Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - Movie Review

This year has not been very good so far for Marvel. While Wandavision was mostly good, it did end on a CGI battle (like every Marvel movie) and left a bad taste in our mouths despite the great storytelling that focused on depression and lost. Falcon and the Winter Soldier had weak villains, some lazy storytelling, and was a waste of potential. Black Widow had the same issues, but instead of forced politics we get some odd jokes and the worst villain ever in the MCU. Lastly, Loki was so non-nonsensical and messily written that I didn't even write a review of it. People are getting tired of the usual Marvel formula, revolving around somebody or organization trying to destroy or take over the world. Attempts have been made year to mix things up, but so far it hasn't been enough. That is until the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe hit theaters last week: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

This movie revolves around the title character, played by Simu Liu, living an ordinary life in San Fransisco with his best friend, Katy (Awkwafina). One day though he is attacked on a bus by assassins and after fighting them off he reveals to his friend that he was trained to be an incredible martial artist/ assassin by the leader of the Ten Rings organization, Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung), who is also his father. Meeting up with his sister, Xu Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), all three captured by Xu Wenwu and soon are roped into an adventure far bigger than they all expected. There might be a couple of spoilers in this reviews, but I will be sure it will be nothing major! Though I will include something after my rating that is a big spoiler (in my opinion).

Let's face it, we've been needing somebody brand new to the MCU for a while. I mean even though this is the 3rd film after Avengers: End Game, it's been a while since somebody new has been added to the MCU. So having our first Asian superhero in the series is a great idea, but only if they have an interesting character, backstory, and future plans ahead for them. Not just that, but the usual formula the MCU has had for a while needs a shake up and while this film has fufilled a few of tropes of the MCU (Ex. a shirtless scene, colored attacks that indicate who's good and who's bad, soulless CGI army, and other Marvel cameos), there is plenty that also makes this film stand on its own. Like there were multiple times in the film that I had to remind myself that this was a Marvel film. And that's a great thing to say because this film could also just be a plain awesome martial arts film.

One of the weird things I have with this movie is that there is a lot to take in about it. We're dealing with pure magic through this film, not the insane science of Asgard or the explainable, almost scientific magic of Doctor Strange. This is pretty much magic. Yes, The Ten Rings organization use super high tech stuff like crossbows that shoot laser waves, but there is a lot of magic such as a magical forest, spirits, and waves of just... mystical energy. Also the rings themselves are way different from the comics. Instead of elemental powers (along with time, radiation, and magnetism), these rings go around the arms, basically allow somebody to extend their lives for at least thousands of years, amplify physical strikes, and be thrown like boomerangs that return to the owners arms. Some people will be angry at these weird changes to the scientific world of the MCU, but the original ideas in the comics might not fit in very well with what the MCU has become.

This oddness, along with how the script tells a very different story from the usual Marvel movie, do give the movie a lot more value. People are getting tired of the usual Marvel film, revolving around somebody or organization trying to destroy or take over the world. Shang-Chi is a story about finding out who you really are by going through your roots and accepting both the good and the bad of your family to be the best you. There is a lot of emotion with Shang-Chi and his family, with a lot more heart put into it than other MCU properties. Maybe I'm still on a high from this movie, but the primary plot of the movie wasn't to defeat the villain, but to save people and for Shang-Chi to learn more about his family, makes this feel a little more different from the usual MCU film. Yes, we eventually have a big CGI showdown, but with the hero and villain being more related to each other this felt like a more personal struggle than in the other films.

Let's really get into the film though and first talk about our main actor, Simu Liu. I fucking loved him in this film. I loved him in the first trailer, he's a fantastic new addition to the MCU. After seeing the first trailer I knew this film was going to need exceptional fight choreography and I immediately looked to see if Simu knew how to do martial arts. The answer: Hell yeah he does! In fact other than acting one of his big roles in Hollywood is actually to train people how to perform martial arts and stunts convincingly, so he wasn't taught to fight, he was teacher for this film! But more than that I loved his performance. He was so fun, charismatic, and relax on screen, as if he immediately felt at home in the MCU! Additionally he was also vulnerable physically and emotionally, making him so relatable as a person. He was a breath of fresh air into the MCU and I absolutely want to see more of him as Shang-Chi in the future!

The side characters were also pretty fun. Awkwafina wasn't as annoying as I was expecting she would be in this film and help build on the plot very well. Her point in the film is questionable because there isn't much reason for her to go on Shang-Chi's adventure, but the script gives her enough to make it feel she will do important things in the story. Meng'er Zhang was also pretty good in the film, but script could have written her better (I'll get into that later). Also, while they're not that important to the story are only in the film for a bit, seeing Benedict Wong as his character from Doctor Strange and Tim Roth as The Abomination in The Incredible Hulk was pretty dang cool. There were also a bunch of smaller characters that I really liked seeing, but don't want to spoil due to their roles in the story or for surprise comedy.

