SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS Review
It’s taken a bit too long for Marvel Studios to finally add some balletic action to their films; sure, seeing the likes of Thor and Black Panther punch bad guys in the face had their moments of ingenuity here and there, but for the most part, the MCU has been content to have their heroes fight in more or less one style: basic hand to hand fisticuffs (usually backed by the occasional shaky cam and editing seen in most action films nowadays). In whatever Phase the MCU finds itself in (is it 4?), the answer to their slowly dulling fights has been answered with Destin Daniel Cretton’s SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS, an MCU film with fight choreography that finally has the audience in awe of the physical prowess of its heroes. However, despite the introduction to another potentially exciting hero with his own unique background and penchant for slick fights, it’s a shame the film itself fails to carry much punch itself.
Indeed, it’s been awhile (going back to probably the first THOR entry, probably) since an MCU film has felt this mediocre but alas that’s where SHANG-CHI stands. There’s an intriguing set of ingredients running around here though, what with the prospect of a more than capable director handling the reins here, an intriguing cast that brings new and historic faces to the screen, and of course, the melding of Marvel superhero shenanigans with an Eastern flair for fights that are just as intricate as the worlds they take place in. Of course, that’s all great on paper (and maybe even on the pages, I don’t know, I’ve never read the comics) but throughout its 2-hour runtime, Shang-Chi’s (Simu Liu) biggest challenge is to standout among the generic mass that is another Marvel origin film.
Even as it hits the generic beats of every other superhero origin story before it, SHANG-CHI nonetheless brings the MCU into new (and potentially exciting) territory. After crafting a rather lovely and charming origin for Shang-Chi’s parents — two mystical powered beings on opposite sides of the moral spectrum; one played by Hong Kong screen legend Tony Chiu-Wai Leung as the centuries old tyrant, Xu, and the other by Fala Chen as the peaceful nature protector, Li— writer Dave Callaham (with assistance from Andrew Lanham and Mr. Cretton himself) shifts to the now grown Shang-Chi as he spends his young adulthood dicking around in San Francisco with his friend, Katy (Awkwafina). As far as Katy knows, Shang-Chi (who, in one of the film’s few good jokes, goes by the name of “Shaun” in America) is just an underachieving slacker like her. Of course, it’s not long before the winds of heroism (and a bunch of assassins jumping him on a city bus) call to Shang-Chi, who reveals himself to, yes, be a slacker, but a slacker who used to be a kick ass child assassin for his now estranged father, who has brought back the centuries old terrorist group known as the Ten Rings to rule over the criminal underworld.
From there Shang-Chi (with the regular, non-assassin Katy in tow for some reason) embarks on a journey that reunites him with his mournful and cold-hearted father as well as his long-abandoned sister, Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), as they all vie to reach the mythical land of Li’s hometown, a hidden Shangri-La housed away from the rest of the world that houses something that Xu desperately craves. Demons, dragons, and moving maze-like forests also come into play here but as SHANG-CHI demonstrates, interesting ideas for settings and visuals can only go so far as the energy displayed on film, and here Cretton and his crew fail to generate much. Even as the story is more or less detached from most MCU lore (save for the resurgence of IRON MAN 3’s narrative importance), SHANG-CHI still wholly feels like a B-side entry into the Marvel universe, equipped with an underdeveloped yet quippy (because you always need one of those) hero, vague world-ending threats, and the air of just being generally unimportant in the grand scheme of things when it comes to the narrative that Shang-Chi will most certainly become involved with in future MCU entries. While the film’s Asian influence on and off camera is appreciated and unique to the universe, the film merely treats these intriguing angles with a muted shrug as SHANG-CHI paints a rather plain picture of a magic world filled with kung-fu masters with cinematography that would fit much more on an AGENTS OF SHIELD episode than in a major entry in the MCU. For the first time, I finally see the complaints regarding Marvel’s use of rather shoddy CGI as SHANG-CHI unconvincingly places its actors in front of a noticeable green-screen in a majority of scenes (particularly in the final battle that should be cooler than it actually turns out to be) resulting in one of the uglier MCU films in recent memory. For all the awe its images on paper create, the on-screen result is something close to disappointing.
Plainness also reaches a majority of the actors; a talented group sure, but a talented group whose skills are muted with a script that lacks any true laughs or any sense of emotional weight. Simu Liu, in his first big role, shows moments of natural charm but that isn’t enough to make the plight of his character — a man escaping his dark past by facing the creator of said past — into something that’s emotionally investing. It doesn’t help that the script of SHANG-CHI and even Cretton himself focus more on moving the story along rather than actually sitting with their internal struggles they only graze with their main hero which is a shame as Cretton’s great SHORT TERM 12 thrived in bringing out the internal struggles of its characters. With Shang-Chi, Cretton and Liu simply offer a relatively bland guy who’s able to tick off a quip here and hold his own in a fight there. Truly, Mr. Liu shows a deft hand at holding his own in the fight scenes, the film’s relative crowning achievement, where opponents flip, dodge, jump, and throw each other with a kinetically graceful power that has yet to be seen in a Marvel movie. Seemingly doing the majority of their own fights, Mr. Liu, along with Ms. Zhang, make for impressive action figures as they beat down baddies and that does count for something. Granted, as this is an MCU film, all the cool fight choreography is soon washed away by a final battle that emphasizes faceless CGI-drones butting heads lackadaisically with our heroes.
Even as I more or less rag on the film, it seems that SHANG-CHI will be just fine thanks to making bookoos of money followed by praises from a majority of critics, so I definitely expect to see the martial-arts man pop up down the road in larger MCU entries. Hopefully the next time Shang-Chi and his friends roll up onto the scene, they’ll have more than some admittedly sick fight moves to show off.
2/5
