Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (****)
A spectacle of action and culture akin to the MCU’s Black Panther, Shang-Chi gives us a fresh new hero to root for and a summer-worthy blockbuster to kick off our September.
Spoilers ahead for the entire review – you’ve been warned.
Tragically, Jenna and I missed the first few minutes of this film thanks to my mistake of thinking our show started later than it did. By the time we got in, Shang-Chi was singing karaoke with Awkwafina’s character, and we had to pick it up from there. It felt as though Shang Chi was a likable enough character, albeit a little bland. But then the bus fight happened, and my respect for the character went through the roof. That entire scene was an absolute blast, partly because there was a guy with a sword for an arm but also mainly because of how well the fight was choreographed. Canada’s own Simu Liu had clearly done extensive training for the part of Shang-Chi, because it was so consistently evident that it was him doing the fighting and not a stunt double or a CGI replica. Each high-flying kick or perfectly placed punch landed with resounding efficacy. It was a terrific indicator of the ride we were in for, and things only got more intense from there. The short-lived fight between The Incredible Hulk’s Abomination and Doctor Strange’s Wong surprisingly took a backseat to a spectacular fight on the external scaffolding of a skyscraper. This movie is packed with action sequences that take your breath away. It’s top notch stuff, and it’s exactly the kind of story you hope for in an MCU movie.
Where the Black Panther parallels become most obvious is in the final act when our hero finds himself in a magical dimension heavily inspired by East Asian culture. They have these tusked lion things that look just like the dragon costumes we’ve all seen from Chinese celebrations. There’s a big fight between two sides and the lions join in, which is very reminiscent of the fight with the war rhinos from Wakanda. Even so, this segment set itself apart by giving us a full-on dragon battle in the sky, which was pretty sweet. At times I wondered if the sheer amount of action was holding the narrative of the film back, but by the end of the movie I in no way felt cheated out of a good story. The crux of the film focuses on Shang-Chi’s relationship with his dad, who’s been poisoned by a ghostly apparition of his late wife. It’s the kind of story that never gets old, and they execute it masterfully both in the acting and in the writing. Shang-Chi’s sister is an important part, but she gets less screen time than I feel she deserves.
If anyone’s there who doesn’t deserve to be, it’s Awkwafina’s Katy. It’s not that she’s not an effective joke delivery system or a good friend to our hero. It’s that she isn’t much more than that for the duration of the film. In the end credits scene, Wong seems to indicate that both her and Shang-Chi are now essentially Avengers (though he doesn’t use the word specifically). This makes total sense for Shang-Chi, but what did Katy do to earn that place? Sure, she shot an arrow at a dragon, but will she really be able to hold her own against any other character in the MCU roster of superheroes? Shang-Chi’s sister is the one who should be there. She’s got the kick-butt skills and the drive to win. That said, it seems that she’s being set up as the next villain for Shang-Chi to face, or at least an antihero akin to Loki. I thought Katy was a great addition to the film, to be clear. I just don’t understand yet how she could possibly be significant to the Avengers.
I almost forgot to mention Trevor Slattery, the character I would’ve been happy to never see again who turned into a wonderful addition to this film. He’s the villain from Iron Man 3 who turned out to be no one at all. It was a major letdown for that film, and the filmmakers tried to appease the fans by releasing “All Hail The King” a bit later down the road. I didn’t care for that one either. What they did here was keep Trevor in the picture by leaning into his uselessness as a character. He was wonderfully funny and totally irrelevant except in the way he helped our characters get to the magical dimension.
I don’t know how the MCU keeps doing it, but they’ve managed to get this far without dropping the ball. It’s been a great year for superheroes, with Black Widow, Loki, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and WandaVision all being released in 2021. And we’re not even done yet – we’ve still got The Eternals and the next Spider-Man flick in the months to come. It seems that the MCU continues to be a well-oiled machine that can’t help but release hit after hit.