Starring: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Tong Leung, Michelle Yeoh, Benedict Wong
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% Critics, 98% Audience
Rotten Tomatoes Description: “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.”
Short Version:
A movie that moved beyond Marvel’s usual formula, creating art in the superhero film; there is a beautiful balance of action, comedy, and character development that makes this movie a perfect step forward for the MCU. Not to mention that the clever callbacks to earlier films further endear the amazing new characters and worlds introduced in Shang Chi to the fans of the MCU. Perhaps the only drawback to the film is that there are some weaker moments in the structuring of the movie, especially in the final fight.
Long Version:
This movie was such a wonderful surprise, namely in the fact it didn’t follow the Marvel formula, familiar laugh lines and smash-and-bash fights that all blur together once you leave the theater. Shang Chi was fresh, even if it was a clear origin story. It was versatile and epic in a way that Marvel has been lacking in the last few years as it desperately waited for some new blood and some new inspiration. This film created a world and a family that I didn’t want to leave. In a word, the movie was spectacular. If Marvel had kept the momentum they built through the closing credits, it would have been one of their best movies, no questions asked, but there were weaknesses, especially late in the film that kept Shang Chi from its true greatness.
Before we get to that, however, I would like to discuss the things that makes this movie so distinct and so enjoyable. The first? The fight scenes. Marvel has always had fight choreography, meant to wow audiences with cool tricks, flashy pyrotechnics, and poser landings, but in this movie the combat is a conversation. Part of this is the introduction of martial arts, a practice that speaks to a kind of control and intention which Marvel’s usual smash-and-bash’em fights lack. It is the cinematography of the opening sweep of the foot, an entreat, that lets the audience know that this fight will be different, will be a dance and a battle. From the flirtation between Shang’s mother and father, to the chiding lesson from aunt to nephew, each battle is a conversation. In addition, the fight dialogue continues to further inform character development, as our hero learns to lean into his fighting for more than just throwing punches, learning to use the power in his blood until he can harness both his mother and his father’s power and growing from guilt-ridden child to hero.
This movie also has a lovely focus on culture and family, and the type of issues they work through. The first movie to give voice and representation to Asian culture in the MCU, the movie has so many delicate touches, from the costuming in Ta-Lo, to the simple moment of Shaun taking his shoes off before entering Katy’s home. It is the subtleties that make the culture of the film sing. Not to mention that the film taps into Eastern Mythology that is so often ignored in western culture. The mythical creatures in Ta-Lo and the principles of the martial arts are integrated with a level of craft that makes them seamless and so satisfying, becoming fundamental in the way they play into the humor, plot, and cinematography in the movie. Especially the character and character development of our different protagonists, Shang, Xialing, and Katy. As Asian characters with very different backgrounds, the three show how their history and interaction in the world informs their development into the heroes they become. Katy’s feeling that she lacks purpose and can’t live up to her potential, and Xialing’s attestation that she has never been allowed to lead to them both finding themselves over the course of the movie, embracing their power. Shang’s running from his father’s empire as a child, only to return and still find himself unable to let go of the past that haunts him. It is a film about self-acceptance in the end.
So where does this movie go wrong? The answer is really in the last 20-ish minutes. The final fight scene has such grand scope with father and son facing off as Ta-Lo finds unity with the Ten Rings in the face of soul devouring monster (yikes). It is exciting, there is emotional resonance as the battle escalates, and it is epic really, until… it keeps going, and it becomes about the monsters instead of the people. See, the moment the second creature escapes the movie has a shift. First, it is the fact that though the father saves his son as his last act, there is no true acknowledgement of his wrongdoings, and no recompense for his actions. He leaves his children to clean up the mess he has made, and the carnage he left in his wake. It was an honorable sacrifice, to give the rings and save his son at the moment he sees it crash down, but he was capable of doing more, and a strong character. not facing his action felt cheap. Not to mention that after that moment, we got ten minutes of dragon vs. demon with our main characters just hanging on for dear life, which was not… all that interesting? The momentum dropped, when two entities that represented the forces of good and evil, but that were not characters I, as a viewer, cared much about, just kept bouncing around trying to destroy each other.
It was more compelling when Shang and his father fought, or even when Xialing kick his ass for abandoning her for a decade. At the climactic moment, I don’t want to be checking my watch. Also, the fact that it was Katy’s finally arrow never came across until the post-credits scene. So that moment, though important for her character, her big moment was not clearly conveyed.
Overall, I still fully believe that this movie ranks high among Marvel’s movies, and is a strong step forward into the post-Endgame MCU, showing that the old rulebook no longer governs the game, and that reinvention is possible and can have astounding results. Top five film in the MCU, and I am extremely hopeful for the next phase. Diversity and the writing and acting powerhouses to back it up? The future is here and it is fan-tastic.
Let’s wrap this review up, as always, with my favorite moments:
- The joyride sequence
- The karaoke bar
- “Does this guy look like he can fight?”
- Katy throwing Shawn out of the bus driver seat during the fight so he could handle the bad guys
- The ‘Stop Requested’ sign
- The guy live streaming the fight on the bus
- The flight attendant interrupting the flashback to offer them the lack of options for in-flight meals
- “That’s like changing you name from Gina to Gyna.”
- Shang’s sister making him fight, knowing it was just an excuse to kick his ass.
- The fight on the rails.
- “You can see him too?”
- “Stay in the pocket. Stay in the pocket!”
- Katy learning to shoot.
- Shang learning from his aunt.
- The moment underwater with the dragon and Shang.
- Shang taking control of the rings in the fight.
- Wong in the Karaoke bar
All images belong to Marvel Studios and Disney. Thanks for stopping by, and come on back Friday afternoon for another fall-themed post.
Megan’s Musings 