It’s not a crime to be late to the party; I’m sure I’m not the only one belatedly catching up with Marvel’s Asian action fantasy on Disney+ rather than seeing it at the cinema. Destin Daniel Cretton’s film took roughly 20 percent of the box-office take of the last Avengers movie, but with a pandemic raging and all, Disney will probably be happy with a $430 million worldwide gross to date given the circumstances. If nothing else, it’ll be pressed into service as a great loss leader to encourage Disney+ streaming subscribers, because everything that went wrong with the current product Eternals goes stormingly right here.
Simu Liu plays Shaun, a San Francisco valet-parker with a secret; he’s secretly Shang-Chi, the son of the master criminal Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung). In the comic book, this character was Fu Manchu, a character that is frowned on these days as an unhelpful cultural stereotype. But that’s still the kind of guy Xu Wenwu is, using the power of the mystical ten rings to bring prosperity to his empire, although not managing to save Shaun’s mother from his murderous enemies. After fighting off a gang of his father’s henchmen on a transit bus, to the astonishment of his gal-pal Katy (Awkwafina) Shaun reverts to his birth name and travels to Macau to find out why his father is contacting him; not surprisingly, the future of the earth hangs in the balance…
Shang-Chi eventually gains access to the ten rings and battles fearsome creatures from another world that burst through the inter-dimensional portal/gate that his father unwittingly opens; as legends go, the ten rings offer a suitably epic, crowd-pleasing feel. Liu is a reliable, often taciturn hero, with Awkwafina working double-time to make sure that there’s a healthy dose of comedy throughout; the scene where she discusses the obvious idiocy of Shaun’s secret name-change shows Katy would be excellent at Cinema Sins. And there’s also a welcome dose of Ben Kingsley, returning as English actor Trevor Slattery, previously The Mandarin from Iron Man 3. He’s now out of prison and hoping to continue treading the boards; his unexpected burst of Macbeth’s porter speech is something to behold.
While all the trappings are in place, Shang-Chi’s origin story is also a super-slick, streamlined affair; the exposition is chunky rather than clonky, and things really kick off visually once we travel to the remote village of Ta Lo where a menagerie of dragons and all kinds of other colourful ephemera fill the screen. All the set pieces dazzle the eye, and while as always with today’s green screen action movies, the backdrops are transparently fake and unrealistic, they pass muster here by being absolutely beautiful to look at. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is one of the best Marvel movies to date: fresh, savvy, often funnier than most comedies, and with a huge sandbox for the characters to explore. Even for those of us who are not in thrall to the comic book vibe, it’s a highly entertaining watch for all ages, creeds and cultures alike.
That was good in the first half but the finish at Ta Long is really too much for me.
And that’s another fantastic review you made.
thanks! Yup, all the MCU films get bogged down in the huge mega climaxes…
The film is not bad, but I feel that it is a tad bit overrated. The overuse of CGI and visual effects was unnecessary and excess. Do check out my review of the film too! 😊 Here’s to a good day ahead!
Loved this except for the weird CGI bat-dragon at the end. Would be nice if at least one of these films could skip the obligatory bloated CGI-heavy third act, and it might actually keep the budget south of the $200 million mark.
I liked where the film was initially going, with the Mandarin being the big bad due to past trauma and his character flaws — the Dweller-In-Darkness dragon just seemed unnecessary, and was an excuse to have them fight a big CGI monster at the end.
Agreed. I’m resigned to the third act bloat, Black Widow had the same issue. I guess it goes with being an event picture, but both Ten Rings and Bkack Widow were going fine until they supercharged the narrative for visual effect. Dulls the pay-off for me…
I have no regrets for seeing this one on the bigscreen. Kingsley nearly killed me as i laughed a bit while i had a piece of popcorn stuck in my throat. Not a very comfortable feeling having people look at you having a coughing fit amidst a pandemic-just out of lockdown-situation… Great review as always
Not ideal! But a terrific film, colourful and funny. Wish I’d seen this in the cinema, popcorn or not!
Glad to hear you enjoyed this one.
Between my superhero burnout after the Infinity War duology and disney’s sick practice of keeping their movies ONLY on Disney+ forever, I’ll probably never get around to watching this. I hope I survive…..
They’re not doing that in the UK, plenty of Star Wars has been on Netflix for example…
Really? Here it’s all locked down tighter than Fort Knox! You either pay exorbitant amounts for the blurays when they release them or you pay exorbitant monthly streaming fees for Disney+. So pick your poison kind of situation going on.
I looked at Ten Rings because it was less than two quid to watch, with a month of Disney+ included. I think the exclusivity deals are only for the first 45 days, then they can be licensed by any streamer like Prime.
Only $430 box office? That’s terrible. I’ll probably see it. Sounds decent. Not sure about the distinction between chunky and clonky though.
$4.30 adjusted for inflation. Chunky: easy to handle for all ages. Clonky; crude and rough.
Clonky is a ‘low dull sound of impact’ , chunky is ‘bulky and thick’. So clonky is louder and possibly smaller.
Hm. I see you two are using different dictionaries.
In my neighbourhood “chunky” is filled with chocolate chunks, as opposed to chips. Clonky is a bad sound coming from underneath your car.
Well your clonky is much the same as mine really, if I was driving along and heard a low dull sound of impact I’d be wondering who I’d run over.
Pigeons, usually. Hate the sound of their little necks snapping.
Not managed a pigeon though hit a pheasant once, it survived, my headlight unit didn’t.
Do they have peasants in Gateshead?
Pheasant – get thee to specsavers I don’t spell it wrong!
Aha, we have both pheasants and peasants on Duntreath estates, best not to let them clog up the underneath of your voiture.
So what would a tub of Ben and Jerry’s Clonky Monkey be like?
Expensive. That crap costs twice as much as regular ice cream even when it’s on sale.
Didn’t expect you to like this! I passed on it last night and watched Finch instead, but it’s now going on next! Yep!
I like to keep my audience on its toes. No complaints about this at all, if you like MCU, you’ll like this for sure. I’m not a complete curmudgeon…
Always good to keep a sliver of uncurmudgeoness in reserves. I’ll look forward to seeing this.