Sometime in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, I started noticing a frightening trend. Asian Americans were being attacked in violent hate crimes across the United States. Now, I had some historical context that I had heard about or read in history books, but I still didn't understand this phenomenon. Why all of the sudden? It occurred to me that then President Donald J. Trump had made comments about the Covid-19 virus being a man-made Chinese super bioweapon. Ridiculous, I know...
Another ridiculous thing I inherited from America was the kung-fu grindhouse genre of films. I'm talking about legends like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Hwang Jang-Lee, Sammo Hung, etc. in their prime. Most people think of Jackie Chan hitting it big in the West with Rumble in the Bronx. While a great film, it was a product of the 90's, and was already way past his golden age as a hero in kung fu films like The Fearless Hyena and the cult classic Drunken Master. Due to this hyperviolent film genre, I became enamored with comics and anime, and all things that involve heroes punching their problems away, usually in the form of some arrogant villain whose moral compass rarely reaches anything past Chaotic Evil. This love further followed me as the Marvel Cinematic Universe gave way to some spectacular kung-fu inspired film battles.
I'll be completely honest with you today, up until I had seen the trailer for Shang-Chi, I have no recollection of the character on the thousand+ issues of comics I've consumed in my lifetime. I was baffled.
"Who the hell is Shang-Chi?"
Well, Kevin Feige, producer of miracles and dreams, and Patron Saint of the One Above All (we miss you so much, Stan...), has done it again. And in bringing Shang-Chi to the big screen, the MCU has retconned one of the biggest blunders (but also a cool subversion and perfect comedic timing in the execution of the reveal) in the MCU, The Mandarin. Known as Iron Man's main antagonist, it was confusing that the master of the Ten Rings never appeared in the MCU. When he was hinted at and "revealed" in Iron Man 3, the character turned out to be a complete ruse and fabrication of a secondary villain. Why was The Mandarin treated as a comedic "has been" actor pretending to be a terrorist leader? It didn't sit right with a lot of fans, myself included initially. Barring the teaser in the MCU short "Hail to the King," we had no way of knowing if there was a real Mandarin in the MCU. Until this film.
Now, The Mandarin of this film and his parentage to Shang-Chi seems like a complete fabrication for the MCU in order to give both characters a synergetic relationship that can establish one as a foil of the other. In giving the Mandarin this new agency, and an antagonistic role against this newly discovered Avenger, it has both re-canonized him into the pantheon of characters belonging to the MCU's sprawling multiverse, and given us another villain worthy of scorn. As is the case with heroes and villains, the Mandarin has been nothing but an abusive father to Shang-Chi, now an adult in San Francisco going by "Shawn." Early in the film, both Shang-Chi and his best friend Katy are attacked by a gang of thugs in a bus, a scene eerily familiar to the recent wave of hate crimes I mentioned earlier.
The basic gist of the movie is as follows: Shang-Chi has to return to his homeland and confront his father, The Mandarin (played to Shakespearean perfection by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), who oversees a terrorist organization named after the eponymous artifacts, The Ten Rings. These rings appear to have an unparalleled power that both provide seemingly eternal youth and infinite strength. By the end of the film's climatic battle in a pocket universe magical forest (umm...) with dragons and Soul Suckers (what the f*ck...?) fighting an army of magic users, Shang-Chi both gains the rings, becomes an Avenger, and surpasses his father; Hero's Journey and all that.
What makes the film intriguing is both it's choreography, style, and soundtrack. Not too dissimilar to Black Panther before it, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings aims to bring back that 70's kung-fu aesthetic and combine it with the Black urban swag that accompanied those movies on their path to success. Think of it as Wu-Tang Clan producing a MCU film and you've got a general idea of the physicality, musicality, and energy the last entry into Marvel's gargantuan movie experiment accomplishes. But, it is not a movie without faults.
I like Awkwafina's Katy just fine in this film. Humor in the MCU has always been tricky, too many punchlines can be too hit-or-miss. Not enough punchlines guarantees that all humor will either land or bomb. I come from the era when comedians had a very specific style and honed their craft: Pryor, Murphy, Williams, Chappelle. It's not easy, doing comedy. A lot of her jokes land, the more natural reactions ("well... shit") hit, and they hit well. But other bits of comedy, especially when in more tense situations with less than savory characters around them, don't release the tension the way the film thinks it does. This, in turn, makes it land awkwardly, not in the sense of "huh, that was an awkward exchange, ergo 'funny,'" but rather "ouch, awkward line/not the time for *that*." I prefer the more natural bickering of the Avengers as a whole than the way some of the more "human" characters are written. I guess, the highest praise I can give her performance is as follows, "it's a good Kat Dennings, but even that wasn't a high bar to reach." Ben Kingsley, as always, steals each scene he is in with the return of the Faux Mandarin, Trevor Slattery.
The dreaded third act of a superhero film, or any action film too reliant on a green screen and enough processing power to put all the particle garbage they can find on-screen, is feared as such because of the current landscape of cinema. With each movie being a spectacle, other "smaller" entries have to match it. Because of this, the third act of this film devolves into the video game realm of hitting everything a bunch of times until an exposed weakness shows itself on the big bad. In this case, it's a Soul Sucker monster from an alternate dimension, inside another alternate dimension that our heroes are thrusted into.
Yikes...
This is my biggest problem with the film. The relationship between Mandarin and Shang-Chi (kudos to my boy Simu Liu for getting that Marvel Studios "jacked" look down!) is central to the entire plot of the film. The titular Ten Rings are what Shang-Chi wants, and what the Mandarin will not allow himself to part with. Their battle should have been the ending of the film, but it is instead relegated to climax, and the conclusion of the film features a big bad that nobody gives two shits about having a CGI spotfest on screen. It's not rhino-in-Wakanda bad, but it's messy at times, and any emotional weight the movie held is immediately lost.
It is still a phenomenal entry into the larger world of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and I can't wait to see Shang-Chi, Captain Marvel, and the Hulk team up for whatever giant threat Kevin Feige is preparing us for. There are always Conquerors to hunt down in the multiverse. Or perhaps some day, they will have a Fantastic meeting with Marvel's First Family. Only time will tell, but I'm glad the current wielder of the Ten Rings is such a bonafide martial arts juggernaut.
Rating:
1/2
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