Sarcastic Movie Review: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Let’s be honest, No one has been as excited about the MCU since the end of Avengers: Endgame. The MCU at its peak was an inescapable juggernaut (even though the Juggernaut wasn’t in it ironically) the culmination of which was endgame.

Since then the hype has died down, which is to be expected. But since Disney and Marvel are not willing to stop milking such a lucrative cow just yet, we still keep getting movies for it.

But neither Black widow nor the Marvel shows on Disney plus has been able to launch the MCU back to the top. So is it ‘Shang-Chi and the legend of the ten rings’ that’s going to act as the epic comeback of the MCU?

Short answer: No, but it’s still a really fun movie.

Our story starts with a Genghis Khan like character: the “Mandarin” who’s a thousand years old, entering a magical forest to find a magical village but finding love instead. And it is nice that none of what I just said is even close to being strange for the MCU.

In any case, Shang-Chi and his sister Xu Xialing are born as a result of the said love affair. And the thousand year old conqueror understands that there is something more important than ruling the world, which is Family.

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Spoilers ahead!

But you can’t be merciless dictator for so long without making a few enemies along the way and this was true for the Mandarin as well and a few of them decided to take their revenge by killing his beloved wife.

A bit cliché, but it works. This prompts him to go back to his evil ways to get revenge as he retrieves his overpowered weapons known as the ten rings.

The Mandarin returns 

Now I like what they did with the ten rings, In the comics the rings are actual rings, the engagement type but here they’re more like bracelets and the whole aesthetic adds to their menacing power.

Shiny!

And the Mandarin on the whole (actual name Xu-Wenwu) is easily my favorite character in the movie. For those of you who remember ironman 3, you may remember that we had a version on the Mandarin before on the silver screen played by Ben Kingsley (who makes a return in this movie) and was one of the most controversial portrayals of any comic book character at the time.

This was because Kingsley’s Mandarin was an actor playing the role of a fanatical terrorist, and in reality a dumbass which did not sit well with the OG Mandarin fans, who in the comics was terrifying, overpowered and one of ironman’s greatest villains despite his stupid name.

But this representation of the character is so much better here, not because he stay’s that true to the comic book version either(because that version had a stupid mustache and wore 10 engagement rings), but because he gets the core of the character right which is being terrifying and over powered.

It also helps that Tony Leung Chiu-wai portrays the character with right balance of coldness and you can feel his presence whenever he’s on screen. Also he is an extremely good looking man that dresses like a boss, which helps.

Guys like this is why girls have daddy issues

Shang-Chi

All this finally brings us to the present day in which both Shang-Chi and his sister grew up in the assassin life, and ran away when they were teenagers away from their father, but daddy dearest now want’s them both back home.

I didn’t find Shang- Chi as captivating as his dad. Heck I even found his sister Xu Xialing a lot more interesting. But man can this dude fight! Shang-Chi is the very definition of the concept of ‘actions speak louder than words’. Cause the moment he starts throwing hands you can’t help but cheer for the guy.