Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) Spoiler-Filled Review/Rant: This Ain't No Legend In The Making...

 

Phase Four of the MCU might be the franchise's weakest since Phase Two so far. While "Wandavision" and "Falcon and the Winter Soldier" were decent miniseries, they had some poor creative choices and structure as single-season stories. "Loki" is completely nonsensical and just made to complicate the franchise with multiverse adventures that Doctor Strange and Spider-Man have to deal with, while "Black Widow" is an underwhelming return to theatres with a pointless story of a dead character, mishandled villain, and no advancements for the universe aside from a single mid-credit scene. The only thing that I'm really enjoying is "What If...?", and that's just because they are single bite-sized stories ranging from silly concepts to interesting outcomes. Marvel's latest superhero romp though had me interested at first. The action looked great, Simu Liu is a fun Canadian actor, and the director's last film was the underrated "Just Mercy". This film may have the potential to reach the heights of "Iron Man" or "Black Panther", but man, did it blew its opportunity.

Positives:

• The story when it focuses on Shang-Chi and his father. It's both emotional and dark to see the father and son fight as the film gives us some great backstory material and a strange dynamic where the characters don't really want to kill each other or hate each other, but their goals and beliefs simply don't align to them. When the film takes itself seriously, it echos the lost potential of how great this movie could have been.
• Simu Liu as Shang-Chi. Liu does an excellent job at being both charismatic and dramatic as the hero with the tortured past. The fact that most of the stunts were performed by him shows just how dedicated he was to the film and role.
• Tony Leoung as Xu Wenwu/The Mandarin. Leoung was fantastic at being both this menacing and cold leader while showing that he does have potential to be a caring and king father. His arc, up until the end, was great and he could have been one of the best villains in the franchise if the film didn't take such a random direction at the end. Fala Chen as Ying Li is also great as the wife of Xu and the only person that truly changed his outlook on life.
• The direction by Destin Daniel Cretton. Cretton is becoming a rising filmmaker and this film shows off how talented he can be. The film can feel both low-budget and cinematic at the same time and the brightened aesthetic and vivid colours does make the film feel clean and visually engaging. 
• The cinematography by William Pope. Similar to Cretton's direction, but his work on most of the action sequences is great and some of the single-frame wonders look wonderful as the environment engulfs the actors from afar.
• The music by Joel P. West. I have never heard of West before, but he did such a great job with the score. While the licensed soundtrack is kind of average in its selection, the original music that crosses from dramatic oriental pieces to electronic punk is great at giving the film a sense of personality.
• The hand-to-hand combat and the first two big action sequences. The use of kung fu and stunts throughout the film is awesome to see during the first half of the film. While the second set-piece in the fight-club is decent, the first set-piece involving Shang-Chi in the bus is one of the best in the genre. From the music, the stunts, the pacing, and the scale, it's a brilliant way to keep people invested for the rest of the film. However, it's a damn shame that it made the movie peak way too early as a result.

Negatives:

