Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

I'll be honest - Marvel movies are not in my top 20 or even 50 but within the Marvel "Universe" I would say that Shang-Chi is in my top 5. I know, it's blasphemy and all that but think about it - is it better than Iron Man? I would admit yes - it's origin story is arguably better, and it's characters are a lot deeper. The Mandarin is a conflicted man, with evil but good as well, like real life. Is this movie better than The Avengers or Ragnarok or Infinity Wars? Hard to say, which means it's right up there with the best (of Marvel) in my opinion.

Plus, I'm a sucker for Chinese movies with the Chinese language being spoken - 1 of my favourite of all times, if not my absolute favourite, is of course 'Hero.' The Chinese language and the artistry of it's culture are magnificent.

All in all, well done Marvel, director Destin, and all those who worked to make this movie a reality. This is not just your average summer action movie; it's close to being a Masterpiece. And the humour is pretty swell too!

Cheers.

The story was riddled with holes and plot issues. Since when does Awkwafina's pedestrian character all of a sudden get invited to become part of the MCU team? What's her super power... stupidity? Don't get me wrong, I love her, but her character was lazily written. Then there's the whole daddy issues dynamic - Shang is with him, then against, then with etc.. Then we have these ridiculous dragons fighting, where one scores some power crystals and becomes stronger! This is just infantile lazy writing. There was zero shock value or anything spectacular in the entire runtime, with tedious long middle acts and a bumbling third act. The jokes were cliched and not funny. The funniest parts were Ben Kingsley's character, (of whom was in this for what reasons??) and the ending to go Karaoke - which was the only time I actually cracked a chuckle. You'd think with three writers we'd have something cohesive and coherent. But instead of a Marvel superhero story, we got a Disney evil vs good with dragons thrown into the mix. It's as if they tried too hard to create the Asian version of Black Panther.

It's a shame, because the directing and cinematography were spot on, and great S/VFX - although a little overboard with the CGI i.e. Dragons. The martial arts choreography was outstanding (although again, overboard after the awesome bus scene), and the casting and performances were excellent, especially Leung, who pretty much carried the film on his shoulders. It's a 7/10 from me.

This was just a lot of fun. The story wasn't as tight as it could have been, but I found myself enjoying the whole movie regardless. The fight choreography was bangin', and all the action was just very well directed. Everything felt purposeful and exhilarating. The beginning of the movie feels like a straight-up martial arts movie and then as it progresses we get more and more fantasy elements working their way in which felt like a nice contrast. The music definitely felt like it added a lot here. I kept being reminded of how mixing different elements in with the more traditional orchestrated sounds really worked for Black Panther's soundtrack, and I honestly think this film did it even better. I think that, all in all, this is probably the best thing Marvel has produced since Endgame.

Shang-Chi is a hotel parking valet who reveals he's a martial-arts expert when he is attacked by thugs aboard a bus. He and buddy Katy head to the mysterious East to find his sister Xialing (Meng'er Zhang) in order to deal with their father Wenwu (Tony Leung Chiu-wai). Their journey leads to a village guarded by a bamboo forest, where Disney decided that what a martial-arts movie needed most was animatronic flying lions and dragons.

Up until then this was a respectful updating of a non-PC Marvel comic book from the 1970s that was originally supposed to be based on TV's Kung Fu. Rights unavailable, it was instead based on Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu, who's even more non-PC today. For those in the know Wenwu is actually The Mandarin, although all this background is rendered invisible by the Marvel factory gloss.

What's left are some excellent action sequences that evoke Jackie Chan's Golden Harvest era (the film is dedicated to Brad Allan, 2nd Unit director, supervising stunt coordinator, and a member of Jackie Chan's Stunt Team), nice comic interplay between Liu and Awkwafina, a few Marvel cameos, a wondrous turn by Michelle Yeoh in the third act, and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, following the path of award-winning supervillains like Jeff Bridges and Sir Ben Kingsley. Leung is the best Hong Kong actor of his generation, and he brings nuance and gravity to a film that doesn't ultimately deserve it.

Everything comes in it beautiful science fiction and beautiful mythical creatures. Sometimes you have creatures that don't seem real, but these just seemed real. Well done! There was a bit of avatar feeling in it. Fighting for the safekeeping of peace. Really beautiful. And self-acceptance was also nicely incorporated.