Re-Visiting the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

 "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021)

"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" was an important film for Marvel. It was debuting a new character. It was the first Asian solo superhero in the MCU. It was the first film since the pandemic that Marvel had released solely in theaters since "Black Widow" was released both in theaters and on Disney+. 

Principal photography on "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" in February 2020 and was put on hold in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it resumed in August and completed in October 2020. The film stars Simu Liu as Xu Shang-Chi/Shaun, Awkwafina as Katy, Meng'er Zhang as Xu Xialing, Fala Chen as Ying Li, Florian Munteanu as Razor Fist, Benedict Wong as Wong, Michelle Yeoh as Ying Nan, Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery and Tony Leung as Xu Wenwu. The film was written by Dave Callahm, Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham. It was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" premiered on September 3, 2021.

Our heroes.

"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" is a great movie. I am just going to say that right up front. It tells a story that hasn't been told in the MCU up to this point. It features a majority Asian cast. And even though it does fall into the the CGI heavy third act trap of a lot of MCU films, that takes nothing away from it being a major achievement.

I love the way this movie begins. For the first ten minutes, there isn't a word of English spoken. The whole sequence is so beautiful. It tells the story of the Ten Rings in a really succinct and exciting way. It's exhilarating to see Xu Wenwu aka the Mandarin using the rings to decimate whole armies. In the comics, the rings the Mandarin wears are literal rings you wear on your fingers, but the movie makes the change to have them big rings that are more like large bracelets. It's a great change because it makes the rings themselves much more dynamic. The shifting forest to Ta Lo is amazing. It's thrilling. It's not really something I've seen before. It's dangerous but also really beautiful.

When Wenwu reaches the entrance to Ta Lo, he is greeted by the guardian, Ying Li. I love the design of the uniform that Ying Li wears including the masked helmet. It is stunning. The fight between Wenwu and Ying Li is beautiful. It's like a dance that is dusted with violence. It is definitely hearkening back to the classic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and I'm obsessed with it. It is thrilling and flirty and a little humorous. I love the moment when Ying Li tosses Wenwu into the puddle. It is like she is literally extinguishing his ego. This sequence really highlights the chemistry between Tony Leung and Fala Chen. They don't have a ton of scenes together and their relationship is integral to the plot of the film. The actors sell this dynamic right away and I'm buying it again and again and again.

Father/son showdown.

Simu Liu makes his MCU debut as Shaun aka Shang-Chi. He's amazing. I have to first say that he is amazingly hot. There is a reason that the first time that we meet him he is in his underwear and does a few push ups. Hello. Cretton is immediately giving the people what they want. Liu was most known for the show "Kim's Convenience" and I think that comedy background served him really well here. Shang-Chi is a new character to the MCU and he's not a super well-known character outside of die hard comics fans like me. One of the nice things about the MCU being so huge is that they now have the capital with audiences to introduce these lesser known characters and audiences will follow an give them a chance. Liu really sells us Shang-Chi. We fall in love with him basically immediately. His relationship with Katy and her family that you later juxtapose with his relationship with his father and sister and you continually are given layer upon layer to him. Shang-Chi is charming and he's funny and strong. He's someone that you immediately want to root for and the majority of that is because of Liu's performance.

I honestly wasn't sure how Awkwafina was going to work in this movie. I really shouldn't have worried. You go into the movie thinking that she is simply going to be the comic relief but she is so much more than that. She is very funny and it's effortless. It doesn't come off gimmicky at all. Katy feels much more three dimensional than your usual comedic relief sidekick. The movie gives Katy her own journey that is connected but also separate from Shang-Chi. She has her own agency and you're just as invested in her as you are in Shang-Chi. That is a real achievement. Katy is transformed just like Shang-Chi is and it is very cool to witness. 

Meng'er Zhang exudes this bad ass bitch energy as Xu Xialing, Shang-Chi's estranged sister. From the moment she appears onscreen at the fight club and beats the shit out of Shang-Chi, she is electric. She is undeniably strong. She is a female child who was thrown to the side by her father when her brother left but she fought. She worked her way up. She taught herself what Wenwu wouldn't teach her. But, even though there is this strength to her, you can still see the hurt girl underneath all that, particularly when she is reunited with Shang-Chi. You see that she wants to hold on to the hurt and resentment she feels but that quickly falls away, which I think is great. Seeing the siblings cast a united front against their father is really empowering. I think what I love the most is that the movie sets up huge things to come for Xialing with her lying to Shang, taking over the Ten Rings and allowing women to join their ranks.

Michelle Yeoh is really having a renaissance here recently. I feel like it began with her role in "Star Trek: Discovery," continued with her role here and exploded with "Everything Everywhere All At Once." She is one of the leads of "The Witcher" prequel series on Netflix as well. Yeoh is perfect here. she shows up at the end of the film in Ta Lo playing aunt to Shang-Chi and Xialing. She is warm and strong and powerful and her scenes with Shang-Chi are perfect. Take that smirk when she knocks on him on ass. Perfect.

