Review: Marvel's SHANG-CHI Is a Beautifully Made Badass Martial Arts Movie
I love martial arts films, and when I first learned that Marvel Studios was making Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings my imagination was popping off with all kinds of possibilities of what that could be. Then we started seeing footage from the film in the trailers that were released, and it looked like Marvel may have actually pulled odd something amazing.
I was so freakin’ stoked about watching this movie, and I’m happy to say that director Destin Daniel Cretton, producer Kevin Feige, and the rest of the creative team pulled off something amazing and unique! Shang-Chi actually surpassed my expectations and is easily one of my favorite films that Marvel has made!
Marvel went on and made a great martial arts movie that any true martial arts fan is going to appreciate. They did some incredible stuff in this film with the action sequences, and it might have the best fight sequences that have been featured in any Marvel movie! Seriously, the fight choreography team came up with some incredible sequences some of which are completely badass and others that are simply beautiful.
Shang-Chi was visually stunning, and there were aspects of it that looked unlike anything we’ve seen from Marvel before. Marvel enjoys taking audiences and fans to different worlds and corners of the Marvel Universe and this one introduces us to a completely new corner of the MCU, and it was glorious. It must have been an awesome experience for the artists to create the wonderful vibrant visuals that we see.
As far as the story goes, they gave us something that was thrilling, exciting, action-packed, heartfelt, and emotional. That story simply follows Shang-Chi, a master of Kung Fu, who is forced to confront his father and his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization. I really don’t want to go into much more detail than that because I don’t want to spoil anything for you. There are a few surprises and it’s just a great experience watching the story unfold as you watch the movie. One thing that I want to say is that I appreciated the villain’s story arc and the complexity of what drives him and his motives. The trailers for the film don’t really give much away in regards to the story. They pretty gives you a basic outline of something that turns into an epic adventure.
The movie stars Simu Liu who was awesome in the role of Shang-Chi; Awkwafina played Katy and she had a much bigger role in the movie than I thought, she was a lot of fun; Tony Chiu-Wai Leung played Wenwu and was fantastic as the film’s villain; Michelle Yeoh kicked ass as Ying Nan; and Meng'er Zhang took on the role of Xialing and I really enjoyed her character’s story arc.
In case you’re wondering if there are any post-credits sequences… of course, there are! Stay until after the credits roll as there are two post-credits scenes that set up future MCU projects. I won’t spoil any of that here for you, but I think fans are going to get a kick out of what is being set up.
I absolutely loved Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings, and I hope that you’re able to enjoy it as much as I did!
