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 organization.
Marvel films are one of my guilty pleasures - irrespective of whether I have seen them in comics before watching the films, the Marvel Studios always do an amazing job bringing characters to life and giving them a stage to entertain non-hardcore (if that’s a word?!) fans whilst being able to bring the action and emotions fans love most! This film was no different, Shang-Chi was surprisingly a character I had never heard of - however, the feeling of immersiveness into the Marvel ecosystem is what brought me to the cinema to check out Shang-Chi and the legend of the 10 rings. Roughly 2 hours later, I can say that I am very surprised by what I saw - Shang-Chi’s story takes us across continents and explores both normality and mythology in fascinating ways. The main question though - should you spend your hard-earned money on viewing this film? Here are my thoughts.
As I previously mentioned, Shang-Chi was not a character I was familiar with (or had even heard of!) so my perspective comes from an outsider, albeit a general film and Marvel fan! One of my biggest worries with this film was that it would have an unwritten requirement that viewers would need to know about Shang-Chi before the film, even a loose connection. This was soon transformed into one of my favourite parts of the film, very early on - this film lays a fantastic introduction to the 10 rings, characters, relationships and a premise of the story’s themes.
The introduction is especially good though because it takes its time engrossing us in the film by focussing on the prevalent Asian culture of the film, some audiences may dislike the Mandarin introduction (accompanied you subtitles of course), but for me this encapsulated everything great about this film - it isn’t trying to be a typical Hero film by focussing primarily on the characters, but it additionally engrosses us in the culture through Mandarin narrative and traditional Asian themes. It also doesn’t feel forced, as if the film is trying to do this to send a message - the film embraces this and keeps it at the heart of everything it does.
Also at the heart of what makes this film so great is the storyline - not only is it introduced extremely well as covered, but throughout the film, nothing feels rushed, the film spends its time immersing us in the story, the characters and the themes behind the film, more importantly, though is that the film gets this combination of immersiveness and timings spot on; the film doesn’t feel slow or ‘drawn out’ at any points.
In a general sense though, the storyline is great and progresses at a great pace throughout. More importantly though, despite its somewhat complex nature and backstory, the film is surprisingly easy to follow due to the film getting a great mixture of action, narrative and character interactions - resulting in exciting scenes throughout but insightful and useful scenes such as flashbacks and character engagements that help tell the story. It is a very well relayed story in terms of its flow too, some films struggle slightly with their timings in terms of action/character depth where one or the other is focussed upon more - however here as mentioned, the film takes its time telling us the story and keeping us involved in its ecosystem of characters.
Additionally, the fight and action scenes are great - what I especially like about them is that they are executed very well but there aren't also fights for no reason, they are appropriately placed throughout the film to help add in a feeling of action, albeit not all of the fights are as action-heavy as expected, not that this is a bad thing though.
Speaking of characters though, they are equally as amazing as the storyline, if not more! Films typically last 1-2 hours and any successful film must create a bond between characters and audience as soon as possible. This film excels in this area, throughout the start of the film, strong introductions to characters through various scenes and encounters provide us with genuine reasons for meeting them - and help to make their relationships much more realistic. Additionally though, due to the amazing manner in which the film portrays these relationships - it results in characters that are genuinely likeable and entertaining. Seeing how these characters are then progressed during the film gives them an authentic and enthralling feeling because they are easy to like since none of the humour or emotions are forced upon us (e.g. jokes told in some scenes), none of the parts of the film screams out for our reactions - but they are executed in a subtle way that it knows will evoke reactions and emotions from audiences.
It is also worth noting that the relationships between characters are incredibly well portrayed, where characters have relationships between them (e.g. family, friends etc.) these not only feel realistic but genuinely believable, as though they hold the same relationships off-screen. For example, sometimes Akwafina's joke lines in films are written in a way that sounds forced to relate to the audience, however here her relationship with friend Shang-Chi feels so realistic and genuine that it could honestly be believed that they have known each other their whole lives - it is fantastic and certainly helps make the film feel so much more immersive and enjoyable.
The acting throughout is amazing too, it is difficult to call out standout performances when there are so many, however, all of the five main characters (Shang-Chi, Katy, Xu Wenwu, Xialing, Li and Ying Nan as the sixth, if you count her as a main character) are portrayed fantastically and were genuinely a pleasure to watch from start to finish. Not only were they key to establishing their characters, but they played a core role in the success of the film also.
In terms of what I didn't like about the film, there wasn't much at all, especially considering that like many of the other Marvel films in the MCU, they have to start somewhere. As an origin film, it does it very well.
Overall, I would give this film a 9.5 out of 10. It was fantastic in terms of how well it told the stories of Shang-Chi and his family, alongside delving into the stories and characters surrounding him - resulting in a film that has a great storyline that is both entertaining and easy to follow for new and veteran fans alike whilst also having a standout character roster that are actually interesting, entertaining and genuinely likeable. There is not much at all to dislike here, and as mentioned, as an origin film for Shang-Chi in the Marvel universe it does a fantastic job of introducing him to the big screen and solidifying him as a character to eagerly look out for in the upcoming films. In short, this film is worth a watch!!
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did watching the film and writing this review, I hope you have a lovely day! If you would like to check out my Official Facebook page where you can see sneak previous and more film insights then please consider checking out the link below!
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