The biggest happy surprise for me with this film was the return of Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery from "Iron Man 3." If you recall, Slattery portrayed the Mandarin and the Ten Rings wasn't happy about this. He was last scene being abducted by the Ten Rings in the short "All Hail the King." He avoided execution by performing Macbeth for Wenwu and basically became the court jester. Kingsley is pure comedic relief and he is really a joy to watch here. One of my favorite moments in the film is when he reveals he became an actor because he believed the apes in "Planet of the Apes" were real. I certainly hope this isn't the last we see of Trevor Slattery.

Cute bracelets. 

I've maybe saved the best actor for last here. The MCU struggles when it comes to compelling villains. So far, Michael B Jordan's Erik Killmonger has been the best of the bunch. You can now add Tony Leung's Wenwu to the pantheon of phenomenal MCU villains. Leung is an extremely well-known and famous Hong Kong actor who is maybe not so well known to American audiences. He stuns in this film and I hope that people who love him in this seek out some of his other films. What makes Wenwu such an amazing villain is what made Killmonger an amazing villain. You see where he's coming from. Yes, he spends a lot of years as conquering warlord, but then you see that shift in him when he meets Ying Li. You see that love. You see that he is willing to give all this up and live a normal life. Those scenes with his wife and children are so cute and heartwarming. Them playing Dance Dance Revolution together! It makes it all that more heartbreaking when things come crashing down the moment that Ying Li is killed.

The things that Wenwu does after Ying Li is murdered are awful. They are inexcusable. He takes his young son to a den of gangsters where he murders them in front of him. He molds his son into a killer and manipulates him into going and committing murder himself, something that Shang-Chi will live with for the rest of his life. He basically discards his own daughter. Even with all of this, there is a part of you that yearns for his redemption. You see that he loves his children in his eyes. They love him. They want him to stop this crusade. They want him to realize that he is being manipulated to invade Ta Lo much like he manipulated Shang-Chi all those years. He never does and the moment that he dies, it is so emotional. I have watched this movie a lot and it gets me every time. I'm sad that we won't see him again, unless there is a flashback.

The action in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" is top notch. It is literally pulse pounding. Take that first bus ride actions sequence. It is nail biting. The fight choreography is second to none. I think this may be the best straight up hand to hand combat/action sequence in the MCU to date. It does so many cool things and you just feel ever punch, every thud of Shang-Chi's body. You couple that with the out of control bus and I honestly can't think of any more superlatives to throw at you.

The movie does a great job of like interjecting action right when it's needed. There is the fight club that features Wong fighting Emil Blonsky aka The Abomination, (hey She-Hulk!) that transitions to the fight that takes place on the scaffolding outside the building. Then, we have the chase out of the Ten Rings compound and the drive through the forest maze that transitions to the final battle. The movie's runtime really flies by because the pacing of the film is so tight, which is not something that you can always say about movies in the MCU.

Don't mess with auntie.

I know I've been sort of spewing well-deserved praise at this movie throughout this entire post, but it's not completely perfect. I think the Ta Lo sequence really does a great job of positioning everything for the finale. The wooden mural that tells the story of the Dweller In Darkness and the Great Protector is so cool, but things sort of fall victim to the sort of third act Marvel movie curse.

You all know what I'm talking about. It feels like a lot of times when it comes to the final battle that it become like this CGI fest and any sort of humanity and warmth that has been built up throughout the movie is kind of lost. And that is kind of what happens here. I think the initial battle between the denizens of Ta Lo and the Ten Rings is tight. Particularly when you factor in Katy really coming into her own and wielding the bow and arrow and Xialing and Ying Nan being their badass selves. 

The centerpiece of the third act is the final confrontation between Shang-Chi and Wenwu. From the beginning fight where it looks like Shang-Chi is done for to the actual final battle, it really sings. I think they do really cool things with the rings visually and there is this emotional undercurrent that really runs underneath the entire thing. Wenwu dies just as he and Shang-Chi make peace with each other. And honestly, that is where the movie should have ended. 

When the Dweller In Darkness and the Great Protector hit the scene things shift and it becomes your typical run of the mill CGI heavy final battle. I'm not saying that the designs of the dragons aren't cool, because they totally are. But I think that when they arrive the movie which has, up until this point, been very warm becomes very cold and it's unfortunate. The movie recovers from this very quickly and finishes up quite strongly. It's a blip, but it stops the movie from being a 10/10.

The mid credits scene hammers home that Shang-Chi (and Katy) are now an integral part of the MCU. They have a meeting at Kamar-Taj with Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers and you learn that the rings are acting as a beacon. For what? We don't know. But we will find out when Shang-Chi returns.

Next up, we finally meet the Eternals. 

I'm eager to hear what you all think. Do you love this movie as much as I do. What do you love about it? Let me know in the comments.