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

Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) must confront the past he thought he had 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.

It’s genuinely incredible that we are even getting Marvel movies these days such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings because there was a point in time in which fans were shocked that the studio was coming out with an Ant-Man movie. You see, back in the day, studios only felt confident releasing superhero films if they were centered around a hero that was popular worldwide such as Batman, Superman, or the X-Men. Even then, these kinds of movies weren’t guaranteed to make money. 2006’s Superman Returns was made on a budget of $223 million and earned $391.1 million.

You might be saying “but it made back its money!” which is true, but come on, it’s a Superman movie! It should’ve absolutely obliterated the box office but, for whatever reason, it just didn’t. But of course, as the years went on and superhero movies were getting more popular each time a new one was released, Marvel, in particular, got a little more comfortable setting the stage for characters that would get their own film later on. I still remember the shock that came with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy because when it was announced, everybody I saw on the internet was asking “who are they?”.

Nobody but the die-hard comic book fans knew, but fast-forward to today and absolutely everybody knows who the ragtag group of misfits are. To put it simply, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings would not have been made in the 2000s or even the early-to-mid 2010s because it would’ve been considered too much of a risk. Not many people know who Shang-Chi is, and I’ll admit that neither did I before this movie got announced.

But that’s kind of the beauty of film – you can learn about new things and you can go on a journey with exciting new characters and breathtaking new worlds. That’s one of the many reasons why I am ecstatic that Shang-Chi exists. Not only is it one of the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) but it’s without a doubt one of the best films of the year so far.

There exists something called “superhero fatigue”, and it’s something I have never really felt because I’ve been a massive fan of comic books and superheroes ever since I was in elementary school. I agree with the many people who wish there were more original films these days (trust me, I, too, wish we had more filmmakers like Ari Aster out there) but every time I watch a genuinely good superhero film, I feel completely at ease. They can be so exciting, fun, and memorable if they are executed properly.

But even though I’m a big fan of comic book movies, even I have to admit that the MCU movies have an extremely similar formula, and they rarely feel unique these days. I loved Black Widow to pieces but it does feel like a tried-and-true Marvel movie that fits snug into the universe. What happened to the MCU movies that dared to feel different and special? A Shang-Chi movie should absolutely not feel like “just another Marvel movie” and thankfully, it doesn’t.

Destin Daniel Cretton directed this film expertly, giving it a distinct feel that differs drastically from any MCU movie to date. One of the few films in this cinematic universe that actually had distinctive qualities to it was Ryan Coogler‘s Black Panther. When you watched T’Challa and company fight for their nation of Wakanda, you truly felt as though you were watching something special. Marvel was breaking away from their comfort zone, and they do the same exact thing with Shang-Chi, and it’s all the better for it.

In more ways than one, this feels like a martial arts movie on steroids. It has that warm and comforting feeling that the masterful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon depicted so beautifully thanks to Cretton’s direction and the genuinely gorgeous cinematography by longtime DOP William Pope, whose work here seriously transcends the superhero genre. If you had no idea what Marvel was before seeing Shang-Chi, you would swear this is a martial arts film that just so happens to have some crazy strong people in it.

And don’t even get me started on the fight scenes in this movie. There are quite literally dozens of memorable MCU fight sequences, all of which were impressively filmed and choreographed, but without a doubt, Shang-Chi has the best fight sequences in the entirety of the MCU. They’re genuinely brutal and they’re almost all close-quarters. Whenever somebody lands a punch, you can almost feel the pain that comes with the landing blow. The choreography team behind this film deserve all the praise in the world, and it’s movies like this that seriously make me question why the Academy Awards still don’t recognize stunt and fight teams because, believe it or not, without them, your favorite action movies would literally not exist.

Of course, since this is a Marvel movie, there’s going to be quite a fair bit of humor in it, and gratefully, it all lands. There were a handful of scenes here that genuinely had me laughing quite hard which is something I haven’t done during one of these movies in years. The screenplay by Dave Callaham, Cretton, and Andrew Lanham never once feels sloppy or heavy-handed despite the fact that it was written by three different people. It always feels like it has a focus and an end goal.

There are some scenes that had the danger of forgetting what the overall story was and at times it can be worrying, but just when you start to get worried the film will lose focus, the screenwriters remind you that they know what they’re doing. Shang-Chi is easily one of the most emotionally powerful films in the MCU, containing an ending that left me in tears. It’s hard not to watch in awe and bittersweet sadness during the film’s final stretch, especially if you were heavily invested in the rest of the film beforehand.

A large part of why this movie was so great is the cast. Simu Liu is an actor I’ve heard only a bit about throughout the years, but I can say wholeheartedly that he was the perfect choice to play the titular character. He is the embodiment of a charming, badass, and heartfelt warrior and it’s nearly impossible not to smile whenever he’s on-screen. His beliefs and core values are going to speak to a lot of kids around the world. If Brie Larson‘s Captain Marvel is a symbol for girls out there, then surely Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi will be a symbol for boys around the world.

Awkwafina gets quite the strong role here as well, which is something that I didn’t expect after watching the trailers that made her out to be just some annoying love interest that Shang-Chi has. I was praying that she wasn’t going to be one of those characters that just sort of shows up every once in a while to be comedic relief, and I was pleasantly surprised with all the things they did with her character here. She definitely gets plenty of humorous scenes throughout (including one in the first act that nearly had me in tears from laughing so hard) but as the story progresses, it becomes clear that she’s going to get a lot of development along the way, and that’s exactly what happened.

Liu and Awkwafina have terrific chemistry here as well, never once feeling awkward off one another. It’s clear that these two are incredibly talented actors and they felt like actual people in this movie instead of actors portraying fictional people. And the same thing can be said about the wonderful Tony Leung who is without a doubt one of the most intimidating characters in the MCU. As the movie progresses, we get to learn more about him and his backstory which is often shocking and eye-opening, to say the least. I can’t really say why due to spoilers, but his character is one that is genuinely terrifying and it’s largely due to Leung’s performance.

He feels in command of the screen every time he’s in the film – which is a lot. Every single actor involved with this film understood the assignment and delivered the best performances of their careers. This is the exact type of movie I’m so happy I was able to see on the big screen because that’s the best possible way to experience it – with a crowd full of people who are just as eager as you to be there.

To pass Shang-Chi off as nothing more than mindless, popcorn entertainment would be a grave mistake because it’s so much more than that. Yes, it’s a superhero movie and you can probably predict some of the things that are inevitably going to go down in the third act, but the journey along the way is strikingly beautiful and one of the best in recent years, and in the entirety of the MCU. Shang-Chi is an emotionally powerful, action-packed journey and one that I’ll truly never forget.