One thing that I enjoy about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is how it can surprise you.
There are times when your high expectations don’t quite come to fruition. In other instances, there are movies in the series that come out of nowhere and pleasantly surprise you.
I think back to 2014’s "Guardians of the Galaxy" — one of my favorite entries in the Marvel movie lexicon. The early promotional material left me scratching my head. At that point, I had serious doubts.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t have a burning desire to see the latest Marvel tome “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”
I figured it would be decent (each of the 24 previous movies in the MCU have at a minimum been entertaining), but I’m not a terribly big fan of martial arts movies, so I wasn’t sure how I’d react to it.
My initial qualms were unfounded. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie!
“Shang-Chi” starts off with fairly typical origin story material. While I know this is standard operating procedure for movies of this ilk, I always hope filmmakers don’t belabor the point.
We are taken back thousands of years when Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) discovers the ten rings. They are powerful weapons that imbue a user with special powers and immortality. He creates an organization called “Ten Rings.”
In the mid-1990s, Xu Wenwu goes in search of a village that has magical creatures in order to enhance his powers (it’s a fantasy movie... just go with it).
He is ultimately stopped from entering the village by a woman named Ying Li (Fala Chen). The two fall in love, leave the village, start a life together and have two children — Xu Shang-Chi and Xu Xialing.
I appreciated the fact that they shifted some of the origin elements to a later point in the movie. We learn more about the family dynamic in flashback sequences throughout the film’s third act.
From here, the story kicks into present day. For me, this is where the film became a funny and engaging superhero tale.
We find a grown-up Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) who works in San Francisco as a valet (and goes by the name Shaun) with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina).
The dynamic between the two characters is really engaging. Both are at a point in their life where their friends are moving onto “bigger and better” things in life, leaving the pair feeling more than a little self-conscious about their place in the world.
I loved Awkwafina in “Crazy Rich Asians” (read my review), and she provides a welcome dose of oddball humor in “Shang-Chi.”
More than that, the relationship dynamic between Shang-Chi and Katy is intriguing. You can’t quite tell if the two have future romantic inclinations, or are simply good platonic friends. Whatever the case, it is a likable on-screen duo.
The main narrative focus gets going when Shaun and Katy are attacked by a group of his father’s Ten Rings thugs on a city bus. They are after a jade pendant Shaun’s mother gave him.
This entire action sequence was really entertaining.
In the aftermath, Shang-Chi and Katy travel to Macau to find Shang-Chi’s sister Xu Xialing (Meng’er Zhang). The siblings are estranged from one another, and he wants to warn his sister that the Ten Rings organization is hunting them down.
This ultimately sets up a story about honor, revenge, and troubled family relationships.
There are a number of sequences I won’t get into because I don’t want to tread into spoiler territory.
I will say, though, that a modern-day martial arts movie wouldn’t be the same without “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s” Michelle Yeoh, and the talented actress is featured in “Shang-Chi.”
It’s not as if any of the narrative moments (in and of themselves) are particularly profound, but the likable vibe of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” makes for a surprisingly strong viewing experience (even if you aren’t a martial arts aficionado).
In a way, the tone reminded me of the 1986 movie “Big Trouble in Little China” — albeit with better visual effects and better martial arts sequences.
I’d definitely recommend “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” While it might not be a conventional superhero tale, it certainly has a lot to offer. The film’s strong leads create something that is much more than the sum of its parts.
The auditorium at Omaha’s Aksarben Cinema (on the evening I watched the movie) was about 75 percent full. It was fun to experience “Shang-Chi” with an enthusiastic crowd — something movie fans haven’t been able to experience enough of the past 18 months.
Be sure to stay for both a mid-credits “Easter Egg” scene and a scene after the credits.
No comments:
Post a Comment