@therealsilvermane

I say Shang Chi gets an opening weekend closer to Black Widow’s, say $65-70 million, boosted by good reviews, a pumped up MCU fan base, and the Asian-American community. Strong word of mouth and it’s theater exclusive run gives the movie the legs to make it the highest grossing movie yet of the pandemic when it’s 45 day theater window is over. Pandemic be darned. Here’s a fix. Get the vaccine or else get inoculated the natural and also more painful and really really expensive way if you survive the experience.

A new Eternals trailer drops tomorrow? Cool. However, it seems to me it'd be wiser to release a new Eternals trailer with the Shang-Chi movie, but whatever.

If you look back at those legacy Marvel characters of the early 60's created by Stan, Jack, and Steve, many of them had their origins in direct atomic radiation mutation, including the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, and Daredevil.

I seem to remember Stan Lee's original ideas of the origins of mutants in Marvel Comics is that they are "children of the atomic age" as in the 20th century advancements in atomic science, and more directly, radiation, causing the mutation in some members of the human race. You saw this directly in the Silver Surfer story in SS #6, "Worlds Without End" in which the Overlord, the mutant who ended up ruling the universe in the future, is a mutant because his father worked in the field of atomic science.

I remember George Clooney saying Tarkovsky's original Solaris wasn't that great which is why Steven Soderberg needed to make a modern version.

IPAD? Maybe they can start calling those cameras IPAX cameras...

If Marvel Studios does go with the Celestials and the Deviant gene as the genesis of mutants in the MCU, I think the introduction of Celestials by itself in the Eternals movie would be enough of a "set up" for the X-Men without directly referring to X-Men or even just mutantkind. When Marvel Studios is ready to unleash mutantkind in the MCU, Professor X or Apocalypse or whomever can explain away, based on their research, that the X-gene has its origins from a deviant gene possibly introduced from these Celestial beings or whatever.

I don't think Eternals directly sets up the X-Men in the MCU. I think it just sets up more Eternals and maybe Black Knight. I think Marvel Studios wants to keep this movie about the Eternals because Marvel wants them to be major players, not stop gaps to something else. Like a Reed Richards showing up in WandaVision, setting up the X-Men in Eternals would just undermine the spotlight on Marvel's currently least favorite immortals. I think X-Men are a long way off before we see them in the MCU. General audiences don't care about the X-Men in the MCU until they get properly introduced. The only folks I think who really truly care are hardcore comics fans from the past and Marvel Studios doesn't necessarily always keep that part of the audience in mind.

Not necessarily. Winter Soldier helped set up Age of Ultron and Civil War. Ant-Man set up Ant-Man and the Wasp. Civil War set up Black Panther. GOTG Vol 2 set up the debut of Adam Warlock. Some MCU films set up a larger narrative, some simply set up the next movie in rotation. Black Widow set up Yelena Belova's involvement in the larger MCU and the upcoming Hawkeye show.

Entertainment Weekly has only ever produced multiple variant character covers of a MCU movie for the Avengers films and Marvel Studios' 10th Anniversary. This many covers tells me Disney isn't messing around with Eternals.

Prediction: I'm not saying Shang-Chi is going to singlehandedly save the movie theater industry, but with so many people now doubting the viability of movie theaters in the wake of Black Widow, Disney+/HBO Max day and date streaming etc, etc., I predict Shang-Chi will renew widespread faith in the viability of movie theaters as the primary place for audiences to watch cinema. If filmmakers making these larger more cinematic films (and small daring independent films, too) are going to be forced to premiere their work on TV, the desire and passion to produce such work will diminish. Movies need movie theaters.

Drax's What If? role was such a small part that it seems to me it would have been a waste to bring in Dave Bautista and pay him the six figures or so for those few lines the character says.

The Cosmic Wonder dude says, after mulling it over a night, that Shang-Chi is now one of his favorite MCU movies ever.

Man, Campea is gushing over Shang Chi and is saying for him it's the best comic book movie since Logan and is the MCU's best origin movie!

Lastly, here's those Reel Rejects guys and somebody from Cosmic Wonder giving their extended thoughts of Shang Chi including what they didn't like. In comparison, the Reel Rejects guys were disappointed in Black Widow.

This John Campea guy says the movie is awesome and incredible. In comparison, he liked Black Widow but thought the villain kept the movie from being special.

Apparently this Mendelson guy went in to Shang Chi thinking it was going to suck...

This reaction from Scott Mendelson was the only tweet I found that wasn't 100% glowing...

In the Heights got a 95% RT score, it just happened to be an HBO Max streaming movie, too, so its box office was doomed to go along with the lack of a wide interest even though it was a Broadway hit years ago.

KEVIN FEIGE ADDRESSES CHINESE AUDIENCE CONCERNS In an interview (via Youtube) with Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige answered questions about Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the controversies surrounding the film in China. One controversy that has Chinese audiences concerned is Shang-Chi's connections to the racist caricature of Fu Manchu who, in the comics, was his father. Kevin Feige responded to that concern by making it clear that not only was Fu Manchu never a Marvel-owned character, but that "Fu Manchu is not in [Shang-Chi] in any way, shape, or form:" "That is one of the truths about the early comic books, that Fu Manchu was a part of that story in the early comics. Fu Manchu is not a Marvel character. Fu Manchu is not a character we own or would ever want to own and that was changed in the comics many, many years ago and we never had any intention of doing that in this movie. Fu Manchu is not in this movie in any way, shape, or form." "We want heroes that look like all of our fans around the world and heroes our fans can look up to and feel that wish-fulfillment to want to be a part of and it's about inviting people into our world, not keeping people out of it or keeping people separate from it. And that's what really sets it apart from any of the characters from any of our other movies is that this is a very unique character that you can almost not even call a villain. This is a story of love between a father and a son, but misunderstanding and conflict and that’s what we’re anxious for people to see in this movie between these two amazing actors." "As with all of our Marvel Cinematic Universe films, we often change stories from the comics. That's certainly one of the elements that we've changed. There is conflict between them. What this movie is about is a hero who did have conflict with his father and his father's legacy as he was growing up and wanted to run from that. The movie is about him returning to it and learning the deeper truths about what happened when he was a child and who his father really is."

Well, Black Widow and The Suicide Squad weren’t bad movies. I didn’t see initial social media reactions to SS, but yes, Black Widow was mostly positive. However, I remember BW’s initial reactions also left me as a fan a little uneasy. Some initial reactions biggest superlative were that “Florence Pugh steals the show!” Another wrote she “dug Black Widow!” Another wrote he liked BW but also noted it was “a little choppy.” All positive but not exactly glowing first reactions. Shang Chi’s initial social media reactions all seem to be glowing across the board. We know James Gunn is mostly hit, some miss. I have no idea who Cate Shortland is. But from what I’ve seen of Daniel Destin Cretton’s previous films, I know the guy is a very good storyteller. Based on that, I expect Shang chi to be a good movie. Who knows, with three straight major superhero movies that have underwhelmed fans so far since WW84, maybe Shang Chi will save the comic book movie industry.