SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (2021)

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (2021)

Tagline: A Marvel legend will rise.

(Adventure, Fantasy, Action) [PG-13]

Note: There is nothing in this movie that should have put it at a PG-13 rating. It’s definitely more of a PG situation. 

I know you don't like to talk about your life, but a guy with a freaking MACHETE FOR AN ARM just chopped our bus in half!

In this one, we get a deeper back story on the Ten Rings army originally introduced in IRON MAN, and the man with the Ten Rings. They possess magical powers that allow for both eternal life and the ability to throw people around like rag dolls. They are now possessed by a centuries-old warlord and world shaper named  Xu Wenwu. Wenwu has a son named Shang-Chi (played by Simu Liu) who has lived a life of exile from his father’s grip valeting cars with his friend Katy (played by Awkwafina probably best known for RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON). Is Shang-Chi ready to take his father’s place and lead the Ten Rings into the future and what is the price of his father’s ambitions, and desperation? 

First off a TON of the design work in this movie looks like it was either directly copied from or at least was inspired by IRON MASK. I don’t want to go into the reasons why, but when you see both movies, you will know. Marvel delivers a movie with quite a bit of emotion and some heartfelt moments that get you invested in these characters very quickly. I do kind of wish we’d gotten a story that just started at the beginning when Shang-Chi was young, but director Destin Daniel Cretton does a solid job with the flashbacks filling in the story as this flick moves along. 

On the downside for me, it feels like there is too many subtitles in this movie. When I watch an older martial arts flick or a Godzilla movie there is a certain expectation of that, but American releases have successfully avoided this in other films like IRON MASK and THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. I guess I just didn’t expect it here and when you have this kind of spectacle on the screen the last thing you want to do is look down at the words. I also prefer straight-up villains. The main villain in this is complex almost to a fault and it causes that part of the storyline to feel disjointed. I also would have liked to see them do more with at least one of the cameo characters than they did. I will just leave it at that. I also think while the soundtrack is solid, it’s probably one of the worst regarding “music” choices in the entire MCU. 

On the upside, the vast majority of the characters in this movie are dynamic and likable. The scale of this movie is incredible and it ups the wow factor well past anything you ever see in the previews. I won’t put any spoilers in this review regarding anything you couldn’t have picked up from the trailers but we’ve got an extremely impressive outing here. The fight scenes alone are over-the-top epic and I watch a TON of martial arts stuff. The movie is also more than one-dimensional. We get some nods to the IRON MAN film as I mentioned which blends in nicely here while providing some humor in an otherwise crazy serious situation.

Acting-wise Tony Chiu-Wai Leung is superb, you can never go wrong putting Michelle Yeoh in your movie. She brings anything she is in instant credibility as the “listen up and learn about acting” master actress. I also really like Awkwafina in this as well as both Simu Liu and Meng'er Zhang in her debut role. 

Overall in spite of the few issues I had, I loved this movie and will be buying it. It’s got to be in the top 7 or so Marvel flicks I would throw in the BLU-RAY player or stream on any given “Marvel mood” day. The future of the MCU is off to a thrilling and spectacular start. I give this thing a 7 out of 7.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF WALT DISNEY PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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