The MCU - Action, Representation and Shang Chi

 MCU - Marvel cinematic universe 

Disney bought MCU in 2009 which has many rising films such as iron man, the hulk. 

Sony had the chance to buy to almost every marvel character for $25 million but only bought spider man for $7 million

Key Macro Facts

1.  Marvel cinematic universe

2. Was worth $4 billion when they bought it

3. Worth $54 million

4. Spiderman copyright

5. Have cross media convergence such as TV shows, video games -  every product promotes the next product - self marketing machine

6. 6 phases

7. phase 3 ended with end game in phase 4 its viewership started to decline - Shang Chi is the start of phase 4

Shang Chi Trailer

Typical:

- CGI

- Action heavy

Not typical:

- Proper in depth representation - Chinese culture/ immigrant experience

- Character driven

- £432 million worldwide box office

- 1973 comics inspired by Bruce Lee - The villain was called the mandarin and a lot of Chinese people thought it was a stereotype -The ten rings that gave him his power were taken from a crashed Alien spaceship

- Disney had to change the Mandarin because they cannot get censored in China

- Previous version of mandarin sidelined a comic relief

- Cast of one of the most talented actors for the new villain - Xu Wenwu

A history of action

- 2010s - choppy, fast pace edits, lack of emphasis on choreography

- Late 2010s - slower, less cuts, choreography

- 2020s - comedic tone , music from DJ snake and rick ross, took a year to film the bus scene

- Marvel uses Easter eggs -  ten rings appeared in films that were over a decade before Shang chi