify, I don't hate it, and I'm all about character. I honestly felt like this scene didn't add much because it's stuff we see in other places, and I'd rather be shown stuff about them than hearing them talk about it - especially since other characters do a lot of exposition later. But like you said, to each his own. And @tremault - you're right, you can't please everyone! Go with your gut!
 
lifeincontext said:
I'd rather be shown stuff about them than hearing them talk about it
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Yeah, to be clear, I'm also very much of the "Show - Don't Tell" philosophy of film. It's something that a lot of MCU films suffer from because they cram so much in that there's almost no way to do it all without lots of exposition. I actually don't think Shang-Chi was that bad in that respect, compared to some others like Multiverse of Madness.

But anyway, the show-don't-tell criticism is actually exactly the problem I had with the first cut of the fanedit. All the beginning stuff with Katy was cut (3-4 scenes) and she's the second main character of the movie. So the result was that we literally meet her and are just told by her family that she and Shaun have been friends a long time, then immediately after that, she's insisting on going with him around the world (on a valet's salary, what did she sell her kidney?) to meet his long lost family.
Aside from this breaking suspension of disbelief, the next couple conversation scenes about Katy and Shaun are people saying how close they are, but we never see it. The early scene with them finishing each other's sentences in a story: gone. The scene with them singing together when they're just going to see each other at work the next morning: gone. Them bantering at work and going for a joy ride: gone. Everything that shows us their friendship is gone. So when she's tagging along and getting her life endangered later, it felt like really tropey, manufactured, hollow drama.

And the comedy throwback singing scene at the end had nothing to throw back to, so the joke was totally flat and forced to me. As was the final dinner scene. As unfunny as some of this was, the jokes work even less without the setup.

That was my experience previewing anyway. I recognize it may work for others differently.
 
I totally see what you’re saying. It’s a tough balance to strike. I personally felt like the scene with her family actually established their relationship enough, and their conversations filled in the gaps. I didn’t really miss the stuff from the first few scenes much. It felt less forced in a certain way. It’s interesting actually. I think the balance has something to do with the kind of showing and the kind of exposition…and that all ends up being very subjective. Thanks for this lol. Great discussion.
 
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