REVIEW: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2023)

I saw the trailer for this movie, and I was very hesitant about buying the Blu-ray. I thought it was going to be a horrible movie, and was especially shocked when I saw that it was directed by the Russo brothers, who did the last three Avengers movies. But I can really say that I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. I don’t know how much it has to do with me being a Marvel fan, but the Russo brothers know how to tell a good story, and they’re good at making movies that have a strong sense of fun.

Following the success of the original two movies, the third instalment of this Chinese martial arts spectacular is finally here. (The film has already been released in China and Hong Kong, and is expected to be released in North America and Europe sometime in 2023.) This time, Hollywood director David Dobkin (The Judge, San Andreas) has taken over the reins for this epic fantasy and actioner, and you can expect him to bring a (hopefully) new and exciting style of storytelling to the franchise. (The first Shang-Chi film was essentially a live-action kung-fu cartoon, and the second film was a fairly straightforward remake.)

Directed by Edgar Wright, this is a new take on the classic comic book superhero. This film has been widely praised by critics, earning a nearly perfect score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.. Read more about shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings full movie and let us know what you think.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (REVIEW) (2023)

Reviews of films

It’s tough to call Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings a letdown since, by all accounts, the film didn’t live up to the hype. It still hurts when a Marvel film is subpar, and this one not only fails to entertain with its bland story, threadbare character work, unimpressive special effects, and shockingly bad fight scenes, but it also fails to entertain with its bland story, threadbare character work, unimpressive special effects, and shockingly poor fight scenes.

Shang-Chi, the son of two mystically powerful Chinese warriors and the heir of a deadly clan, leads a quiet life in San Francisco, distant from his terrible background. When his father’s soldiers come after him, he’ll have to confront his bloody past and accept the fate he’d crossed the globe to avoid.

It doesn’t get much more fascinating than that in this tale. Shang-Chi features a storyline that is very much like a connect-the-dots game, with each scene having no function other than to lead the protagonists to the next one. This film doesn’t seem like a narrative that needed to be told; rather, it feels like a jigsaw piece put together to fill a release slot. Many story ideas and concepts are lifted from previous, better Marvel films, yet they lack the same emotional effect. For example, the parental anguish that plagued Peter Quill in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie is recycled, but it seems repetitive in comparison to the real sadness of Guardians. Bruce Banner’s efforts to flee a hazardous history rather than accept and utilize it for good return, as does T’Challa’s struggle with a tainted heritage passed down to him by a flawed father, both in a weightless form. It’s as if they stapled together whatever parts appeared to work for Marvel in the past in the hopes of creating something that looked similar enough to blend in with the franchise’s predecessors. It doesn’t work, therefore we’re left with an incomplete art piece with a recognizable form but no functional components.

Part of it is because we feel like we’re reading about the characters on Wikipedia rather than getting to know them in a film. Shang-Chi is made up of crude drawings of real individuals played by performers who don’t do anything to bring them to life. Tony Leung plays the long-awaited Mandarin – who is referred to by his actual name, Xu Wenwu, for a reason that will make you roll your eyes at Disney’s flagellating efforts at virtue signaling – and he isn’t worth the wait. He’s been greatly humanized in comparison to his wicked dictator comic book beginnings, but it doesn’t work since Leung can’t sell the character’s lethal side when it’s required. He’s effectively Thanos without the threat, resulting in a film that seems devoid of a villain. People who disliked Iron Man 3’s adaptation are unlikely to like this one any more. Xialing, Shang-sister, Chi’s is played by Meng’er Zhang, who, like Leung, struggles to make us care about a purportedly wounded lady; her rage and pain towards her brother are resolved in a single scene, solved by a single juvenile prank. (Of course, we’re informed and shown many times that she’s better than Shang-Chi in every aspect, since that’s what you need in a character-building film.) Michelle Yeoh appears and reads a few lines, but that’s all. Shang-Chi is a film full with mannequins.

The protagonists, Simu Liu and Awkwafina, are the only two outliers to the lackluster cast, which works in the film’s favor. Shang-Chi is made more likable by Liu, who makes him someone you’d like to follow on a more enjoyable journey. He handles levity well, and his transition from amiable buddy to serious combatant seems natural, if only for the time. He’s not as good as Tony Stark or Peter Parker, but he’s not terrible either. And as Katy, Shang-closest Chi’s friend, Awkwafina plays a beefed-up Darcy from the Thor movie; I didn’t find most of her lines very amusing, but she’s doing her best with the weak screenplay. She won’t be anyone’s favorite Marvel character, but after listening through the rest of these stiffs droning on about mysticism and history and things they don’t seem to care about for the umpteenth time, a loose, playful woman is a breath of fresh air.

And fun is in limited supply in Shang-Chi, since every element of the film that could have been interesting and unique misses the target by a mile. The combat sequences have gotten a lot of attention based on the trailers, but witnessing them in the movie is much worse. A foot or fist never strikes a face convincingly; the hits are significantly off, with the fist hitting several inches in front of the face, making the victim tumble backwards genuinely funnier than any of the intended gags. The fact that they aren’t attempting to ridicule kung-fu movies should irritate aficionados of the genre. Director Destin Daniel Cretton seems to have recognized this since most of the action sequences are shot from such a distance that it appears to be a genuine fight or from odd angles that hide the motions. The battles in Iron Fist drew a lot of criticism (and rightly so), but this is Enter the Dragon in comparison. The visual effects aren’t any better. None of the magical aspects are believable, and they’re filmed to conceal rather than to show off, giving Shang-Chi an awkward appearance.

Shang-good Chi’s aspects are few and far between. The music is adequate; it’s nothing special, but it raises the stakes during action scenes much more than the action itself. While the most of the allusions to previous Marvel films are forced and make little to no sense, there is one particularly long one that I found funny. It goes on for much too long, and the purpose for its existence is illogical, but at that point, anything that makes me grin for a few moments would suffice. That’s all there is to it. This isn’t going to be a good one.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a dreck of a Marvel film that can’t even summon enough entertainment value to compensate for its drab storyline, lifeless characters, and dreadful action. Simu Liu and Awkwafina do their best to breathe life into a lifeless picture, but in the end, it seems like an afterthought.

Plot – 4

6 points for acting

Editing/Directing – 5

7 – Music/Sound

4 Special Effects

5.2

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a dreck of a Marvel film that can’t even summon enough entertainment value to compensate for its drab storyline, lifeless characters, and dreadful action. Simu Liu and Awkwafina do their best to breathe life into a lifeless picture, but in the end, it seems like an afterthought.

Ten years ago, Jackie Chan set out on a journey to save the world with the Shaolin monk-turned-superhero, Shang-Chi. Today, that same character returns to the big screen in a new adventure that finds him in the middle of a war between two medieval empires. The film follows the former ruler of the kingdom of Qin, who inherits the legacy of the kingdom’s Mandarin, in an epic conflict with the emperor of the kingdom of Han over the city of Kaifeng.. Read more about shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings rotten tomatoes and let us know what you think.

Related Tags

This article broadly covered the following related topics:

• shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings full movie
• shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings trailer
• what is shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings rated
• shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings cast
• shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings rotten tomatoes