Marvel, you truly are super. Even when we move down the bench for players, the result is still beyond exceptional.
In fact, if there’s any fault to ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’, it’s lack of familiarity. We don’t know this dude like we know Iron Man and Captain America and Thor. But the solution? Give it a few minutes. Like many of the characters in the Marvel Comics Universe, he’s a hero that’s engaging enough to cheer on and quickly get invested in. And by the end of the ride, he might just shoot near the top of your list of favorites.
An origin story of simplistic structure, ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ is amazingly ambitious in presentation. At least two of the action sequences served up by director Destin Daniel Cretton are so edge-of-the-seat nuts, this baby is worth the price of admission well before the halfway mark.
Picking up not long after the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, we’re introduced to Shang-Chi (Canadian Chinese-born actor Simu Liu of the sitcom ‘Kim’s Convenience’), a trained assassin whose father Wenwu (Tony Leung) has been battling enemies for over 1,000 years thanks to the 10 rings on his arms that carry magical powers. Trying to hide his past, Shang-Chi (or ‘Shaun’ as his friends know him) has settled into an assuming existence in San Francisco, parking cars with his buddy, Katy (Awkwafina, perhaps the best comic sidekick yet in the MCU). But when our hero is attacked by superhuman thugs while riding a city bus, robbed of an ancient pendant he was gifted by his late mother in the process, it’s clear that papa has dispatched his minions…and it’s up to Shang-Chi to find out why.
So it’s off to Macao, where things really start to cook. ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ is that rare feast of both comic book entertainment and quality character development that has you admiring it as much as you enjoy it. Liu shines so brightly, he’s going to fit like a glove alongside the spandex-clad assembly that Marvel films have already assembled. But even more huge is how important this film will be to Asian audiences; much like ‘Black Panther’, it’s a project with significant cultural impact. And, oh yeah……it’s a knockout!
