has anyone watched Shang-Chi?

[ratcreature]

I'm trying to decide whether it's worth the risk (and extra hassle, tbh, what with reservation and name check-in) to watch Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in the cinema.

The mainstream reviews I've seen all sound really positive, otoh I haven't seen anyone squee about it in my DW network, and I'm unfamiliar with the comic character this is based on and have no prior fannish interest in him.

I'm also a bit unsure how risky sitting in a cinema for two hours is. Considering that I'm now fully vaxxed and cinemas are still requiring masks and distancing, and only let you in if you are vaccinated, recovered or recently tested (though depending on the cinema the tested option is being phased out here), it would probably not be that risky, except that people can take masks off for eating and drinking in cinemas, so that makes it more like indoor dining, which is high risk. And if I skip the popcorn myself and keep my mask on throughout (and I now commonly use the FFP2 kind, so that gives some protection for yourself) I probably would have to deal with my glasses fogging up at some point. Even with my best efforts for a tight fit with the wire and taping up the small gaps near my nose, that tape starts to fail at 30-40 minutes, since the moisture of the breath it blocks eventually starts to loosen it. And then the glasses fog up.

Then there is the whole extra hassle of having to reserve and buy your tickets online now and check in with your name for contact tracing, when I just used to buy my cinema tickets in person with money without anyone collecting my data. I mean presumably they aren't allowed to do anything with this personal data, but then nobody is supposed to make unsolicited phone calls to sell me stuff either, yet that happens.

So I'm waffling whether it's really worth it.

Comments

[raine]

It's worth the big-screen treatment; the climatic action sequences are meant for a big screen. I saw it in the theatre and while it's not my favorite MCU movie, it's solid in the way MCU movies tend to be (they have the formula down pat by now). What makes an MCU movie for me is that experience of watching it with an audience of strangers on the first weekend it's open; you get all the collective reactions that become legendary later, like the cheers in Endgame when the Avengers assemble.

That said - if you're worried at all about the risk and data collection, I'd wait. Watching it on a decently-sized TV would suffice.

[ratcreature]

Well, when it opened I wasn't two weeks past my second dose yet, I'm only considered fully vaccinated as of last Wednesday, so had I wanted to watch the opening night I would have had to get covid test on top of everything else.

I don't care that much about the action sequences, and I'm not really into kung-fu movie fights, but I do enjoy the cinema experience in general, mostly because it's distraction free, and it forces you to just watch the whole thing through. So I miss cinema for that.

The data collection is more of an annoyance than a dealbreaker, but the incidence rates here aren't good. Not catastrophic, but the seven day incidence is 90 per 100 000 people.

[gwyn]

I don't know, I mean, you've listed a lot of reasons why you are concerned, and I can't tell you what is worth it to override your concerns. I'm really glad I was able to see it in a theatre--it's a beautiful movie to look at, there's one scene in particular early on with this balletic martial arts sequence in a fantasy setting that's just gorgeous to watch. And I found it more lighthearted and humorous than I had expected, and the whole cast is just a bunch of stunningly good-looking people.

But Seattle is a highly vaxxed city, and even though the theatre doesn't do distancing at all, since I didn't get to go to opening night, the crowds were a little less than the usual premiere crowds I get when I go to premieres with minim_calibre. I had my mask off for a lot of the time, because I hate not having popcorn. By the time I was finished, a lot of the film had gone by, and then yeah, I had to keep pulling at my mask to get my glasses less foggy. It's an annoying way to watch movies.

She's been going to movies a lot because she bought an unlimited pass, and so far she hasn't tested positive. We were in the car together unmasked. So I don't know. The concern is real, obviously, but I guess I'm willing to take the risk if it's a movie I really want to see. But I've only been to three movies so far during the Delta panic, and I've been glad I went each time, though this was the only one during our new mask mandate.

I'm glad I went, it's very charming. I'm glad I could support it.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I get that nobody can to a remote covid risk assessment for me. My angle was more that I haven't seen any fannish squee around here, like there was for Black Widow for example (which I unfortunately couldn't watch in cinema because I wasn't vaccinated then, and now there aren't any English language screening anymore, and I don't watch dubbed MCU, but I would have risked cinema for that had I been already vaccinated then). So I was wondering whether people enjoyed it for MCU fandom reasons, the usual fannish id buttons and such, more than cool fight scenes, which I might enjoy somewhat, but I wouldn't risk cinema right now for some random, beautifully produced kungfu movie for example.

[chloes_mom]

Hi! Long time lurker,first time poster! Unless you know the characters and the stories pretty well the movie can be confusing. It was for my group (6). Only 2 people knew the stories and we kept asking questions. Lucky for us there were very few people in the movie and THEY were asking each other questions. I myself was scared to go because in my area of US we are only 50% vacc. The theater people told us the movie was only 1/4 sold.
I wished we had waited to watch it at home if only for the fact I could stop the movie and indepth questions. YMMV. Have fun either way!!

[ratcreature]

Welcome!

I had never even heard of Shang-Chi before this movie, so it's definitely not a corner of Marvel Comics I'm familiar with. I'm surprised people had such conversations during a movie when you watched. The no-talking convention is rather firm here, so I doubt anybody (myself included) would voice any confusion during a movie, not without getting glared at least. Laughter or gasps and such can happen, but not speaking or even whispering, and people are generally pretty good about that.

Vaccination rates in my city aren't super great, but not awful either, a bit above the average for Germany as a whole, so a bit over 65% are fully vaccinated and roughly 70% have at least one dose (relative to the whole population, including the children who are not eligible). But the delta surge is still happening, but not yet as bad as they predict for winter. So if I want to risk a cinema before 2022 now might even be the best it's going to get? Who knows. This pandemic is so depressing.

[chloes_mom]

There were maybe 15 people including my 6 and we were pretty scattered. I could only really hear them over the quite times in the movie. It was funny because it kind of made all of us feel ok about making noise because we were all asking about the same things. I have been in movies were people were talkin to talk and be obnoxious about it
I know about feeling depressed. I live in a blue state but an area that is Tr**p country. So getting the shot and wearing masks are hit or miss. I just take precautions and stay home if possible. If there were more people in the theater I would not have gone.

[lilacsigil]

Cinemas are closed here so I couldn't go even if I was wanting to risk it! But if you're wanting to go to a cinema at all you should probably go before winter.

[ratcreature]

Here the rules are fairly sensible, but anecdotally in entertainment venues the actual enforcement of all these measures is a bit hit and miss rather than consistently meticulous, because (somewhat understandably) businesses aren't that thrilled about policing their guests rather than just hosting them. So there might be a lackadaisical glance at a waved app with a QR code supposedly certifying something, rather than an employee carefully scanning and verifying everything, that kind if thing.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I've been pondering the possibility that the current situation is about as good as it might get until some time in 2022, depressing as that is. :/

I guess, I can still hope this pandemic might be over quicker than the last major (local) outbreak of the actual plague which took from 1711-1714 (though iirc they denied it being in the city until 1712, because admitting to it would have damaged the international trade...)