Marvel Studios' latest movie is "Shang Chi: The Legend of The Ten Rings", starring Simu Liu in the lead role. This movie surpassed my expectations in a way I could not even imagine.
Below is the spoiler-less review:
The last time I felt the same way about a movie about a new superhero was "black panther". Shang Chi too has similar hidden worlds, albeit on a smaller scale. Here, it is just a small village which is fighting a tyrannical villain as well as a mystical dragon instead of the in-fighting in wakandan kingdoms.
Yes, it might not be as iconic or first-time-thrill as black panther, but it is as beautiful as well as touches upon lots of family relationships. In fact it would be safe to say that family relationships were shown with the highest depth in this movie than any other mcu movie: brother-sister, father-son, mother-son, even an aunt-nephew relationship. We even see a non-romantic, simple relationship between the lead characters: Shang and Katy, which is a first for MCU. It has expanded the scope of MCU in ways you cannot imagine and also topped up by big surprises in a mid credit scene and post-credit scene.
Unique Intro
Talking about the presentation, it starts with an almost 10 minutes of intro to the ten rings and the villain completely in chinese with english subtitles. it then moves to california with character building, twists and a fantastic bus fight where we see the first glimpses of the best martial art stunts in MCU. The movie then moves to macau, and other places while opening the characters and their relationships layer by layer. This keeps getting better with every passing sequence, all culminating in a huge fight involving dragons and bat-like creatures called "soul eaters".
Xu Wenwu: The Villain worth fighting against
With powers perhaps on par with Thanos, we dont just see him with brute power, but see his personality, relation with his wife, son and his beliefs and try to feel his helplessness when he gets trapped by the "Dweller-in-Darkness" using the voice of his dead wife.
"The Fake Mandarin" returns
There is enough wit and fun in a very organic way, one of which is the "fake mandarin" played very well by Ben Kingsley, who returns to MCU after his appearance in "iron man-3". In this movie we see much more funny side of him! Without revealing any spoilers, it would be safe to say that shang chi is going to be a big part of MCU's future stories going forward, which include repercussions of these ten rings and may be also revealing the origins of them.
Beautiful World, Lots of Life
There were lots of mystical animals shown in the later half of movie, but most importantly all those feel natural and part of the whole set up instead of feeling like artificial. For instance, the one without head feels funny and makes the proceedings feel lighter whenever it communicates with the fake mandarin. The huge lion-like animal looks majestic, horse-like creatures have a personality of their own when they look at the camera.
Origins of "Ten Rings" Remain, kept secret for future movies
We do not get any info about who created those ten rings, but that would be definitely part of upcoming MCU team ups or other movies.
Over all, my rating is: 4.5/5: Storytelling at its best, best viewed on the big screen/theaters with full family(completely safe for kids, with no gory scenes or adult content, just like any Marvel Studios movie)!
