Review: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, tells the tale of Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), a former assassin of a terrorist organization known as the Ten Rings, led by Shang-Chi’s father (Tony Leung), an ancient warlord who possesses ten magical rings that allows him to conquer entire civilizations. After doing a dirty deed for his father, Shang-Chi runs away and starts a new life in hiding making ends meat alongside his best friend Katy (Awkwafina). But when his past catches up to him and endangers both Katy and Shang’s sister (Meng’er Zhang), Shang-Chi must confront his father and relive his past once more.
Hollywood’s currently in an era where superhero movies are the dominant genre in the market, much like how westerns and musicals were at one point, and in my opinion I feel as if the era is now in a decline. It peaked when Avengers: Endgame showed the world the byproduct of what a decade’s worth of movies can lead up to; that movie set the bar HIGH for what these films, especially Marvel’s films, are capable of. After seeing twenty plus films from this franchise, with Endgame living up to its title, I feel like I’ve seen them all.
The MCU’s Phase 4 is now upon us, and I’m finding it extremely difficult to care for any of it. Hardly any of the films announced peaked my interest even a little bit, and if I do end up watching something it normally ends up being a run-of-the-mill fun waste of time and nothing else; I had fun watching the movie and I’ll probably never see it again. That was the case for Black Widow (which I saw earlier this year and didn’t even bother writing a review for because there wasn’t anything new about it for me to say) and this is the case for this film. Shang-Chi is a run-of-the-mill fun waste of time and nothing else; I had fun watching the movie and I’ll probably never see it again.
Everything good about this movie is essentially what was good about previous MCU movies; there’s fun action sequences, witty dialogue, and good performances. Everything bad about this movie is essentially what was bad about previous MCU movies; there’s mediocre CGI, witty dialogue in scenes that don’t need witty dialogue, and a generic story filled with generic characters. The only real difference between this film and the other Marvel films is it borrows elements from a lot of wuxia films, which is cool I guess, but none of it is groundbreaking by any means necessary.
And that’s kind of the reason why I don’t normally watch movies or shows from the MCU anymore. With every new film from Marvel Studios I can always expect them to make a movie that’s not bad but not memorable in any way. Don’t get me wrong, the studio has made some great stuff in the past and are still capable of making something unique, but as long as the MCU and Kevin Feige in particular stay hellbent on making EVERYTHING a shared universe, meaning aesthetically every film must be uniform to one another, the odds of seeing another film like Black Panther or the Guardians of the Galaxy films, films where you can tell there’s an unique individual behind the camera and not a corporate entity, is extremely low.
Overall this film is a movie, stuff happens in it and I enjoyed what was presented for the most part. It’s not as bad as some Marvel movies but it’s definitely not one of the best. I figure this film will have the same cultural impact to the Asian community that Black Panther had with the Black community, and if you enjoy the film for that reason specifically then I get it. Me personally when I want to see a film that is significant to my culture I prefer well made Asian centered films that hit a little closer to home like, say, Minari, or better yet foreign Asian films that’s filled with great characters and tell a great story like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Parasite, or literally anything made by Akira Kurosawa. Marvel fans will like this film a lot more than I did, but just like with most of the other Marvel films this was a largely inoffensive film that I had fun watching but will probably forget about in a month or two.
Final Verdict: 5/10