Shang-Chi easily has the best fight choreography in the whole MCU. I had to really lower my rating on Black Widow because how easily this film's action blew that one out of the water. This stuff reminds me of the really good Jackie Chan films where he'd not just fight really well, but continually use the environment and items to their advantage. For instance one of the first fights in this film has a moment where Shang-Chi uses his coat and parts inside a bus to fight off some goons and seeing it all captured with very few quick wide cuts had my eyes glued to the screen. All the action in the world isn't good if you can't fully see what's going on and Shang-Chi does its best to have long and wide shots that show all of the fights, utilizing circling camera shots and great stuntwork to make it all happen. This has risen the bar for what future MCU films will have to have in terms of action. While there is still some CGI (including a few instances of noticeable CGI), especially near the end, there is still plenty of real hand-to-hand combat that kept my excitement high to the point I didn't really mind all the other special effects.

I find that putting our hero down to a more normal level of skill and without superpowers makes them more relatable. Like Shang-Chi's just a master martial artist, he doesn't have Ironman armor, a magic hammer, or superhero abilities given to them by a spiderbite or super serum. He's just a regular guy with dangerous martial art skills. This also would make his progression into a real hero more impactful because while he has the skills to defend himself his journey changes him into somebody who could duel with heroes like Spiderman, Bucky Barnes, and maybe even more powerful beings in the MCU. That, plus his great personality and humbleness, could bring about some bigger connects with him and other characters in the MCU. Like I'd be curious how he'd interact with the people of Wakanda after all the magic he learns about in this film.

Another big positive of this movie is the villain. Almost every villain in the MCU films, apart from Zemo, has a goal that revolves around taking over or destroying the world and honestly... it's getting old. Like yeah, that's kind of comic books, but comic books have evolved beyond that and developed villains more into people instead monsters. So seeing Tony Leung put on his first villainous performance as a clear bad guy, but also somebody you can really relate to and almost cheer for in loving way (not like Killmonger where you almost want to cheer him on in his plans to murder white people) was very surprising pleasing. Despite being the main antagonist Xu Wenwu is not entirely a bad guy. He just wants his family back together and we him try to leave his old conqueroring way behind him. While it seems he cannot do this, being The Mandarin and all, there is something about the performance that really shows that there is more to him than just wanting power.

One problem I do have with the film though is the script. It's not bad, but it could have been polished some to fix a few moments throughout the film. Some of the scripts main issues is how some characters develop and the decisions that others make. For example, at the start of the film The Mandarin sends assassins after Shang-Chi, as well as retrieve something from him. But when he meets his son he says, "I knew those people wouldn't be able to kill you," so now we ask why he told them to kill him in the first place? There is also a moment where Shand-Chi's sister in the past isn't allowed to train with "the boys" so she trains herself and becomes just as skilled as "the boys." The problem with that is because a lot of these moves require another person to train with, like grabs, throws, and being trained/ beaten to withstand pain. So how does she also know all those moves so well and be able to withstand all the pain that Shang-Chi can take? We also have smaller details like San Fransisco being a very clean and organized city (which is kind of hilarious)

There is also how the Ten Rings organization apparently has done so many incredible, world-changing things, but they keep it vague so it's a myster. How many secret organizations are there in the MCU? They have to stop adding more. We have the Ten Rings (which was originally just a terrorist group from Iron Man 1), Hydra, The Red Room, Sorcerers of the Mystic Arts, and I feel there are a few others that I'm missing, but since Hydra hasn't been seen in the MCU for years and The Red Room is no more maybe it's all fine. But the Ten Rings might be staying in the MCU, so hopefully we'll get more good content out of them. With how they were underdeveloped for their true premiere film kind of sucks. It's decent, but I was expecting more development out of them.

In the end though Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was not just good, it was great! Easily has the best (hand-to-hand) fights in the whole MCU, has a breakout superstar with Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, and an engaging villain! The story/ scipt had its issues, but nothing that seriously hurt the film in my opinion. While the battles later on became more CGI focused there was already enough built in the film for me not to mind it, instead becoming wide eyed as the action just kept accelerating upwards. I was already hook, the film won me over very early on what it can do. Though I do worry that the action quality in this film won't be repeatable in anything not Shang-Chi related, I can only hope Marvel takes some notes and really starts amping up their game by implementing better stunts and proper fight scenes. In the meanwhile, can't wait to see more Shang-Chi in the future!

Tentative Score: 8.5/10

So I got spoil this now: We got Ben Kingsley returning as Trevor from Iron Man 3! In that film he was an actor paid to play a fake version of The Mandarin and in a Marvel short called All Hail the King he was then captured by the real Ten Rings and taken to Xu Wenwu. Off-screen he's developed into a new character who I think people are really going to enjoy seeing. He was also incredibly funny in the film, a truly hilarious performance!