Phase 4

in , ,

The following post contains spoilers for films in the MCU’s Phase 4

I like going to the movie theater. I like sitting in the big rooms watching movies on a huge screen sometimes eating overpriced popcorn. I know it’s probably cheaper to watch the movie at home and I can pause it if I have to go to the bathroom. But there’s something about the movie theater I’ve liked since high school. I didn’t watch too many movies when I lived in Spain but after moving to Shenzhen I went fairly regularly. There are lots of theaters here and I eventually settled on my favorite, which has an MX4D screen. MX4D theaters have seats that can shake and move a little and you might get sprayed by wind or mist. It all depends on what’s happening in the movie. I was always excited when a movie I wanted to see was playing there. A little later an IMAX theater opened nearby so I had even more options.

Then COVID happened. That seems to be the recurring thread in so many things these days, at least in China. I had gone to see lots of movies before 2020, including all the Marvel films that released while I was here. But we haven’t gotten a single film since. The first Phase 4 film was Black Widow which did have a release date here. But Disney delayed the film in China and it never got a new release date. And then nothing else released either. Next was Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings which supposedly didn’t get released because Simu Liu once said something that the Chinese government took offense too. This was also the supposed reason that Eternals didn’t get released, with Chloe Zhao offending the government. Spider-Man: No Way Home was rumored to have a release but the China wanted there to be less of the Statue of Liberty. Sony obviously refused. The rumor for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness related to a scene at the beginning of the movie where the newspaper The Epoch Times, which is critical of China, could be seen. Neither Thor: Love and Thunder or Black Panther: Wakanda Forever got release dates either although I haven’t heard about any reasons for their exclusion.

I doubt it was just Marvel. I’ve seen very few movies in theaters over the last couple of years. In addition to Marvel there were probably plenty of movies that came out that I didn’t even hear about because so many films seem to be skipping Chinese releases nowadays. Some stuff does still come out here, like Godzilla vs. Kong and Jurassic World Dominion but I definitely wonder what I missed. And I’m kinda bummed about it.

I honestly don’t know what’s behind China’s recent exclusion of so many foreign movies. It could be because of political tensions between countries, it could be an attempt to buoy the domestic film industry by decreasing foreign competition, or it could be something else entirely. All I know is that I miss going to see movies.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time. Don't forget to click the links below and follow to stay up to date on what I'm doing and where I am and to see all my pictures and videos.