We are on week 4 of watching Shang-Chi The Legend of the Ten Rings. And as we conclude our first month (out of 10) of watching this movie we are thinking of ways to keep it interesting for ourselves and for you guys. So today we attempt to identify the act structure of this film. Now I have studied and used film structure for the last 9 years of my life including formal screenwriting classes, an active writers group, and industry feedback. I am not saying that I am the most qualified person to analyze and critique this but I am qualified. So here is what I think the writers thought they were doing.
Structurally speaking this is how the movie is actually paced out….
And according to professional act structures that are taught this is the closest to fitting the movie…
Overall it is safe to say that the film is a pacing and structural nightmare. In order to keep our lives interesting we will be starting a companion series where we watch all of the MCU movies in chronological order so that we can better compare some of the things we are seeing. We want to identify whether some of these problems are unique to Shang-Chi the Legend of the Ten Rings or if they are MCU issues. So we will be starting with Iron Man and making drinking games out of the MCU and each individual film. We might also be dropping some comic book recommendations for each of the movies but let’s wait and see how much energy I have. We also videoed this weeks episode so you have multiple consumption options. Next week we will be crafting our Shang-Chi drinking game and the week after we will be playing. I will drop the game before our watch so that you may watch along with us.
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