Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Review

While it succumbs to some of Marvel’s worst tendencies, Shang-Chi is a beautifully acted film with great action.

It cannot be an easy job entering the MCU as a director or writer. You have to walk a delicate tight rope of producing something with a unique and original voice while fitting into the larger Marvel universe. And the best MCU films are the ones that manage to subvert the traditional Marvel formula to explore new narrative structures, themes, and tones- such as Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor: Ranganorak, two of the more memorable entries fans love to revisit.

While Marvel’s latest film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, doesn’t throw out the whole playbook, it manages to strike the right balance between traditional Marvel magic and a scaled-down story with family at its core. The result is a fun ride that feels far more intimate than most of its counterparts while paying homage to the martial arts films that came before it.

At the heart of director Destin Cretton’s Shang-Chi, which he co-wrote with Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham, is the idea of family legacy and how it shapes our lives. Cretton explores this through the eyes of Simu Liu’s titular Shang-Chi, a fun-loving yet earnest valet driver living in San Fransico. Underneath this spirited persona, though, is someone desperately trying to outrun his dysfunctional family legacy. Which, if we are being honest, it isn’t even that dysfunctional by Marvel standards. It’s really just your average case of boy watches his mother get murder by his father’s enemies. Boy’s father dives further into his work as the leader of a centuries-old crime organization named after the mythic weapon he wields to decimate all who stands in his way. And, by 14, said boy is a well-trained, deadly assassin ready to avenge his mother’s death. I guess you could call home life complicated if forced to label it, but this is pretty run-of-the-mill stuff.

I write that all in jest, of course. Shang-Chi’s childhood is messy, but if he ever hopes to move on, he will have to face his past, and ultimately his father. In the end, Shang-Chi’s story is a journey of self-discovery, one where he must reconcile his purpose in the world as he wrestles with the man he has become because of, and in spite of, his family’s actions. It’s a story that could have gone awry in lesser hands, but Liu provides a breakout performance as the title hero. He exudes grace, humor, empathy, and the right amount of bravado as Shang-Chi forges a new path forward.

Then again, it’s easy to put on a good show when surrounded by tremendous talent, including the ever-capable Awkwafina and the criminally underrated Michelle Yeoh. It is Tony Leung, though, who provides the standout performance of the film. Leung plays Wenwu, the estranged father of Shang-Chi and wielder of the ten rings weapon. It is the type of role that could have easily become a caricature of Asian stereotypes- a consistent criticism of the Shang-Chi comics in general. But Cretton, Callaham, and Lanham did their due diligence to give all of these characters more nuance, much to the benefit of the Wenwu character.

Leung brings complexity, depth, and romanticism to his performance, much of which I am sure was influence by his time working with famed Chinese director Wong Kar-wai. Leung smartly plays Wenwu as an anti-hero shattered by his wife’s death and desperately seeking the power to bring her back. It is a powerhouse performance, one that had me rooting for Wenwu on his quest to reunite his family even though he was the “villain.” Simply put, Leung did something few Marvel villains have managed to accomplish: make me care.

The casting of Leung and Yeoh, both legends of Chinese cinema, provide a necessary legitimacy to the film, especially from an action standpoint. And while the cast is fantastic here, it will be the martial art fights that will keep fans coming back to Shang-Chi for years to come.

The action sequences, choreographed by the late Brad Allan, are some of the best the MCU has ever produced. Cretton and his team drew inspiration from some of the martial arts films of yesteryear, and that influence is evident throughout the film. In an early sequence, Shang-Chi battles a group of Ten Rings members on a bus. There are some clear nods to Jackie Chan here, as Shang-Chi uses a more frantic style of kung-fu that utilizes the whole environment while infusing humor into the scene. Later on in the film, we see more of a smooth, poetic style of martial arts used in films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Truly, Shang-Chi is a beautiful mashup of martial art styles that highlight the range of the film genre.

That is until the action becomes too grandiose for its own good. Like so many MCU films that have come before it, Shang-Chi’s third act suffers from an overreliance on CGI. For Marvel architect Kevin Feige, this marks a trend of sorts the studio needs to figure out. I know these are superhero films, but there doesn’t always need to be a larger-than-life battle when a more focused approach would be better. Shang-Chi is such a personal family story. Why is the final battle not an intimate affair highlighting the internal struggle between father and son over their family’s legacy? Instead, we get your quintessential CGI monster mash. It is a trite ending that detracts from the story the film worked so hard to tell.

Despite a lacking final act, the film is a success overall, buoyed by fantastic performances, fun fight scenes, and outstanding direction from Cretton. Shang-Chi feels like a seminal moment for the MCU. Not only is the film the first to release solely in theaters since the pandemic, but it is also the first film to feature an Asain superhero as its lead. Representation matters and I believe Shang-Chi will hold the same level of cultural importance as Black Panther.

At the very least, the Shang-Chi proves the MCU still has room for a greater diversity of story and hero.