‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Opens the Door for [Spoilers]
Marvel kicks off phase four with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – a martial arts movie of epic proportions.
The Infinity Saga wasn’t just about a giant story – it was about creating a studio and proving that something of that scale could be done. What the heck would a comic book movie universe look like and how would you pull that off so it wouldn’t suck? It was a giant experiment with a multi-billion dollar pay off. The stories focused on Marvel’s biggest characters and building up this big multi-layered world for those that hadn’t read comic books before.
It’s been made clear with this movie and the Disney+ shows that phase four is going to be different. Its stories are going to focus on bringing in diverse characters, exploring deeper subjects, and expanding beyond earth’s battles. Upcoming movies and shows are taking us into the multiverse, the quantum realm, through time – and they’re led by heroes we haven’t seen before and aren’t really in the forefront of pop-culture (yet). This starts with Shang-Chi – who is going to play a major role in what’s next.
You can read our spoiler free review here.
Spoilers Below
This is Marvel’s first martial arts focused movie and they did a fantastic job with mixing the character’s influences, his world, and the MCU into every encounter. There are multiple call backs to Jackie Chan, as well as romantic wuxia epics, the Shanghai fight in Skyfall, and the decades-long legacy of the Shaw Brothers. There was a lot of thought put into the fight choreography and locations.
Even though they are saturated in film history, all of the fight scenes manage to feel fresh. Cinematographer Bill Pope and stunt coordinators Andy Cheng and Brad Allan (who sadly died earlier this year) get the Hong Kong cinema feel down pat. There’s no shaky cam here. Shots are tight and get you right into the action. Nothing is wasted and it’s a joy to watch.
My favorite is actually the most simple – the bus fight. It’s a really well executed hallway fight that’s got great character reactions mixed with its punches and it takes advantage of its location in all of the right ways. Second favorite is the final fight between Shang-Chi and Wenwu. Even though the son walks away from the fight, Tony Leung Chiu-wai wins with his subtle performance of a man gone insane with grief. Insane enough to fight his own son, possibly to the death. Third is the tunnel chase because I can’t say no to cars.
Honorable mention to the Wong vs. Abomination punch yourself in the face portal fight.
They keep the big CG scenes to the end, which is a nice change of pace. That final, giant dragon fight is pretty dang epic – don’t get me wrong. It’s just nice not to have the entire movie set on a green screen.
The movie isn’t all about kung-fu fighting. It’s about a family with major trauma as the result of the death of its much loved matriarch. What could have been a ham-fisted plot shoved into an action movie is beautifully handled by director Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy, Short Term 12).
This is the most human movie Marvel has made. It has romance that’s not lopsided, which is a rarity in the 23 previous films. The movie handles grief in several ways that are all relatable (minus the killing people out of revenge part, of course). It also tackles how emotional and physical abuse affects people differently – Shang-Chi and Xialing take very different paths as the result of their mother’s death and their father’s abuse and negligence. One aligns himself with the Avengers to further his mother’s vision, the other takes over her father’s terrorist organization in order to reclaim her power.
There’s also a heavy focus on finding balance and forgiveness – understanding the good and bad of the past, learning from it. By the end of the movie Shang-Chi has gone through tremendous growth. If you want an example of healthy masculinity, look to Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi. It was really nice to have that kind of rounded male character on screen.
So – what’s next and how about those post credit scenes? The rings have been given a different, open ended origin with this movie. They could be Makluan in origin, maybe the Dark Dwellers of Ta Lo, or something entirely new. Maybe they have something to do with the Eternals. Whatever it is, it’s calling home. I’m betting we won’t get a pay off for that post credit scene for a few more movies.
Wong and the Masters of the Mystic Arts are going to be a factor in coming up. It’s feeling more and more like the organization of wizards is going to be at the center of many things in this phase. They’re showing up everywhere.
Can we get the 2008 Hulk movie on Disney+ already? It’s obvious they’re tying it in and that we’re going to see some characters from it in Sh-Hulk.
As for Xialing and the Ten Rings organization, I don’t doubt Shang-Chi will see them again. I’m also hoping for a run-in with Captain America since he’s been doing ground level terrorist organization fighting recently. Maybe we’ll see Taskmaster meet up with Xialing -because that would be awesome.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is more than just a martial arts and CG extravaganza, it’s a rumination on legacy and how our actions affect the future in ways we’re unprepared for. It looks at parenthood and family and how we can hurt one another – and how we deal with that. I wasn’t expecting the level of depth in this movie, and I’m very much hoping we see more of the same in the movies coming up.
Oh, hey, before I end this – three cheers for bringing Ben Kingsley back.
EDIT 12:14 pm: I didn’t have final box office numbers before press time. Via Variety: “The Marvel movie collected $75.5 million over the weekend and a mighty $90 million in its first four days of release, crushing Labor Day weekend records.”
