Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Shang-Chi must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.

  • Released: 2021-09-01
  • Runtime: 132 minutes
  • Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
  • Stars: Simu Liu, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Awkwafina, Zhang Meng'er, Fala Chen, Michelle Yeoh, Yuen Wah, Ben Kingsley, Florian Munteanu, Andy Le, Paul He, Jayden Tianyi Zhang, Elodie Fong, Arnold Sun, Stephanie Hsu, Kunal Dudheker, Tsai Chin, Jodi Long, Dallas Liu, Ronny Chieng, Daniel Liu, Stella Ye, Fernando Chien, Michael-Anthony Taylor, Zach Cherry, Raymond Ma, Lau Ga-Yung, Johnny Carr, Harmonie He, Lydia Sarks, Dee Bradley Baker, Benedict Wong, Tim Roth, Mark Ruffalo, Brie Larson, David Chea, Bingchen Ye, Jade Xu
  • Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
 Comments
  • auskooper - 5 May 2024
    A Brilliant Chinese Oriented Film
    Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the MCU films focusing mainly on China and Chinese culture. It has the origins of Shang-Chi, a character known for being an expert in kung fu. It does include the real Mandarin as well the actor Mandarin introduced in Iron Man 3 (Ben Kingsley). It has this Mandarin as Shang-Chi's father. It focuses on the Mandarin's 10 rings and incorporating them in Shang-Chi's story. The origin of the 10 rings is still unknown in the MCU as of right now and is meant to be built up in a future MCU project, likely Shang-Chi 2 or Avengers 5. I find this film is underrated. I find it a good film and there's not enough talk about it. I find the story is solid and definitely sets up a continuation that leaves you waiting (I do find that can be a good thing as you can get extra satisfaction out of both films after the second releases). The action is similar to that of the Avengers films and pretty well done. It's definitely one of the best MCU films to come out since Endgame.
  • Silver5963 - 19 December 2023
    A Highlight For Phase 4
    Of all the Post-Endgame movies centered on a new superhero, I think Shang-Chi takes the cake with its breathtaking martial arts choreography, beautiful visuals, and compelling storyline that makes the most of the previously established characters as well as the new ones. The finale was simply a smorgasbord of colourful spectacle. This movie avoided the mistakes of other Phase 4 movies by dodging convoluted plots and avoiding unnecessary amounts of comedy to make a solo MCU film as good as many of the earlier solo movies. Shang-Chi is one of the few new characters I truly do look forward to seeing more of in future movies, because I could watch fight scenes like the one on the bus for hours!
  • evolved-48563 - 10 January 2023
    Geared towards younger children
    Young teens and pre-teens will no doubt be largely engrossed in this flashy film featuring serious and goofy characters as well as parental issues, typically of the "I hate dad" variety.

    I also couldn't escape the feeling that Disney felt compelled to produce a Wakanda for Asians, not that it bothered me but it did seem derivative. On a more positive note, seeing reasonably well executed CGI representations of ancient Chinese mythological beasts was enjoyable.

    My finger found the fast forward button on the remote in the first 1/2 and I used it liberally after that. You might think that disqualifies my review but it was mainly boilerplate exposition that I skipped.
  • roeelo - 19 November 2022
    Major surprise!
    Legends, dragons, monsters - you'll find it all in this movie.

    Fantastic battle scenes, and very well presented story line. The early scence in the bus was just the begining of this great adventure/action movie.

    Personally I love the Asian story line, with the Far East scenic including the small details.

    Marvel always knows how to have guest appearance, and here it's no different. As this movie is part of Marvel's Phase Four, it connects perfectly with the other movies that stated this phase.

    Highly recommended, if you can watch it on the big screen it will be even better as the graphics and action scenes are just superb.
  • adamjohns-42575 - 4 October 2022
    And you thought that "One Ring" was dangerous!
    Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021) -

    As with 'The Eternals' (2021) I felt that this film lacked a final polish and going over before it's release, because there were elements that felt unfinished or unchecked which jarred against the films leading up to and including 'Avengers: Endgame' (2019). However, unlike 'The Eternals', I actually enjoyed this one.

    It was nice to see some Eastern/Asian representation, having only really had 'Wong' from 'Doctor Strange' (2016) and 'May' from 'Agents Of S. H. I. E. L. D.' (2013-20) previously and while I don't like to think of films being made just for the sake of representation - 'Ghostbusters' (2016) and 'Oceans 8' (2018) spring to mind - I did feel that this one was appropriate and not as forced as it could have been.

    It also seemed like that for the most part it could easily fit in with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I could happily watch Shang Chi back in the U. S. helping out the 'Avengers' or 'Fantastic Four' (If they ever get that formula right) should the occasion arise, but "Ta Lo" felt too fairytale and magic a place, possibly due to rushed CGI.

    They really tried a bit too hard to force the connections to the existing world as well, by chucking in random characters from throughout the past films, one of which I'd completely forgotten about, they had been that ineffectual.

    It was also trying a bit too hard to be funny a lot of the time, which just felt like it detracted from the more important elements and made too light of them.

    It seemed like they were trying to match wits with Taika Waititi's style for the 'Thor' films, but unsuccessfully.

    I did like Ben Kingsley's effort as 'Trevor Slattery' though, which might have been more about how well he delivered it and less about the set up or the script. The man is a genius.

    Katy, played by Awkwafina on the other hand, was awful, like a crap version of 'Ned' from the Tom Holland 'Spider-Man' films. She was the type of stupid sidekick no hero wants of needs, even if she did learn archery in about an hour.

    Shang Chi, played by Simu Liu, was easy on the eye and I liked him enough, but I didn't really buy his strength. That maybe because it was an origin film and they may show us more from him and what he can do, as the character is built upon going forward. It did appear that they had gone against the comic, by giving him some "Super" elements though.

    I could easily see his character being gay and I think it would be a good way to bring some more LGBTQ+ representation in to Marvel without upsetting too many fans, because I really couldn't see that he worked with 'Katy' and I'd love to seeing him snogging Shawn Ashmore as the openly gay comic book character 'Bobby Drake' (Iceman).

    I did appreciate the distribution of Shang's origin throughout the film, which worked well and kept things interesting. It doesn't always work like that, but the drip feed of his past meant that it was easier to take and understand.

    I felt that the use of both languages was appropriate, but it did seem to complicate things a bit at times and the subtitles flew passed a bit too quickly to read. Thank God for pause and rewind.

    Some of the CGI special effects were a bit too blurry for my tastes too and the magical land they go to was a bit childish, like something from 'The Moomins' (1977-82) or 'Thomas The Tank Engine' (1984-2021), it was all just a bit too perfect. They relied too much on fantasy creatures and pristine gardens, Etc and it became like 'Avatar' (2009) and 'Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them' (2016).

    Similarly the fights all went too fast and it was those things that just needed that finishing off. It didn't spoil my viewing pleasure so badly though.

    I might describe this one as 'Enter The Dragon' (1973) meets 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' (2000), but with actual Dragon like creatures.

    It's an enjoyable film, although it can't really compare with 'Captain America' (2011), 'Iron Man' (2008), 'Wolverine' (2009) or Spidey.

    Where I might skip 'The Eternals' during my next run through of the Marvel world, I would still include this one.

    648.91/1000.