• The story direction. The first act does a great job at setting up a personal dilemma and the feel that the film is going for in terms of aesthetic, action and scope. The film feels almost grounded with the exception of the Ten Rings themselves. However, the story takes such a wild direction by the second act where they introduce a hidden village located in an alternate dimension that hosts Pokemon-looking creatures and the introduction of the true threat, which are these space demons that suck the souls off people. We went from a grounded action-thriller that is motivated by personal drama to saving the world from space demons with dragons and glowing weapons. You can debate about if it's using the Asian culture good or not, but this is such a whiplash of story direction and makes the film feel more generic that it should have been.
• The forced MCU connections. What makes "Black Panther" one of the best films in the franchise is that it feels very stand-alone to the rest of the universe, rarely incorporating other characters or elements from the franchise. "Shang-Chi" however feels insecure as a stand-alone film and forces various cameos throughout. Remember the scene in the trailer where Abomination and Wong fight? Well, that happens for like ten seconds and the scene itself feels so random and out-of-context. Like, why is Wong fighting in a fight club and making friends with Abomination? Where did this come from? The mid-credits with Bruce Banner and Captain Marvel feels forced in order to tell the audience that Shang-Chi is going to be part of the Avengers at some point. And then there's Trevor Slattery, played by Ben Kingsley. I thought this guy was going to appear in like one scene. Instead, he joins the crew in the second act as comic relief and it feels so out-of-place along with the random hairy butt creature he just knows how to communicate with that will lead the heroes to the hidden village. Slattery feel so forced in the plot that it's stupid.
• The tonal shifts. I love when the film focuses on the serious story and relationships of the family dynamic of the hero and villain. However, the serious nature of the film is constantly at odds with the humour, mythical creatures and over-the-top third act. A prime example is when Shang-Chi is telling a flashback of his past and is interrupted by a flight attendant halfway. "Black Panther" has its humour very much kept away from the more serious moments of the story. Imagine when T'Challa is fighting Killmonger and Shiri asks them what were those? That's the level "Shang-Chi" stoops down too. Also, it doesn't help that the humour itself is pretty weak given the clashing of tones and forced writing.
• Awkwafina as Katy. At first, Katy is a typical Awkwafina role. An unfunny and cartoonish comic relief that acts as the best friend of the main character. I didn't find her too annoying for the most part, but her inclusion just felt odd. The moment where she manages to shoot an arrow through the throat of the big bad monster though, it just shows how stupid this movies gets, considering Katy just learned how to fire a bow and arrow the day before. Katy went from an unfunny comic relief to an unnecessary important character from one single idiotic scene. 
• Meng'er Zhang as Shang-Chi's sister, Xu Xialing. Zhang is well-acted, but ultimately pointless in the grand scheme of the plot. It almost feels like she was meant to take Katy's place in the story, but Katy took bigger priority for comedy purposes. There's not really much for the side cast aside from the villagers and Razor Fist, who are just generic roles.
• The CGI. The overuse of the visual effects causes a lack of clarity and it painfully sticks out throughout the film when the first act kept it minimal. If the rings, weapons, and backgrounds were effects, it would be fine. But when monsters and creatures gets thrown in, it takes a notch down from how fake they look and how they clash with the more grounded first act.
• The latter action sequences. The escape from the prison was all CGI and it's a far-cry from the excellent stunts and kinetic action from the first two set-pieces. The climax itself is mostly CGI nonsense with weapons, demons, the rings, and dragons flying all over the place. It makes the climax of "Black Panther" look amazing in retrospective.
• The climax as a whole. While I already stated the tonal clashes, overuse of effects, Katy's role, and weak action present, it's how insulting the third act derails the personal story between Shang-Chi and his father by two ways. For one, rather than a proper reconciliation, Xu is killed by the big bad Dweller-in-Darkness. For a movie that carries such a serious relationship and characterization of the primary villain, him getting killed by a CGI abomination is just so silly and off-putting. If he was going to die, do it either more tastefully or more logical. The second and most heinous act is how it changes Shang-Chi's perspective of the rings. The film makes it explicitly clear that Shang hates the rings as weaponry and how it acted as a type of drug that consumed his father's life. He even disarms himself once he bested his father. But when Xu gets his soul sucked by the giant CGI monster, what does Shang do? Use the rings to kill the monster and keeps them by the end of the film. It's amazing on how inconsistent this film is to its own script and identity.

"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" is a prime example of how bad Marvel Studios is at making good movies. Yes, the direction, camerawork, score, martial arts action, aspects of the story, and the lead performances of Liu and Leound are outstanding. But, they barely amount to anything if the rest of the film is painful to watch in how misguided and self-destructive it gets. From the random fantastical elements thrown in the third act, the forced MCU connections, the unbalanced tonal shifts of serious and light-heated humour, Awkwafina's Katy being both bad comic relief and idiotic plot device, Xialing is just standing around aimlessly, the CGI is overused to hell that it looks awful, the action sequences present in the second and third act overuse effects that it becomes more artificial, and the climax itself disregards the strongest aspects of the storyline regarding the connection with Shang and his dad and his view on the rings. I really wanted to enjoy this movie and the first act was everything I was expecting, but man, this movie just falls apart after the bus sequence. Yet, because this is the only movie worth watching this month, people will flock to it and praise trash like this.

Verdict: 5/10. Average at best, painfully bad at worst. Just wait until it comes out on Disney+ and watch the first act before watching something else entirely.