Shang-Chi and the legend of the ten rings... review

Marvel has given us its first Asian lead movie, starring Simu Liu as martial-arts master Shang-Chi, and what a standout this movie is. With an incredibly talented supporting cast, phenomenal hand-to-hand combat and a story bursting with compassion and love, Marvel has done it again.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Martial-arts master Shang-Chi confronts the past he thought he left behind when he's drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organisation. Watch as humble valet-parking guy "Shaun" transforms into the mighty Shang-Chi, with the help from best friend Katy, played by Awkwafina. Destin Daniel Cretton directs and creates a grounded, yet flightless epic centred around the ideas of traditional Chinese martial-arts, whilst not forgetting about the Avengers inspired superpowers that we expect. The blend of the traditional and the modern gives such an incredible payoff that makes an audience completely satisfied.

This is an action-adventure fantasy epic that feeds the audience with everything they're after. Filled with reccurring characters, exceptional cameos and references to previous and future movies, this is absolutely a film for the fans. The action scenes must be praised here, this is some of the best hand-to-hand combat I have seen in a movie for a long time, and was such a new and fun vibe for a MCU movie. Whilst at times the "fantasy" aspect was heavily used, especially in the final few scenes, the film never relied on it in order to prove it had great action scenes. The training for this movie has paid off - the actors/stunt people never faltered. Even when the camera was inches away from them, it was polished. Each punch, each kick, each jab looked purposeful and planned, yet never forced. The stunt team have done an incredible job to make each fight scene look new, yet same enough that the fighting pattern was recognisable.

Speaking of fighting, be prepared to fall in love with it. As the style of martial-arts requires it, these sequences are perfectly choreographed dances. Particularly involving the women of the film, these moments are beautiful ballets of power and fury, yet so delicate that your eyes will never want to leave the screen. I was completely enamoured by the fluidity of these performers and how they could turn something so violent and vicious into something you would see at an Opera house. Set to an incredible score by Joel P. West, even if fighting is not your thing, this will blow you away.

The characterisation must be commended. Firstly, Simu Liu is a leading man. He holds the scene, makes it his own and you can absolutely tell that he takes this role very seriously, and as he should. This movie came with a lot of talk on representation and diversity within film and particularly the MCU, as it should. For too long we have seen white actors dominating the superhero screen, and it is about time that it changed. The pressure Liu must have felt to nail this performance must have been immense, but he did it with so much grace and heart that I am so excited to see him return to the screen as Shang-Chi very soon. Awkwafina is such a scene stealer. Love her or hate her, you can't disagree that she makes herself known within a scene, and she has managed to make a potentially bland character full of life and humour that allow for some more lighthearted scenes within the movie.

And so Shang-Chi and Katy are to encounter Shang-Chi’s long estranged sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) who runs a cage-fighting syndicate in Macau. What a performance. A character filled with so much pain and anguish, yet Zhang manages to portray such an emotive and empathetic character. Also Shang-Chi’s aunt Jiang Nan, played by Michelle Yeoh, who is the effective matriarch of the family’s home village in China. Yeoh is such a powerful presence on the screen and completely captivates an audience member. The rest of the supporting actors are great and each play such an important role in helping to convey this story.

Colour is used incredibly in this movie. The rings themselves use colour to differentiate between "good vs evil", and they help an audience member navigate who holds the power. The sky and the background often used colour to represent the tone of the scene, using darker colours when battles were beginning. One scene that stood out to me was a fight scene between Shang-Chi and Death Dealer which used the bright lights of billboards to create a blank canvas for the action to take place in front. Something as simple as a billboard created a contextually sound, yet incredibly effective backdrop for the fight scene to take place, and if set anywhere else, I'm not sure if it would have been as effective.

As usual, wait for the two after-credit scenes that will have you screaming at the screen. Without spoilers, be prepared for cameos and new introductions that have perfectly set up the new phase of the MCU.

I would say, however, that this film is filled with marvel easter eggs that might make watching the film without any prior knowledge to the MCU or Marvel itself be quite tricky. With cameos and references to previous films, you may be a little lost if you aren't up to date with all of the movies, yet if you aren't that bothered about needing to know the ins and the outs, I would absolutely recommend this movie.

I hope this film is going to be a stepping stone in the right direction for more diverse representation within the MCU and superhero movies themselves. Whilst we still have an extremely long way to go, it was such a fresh and empowering movie to watch, to finally see these actors and these characters getting the spotlight they deserve.

What did you think of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings?