The Spider-Man No Way Home trailer played before the movie, which makes perfect sense, but was also kinda hilarious because it was like Wong was walking through that portal out of the trailer and into the movie.
The bus scene was so awesome, especially for happening so early in the movie
I don't know why I'm fixating on this detail so much, but wow, I didn't expect the aspect of the rings granting eternal life and Shang-Chi's father being hundreds of years old? Just, an extra bit of supernatural-ness I didn't expect, which is always a nice surprise as far as I'm concerned. (Wait, does this put Shang-Chi on the list of heroes who could still be around far into the future??)
My, they did a good job hiding the fact that (ACTUAL REAL SPOILERS BEYOND HERE IN CASE YOU'VE LET YOUR GUARD DOWN) Trevor Slattery was gonna be in this movie. I never saw Iron Man 3, just read enough about the plot to recognize the character, but now I want to because he was hilarious.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I dunno, I was sorta expecting the plot to be...less straightforward? Like, it really seemed like they set it up for somebody in the picture to have hidden intentions or be lying, but nope, Wenwu reported what he was hearing with complete sincerity, Nan explains the exact supernatural forces behind him hearing it completely comprehensively a little over halfway into the movie, the whole event plays out exactly how it was expected and there was no real secret behind Ying-Li or her death. I mean, that's certainly better than forcing in a twist, but it just threw me off a bit.
Okay, so, I'm terrified of gigantic creatures, but I was doing relatively fine with the first dragon because I prepared myself for it from the trailer and it was on the side of good - BUT THEN THAT THING - NOPE nope NOPE
Honestly, though, the Dweller-In-Darkness ended up not being that scary just by comparison to what I was expecting - like, I'm not gonna go into detail, but I feel like taking out someone's soul in a ball of colorful light and leaving behind perfectly unmarred bodies is one of the least terrifying things a creature of that size could do to a person? (Definitely not complaining though.)
Why isn't Banner Professor Hulk in the mid-credits scene?? But this is definitely after Endgame, and he still has the arm - ! Like, I'm excited to learn what the deal is with that, but also kinda disappointed because I liked Professor Hulk, dangit.
Me and my dad who I saw the movie with both independently thought Val was gonna show up in that post-credits scene and try to pick up Xialing for her team, but I guess that wasn't in the cards. 🤷
The ending of the movie was just...heartwarming, in its own understated way? Like, even after all this unbelievable stuff that happened, and even though he accepted that he couldn't run from his past, that didn't mean he didn't still get to return to the life with his friends that he's built over the last ten years.