- Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is probably the most pleasantly surprising Marvel superhero movie since the original Iron Man. Frankly, I had low expectations for this film based on what I knew of the comic book version of Shang-Chi, a 70's martial arts craze cash-in who tends to vacillate between uninteresting and offensive. Fifty years of perspective and a mostly Asian cast and above-the-line production crew must have made a difference, though, because the film version of Shang-Chi gets almost everything right.
- At its most fundamental level, Shang-Chi is a movie about identity and self-determination. For its eponymous hero (Simu Liu), who enters the film as a San Francisco parking valet named "Shaun," that means confronting his father Wenwu (Tony Leung), a powerful warlord who once trained Shang-Chi to become an assassin. After being assigned to kill the men who murdered his mother Ying Li (Fala Chen), however, Shang-Chi fled to the U.S., abandoning both his father and younger sister Xialing (Meng'er Zhang). That Wenwu sends a razor-fisted henchman (Florian Munteanu) and a team of goons to retrieve his son tells you a lot about the current state of their relationship.
- But lest you get the impression that Wenwu is a complete monster, I should mention that he only hunted down his children out of concern for his late wife. Wenwu is completely convinced that Ying Li is still alive and trapped in the magical land of Ta Lo, where they first met. One naturally wonders whether Wenwu's magical rings have affected his mind, and it isn't long before Shang-Chi and his redoubtable friend Katy (Awkwafina) are racing his father to Ta Lo. Once there, Shang-Chi's aunt (Michelle Yeoh) explains that many of the legends concerning her magical homeworld are true, but that the entity communicating with Wenwu is most definitely not Shang-Chi or anyone else's mother.
- While the film's last act lazily deploys the usual barrage of visual effects, I have to admit that I found the rest of Shang-Chi to be quite captivating. The early fight sequences -- including a bus brawl that is the highlight of the entire film -- are completely fascinating to watch, combining traditional wuxia film stylings with modern superhero flair in a very effective manner. The film's quieter moments are also superb, particularly when Shang-Chi and Katy face off against the hordes of unreasonable life expectations advanced by their parents and friends. While all of the acting in this film is great, nobody can compete with Tony Leung, who makes his world-famous imitator (Ben Kingsley) come across as a joke. The post-credit scenes imply that Shang-Chi will soon become an Avenger, but I'll just be happy if he lands a few more interesting adventures of his own.
- Also featuring Benedict Wong and a few phoned-in cameos from other Marvel characters.
