For those of you who have watched the Marvel Iron fist series, this is what the Iron fist should have been like. A one man kung-fu whirlwind that you have be near super-natural to even have a chance to fight against. And the fighting really does keep the pace of the movie up. I just wish that Shang-Chi’s character was a bit more…charismatic.
The Story
The main storyline of the movie does take a deep dive into the supernatural. The Mandarin start’s hearing the voice of his dead wife saying that she is held prisoner by her old village behind a giant portal.
But the villagers explain that she’s not there, and the voices he’s hearing is a trick and is actually done by a Cthulhu looking monster who’s really good at voice acting.
But obviously the Mandarin doesn’t believe them, unwittingly unleash the monster and finally realizes that it was not his wife, because his wife never had giant batwings and tentacles.
The worst spot the difference puzzle ever
And I found this really stupid. The Mandarin is supposedly a thousand year old super intellectual badass, but he couldn’t even consider for a moment that maybe someone was faking her voice?
Even when he cracks the portal door a bit and tiny Lovecraftian soul-eaters start leaking out he doesn’t stop and maybe think…hmm maybe there is some truth to the whole ‘it’s not my wife back there’ theory.
I don’t know, I found all that to be really silly and a departure from how the character was portrayed till then.
But luckily the good guys have their own giant monster, in the form of a dragon and as we all know, the perfect counter for a Cthulhu monster is always a dragon.
Let’s be honest, a dragon is a perfect counter for anything.
So the evil monster is defeated with the combined effort of Shang-Chi, Xu Xialing and the dragon…well mostly the dragon.
And Katy! Let’s not forget she helped!
The ‘Real’ Story
At its core though, Shang-Chi and the legend of the ten rings is about family. Beneath the amazing martial arts fights and breath taking visuals of magical monsters, this is the story of a man and his children. And that’s why I like it.
Shang Chi and Xu Xialing both want to escape from their father’s shadow, but can’t really seem to get away. And Xu-Wenwu wallowed in the death of his wife for too long instead of moving on and focusing on the connections she left behind, their children.
But if all that is a bit much, you should watch it for the anime level battles involving a plank of wood who’s really good at martial arts, as he goes up against his dreamboat of dad and his ten ‘sonic the hedgehog’ rings.
Collect them all!
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For another action filled adventure which may or may not have dragons, check out the New World Odyssey series.
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