Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Review Rating: 8/10
Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization. The film also stars Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu and Ronny Chieng.
Rating: PG-13 (Sequences of Violence & Action|Language)
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Sports & Fitness, Adventure
Original Language: English
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Producer: Kevin Feige, Jonathan Schwartz
Writer: David Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 3, 2021 Wide
Runtime: 2h 13m
Production Co: Walt Disney Pictures, Fox Studios Australia, Marvel Studios
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital, Dolby Atmos
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)
View the collection: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings when I forgot I was watching a Marvel movie. It’s strange to say that one of the biggest strengths of this latest Marvel flick is how un-Marvel it is, but then maybe it’s fitting a film about conflicting identity has a dual identity of its own. Opening Friday, Shang-Chi comes with Marvel strengths and weaknesses from opening battle to inevitable post-credits scene, while also feeling like something winningly new.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuuEkk60C-8
Unlike July’s Black Widow, this latest Marvel adventure won’t stream on Disney Plus (at least until October). Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings premieres Friday Sept. 3, only in theaters. Check your local guidance and follow COVID precautions to safeguard your health if you’re considering seeing this or any other film in a theater.Andrew Lanham and co-writer/director Cretton send Shang-Chi into adolescent training as an assassin, followed by his escape from all that family drama and political hoo-ha. He scoots to America. Best friend and fellow hotel valet Katy doesn’t know his real story. The rest of “Shang-Chi” reveals that story, slipping back and forth geographically and into the mists of the mystical past. Awkwafina is a huge asset as Katy. Who else in modern movies can hot-foot a scene’s pacing so effortlessly, playing it for laughs and for keeps in the same beat?Shang-Chi is Marvel’s first Asian lead, and the style of the film draws on the rich history of Asian cinema, from martial arts movies to gangster films to romance, and in particular the lush visual and emotional style of wuxia epics. Like recent Disney Plus shows WandaVision and Loki, Shang-Chi’s greatest strength is its power to surprise. Drawing on the superhero-style myths and legends of a new culture gives the Legend of the Ten Rings a freshness missing from more familiar fare like Black Widow.
From the moment Shang-Chi first busts out his martial arts skills on board a runaway bus, the Legend of the Ten Rings is all about the action. The fight scenes were coordinated by the late Brad Allan, a frequent collaborator with Jackie Chan, and the set piece punch-ups brim with a zest all too rarely seen in Hollywood blockbusters. Each character and each fight has a personality expressed through a style of fighting. In fact, the hero’s personal growth is symbolized by his changing fighting style, a deft and satisfying piece of visual storytelling.
At the same time, Shang-Chi is very much a Marvel movie, which is both good and bad. If you thought Black Widow’s much-anticipated villain Taskmaster turned out to be an anticlimax, wait till you meet Shang-Chi’s desperately uncharismatic and undercooked bad guys (except Leung, of course).The film is very funny, with Awkwafina and various other guest stars stealing almost every scene. And the film buys itself license to employ familiar or overserious genre conventions (like portentous voice-overs) by also gently poking fun at them.
Above all, the film is driven by engaging characters. The MCU has rarely dealt with the superhero genre staple of secret identity (except, it seems, in the forthcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home), but Shang-Chi recontextualizes the challenges of living two different versions of yourself through the lens of Asian-American experience. In the hands of director Destin Daniel Cretton, The Legend of the Ten Rings mindfully corrects past failings of representation by Marvel and offers a depiction of Chinese family and culture that viewers from Asian backgrounds are hailing for its warmth and authenticity. (Check out reviews by Asian and POC critics at IO9, Moviemarker, Geeks of Color and more.)
The character dynamics leave Simu Liu in a tough spot, however. Leung is an unbeatable actor, Awkwafina is funnier, Meng’er Zhang has a more compelling emotional conflict as Shang-Chi’s sister, and Michelle Yeoh is simply more coolly charismatic. A surplus of flashbacks and voice-overs mean Liu himself fades from the spotlight for stretches at a time. Fortunately he’s pretty charming (and looks great with his shirt off) as the ass-kicking lunk wandering wide-eyed into MCU leading man status. In his first adventure, you might forget you’re watching a Marvel movie, but Shang-Chi is destined to be a memorable part of the Marvel myth.
