Review:"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings"

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is the newest film in the growing Marvel Cinematic Universe. This film has been in development since the 1980s, but it wasn’t till 2018 there were rumors of this film being made, and it wasn’t confirmed till 2019 at San Diego ComicCon that it was announced that the film was being made. This film was supposed to come out in 2020 but it was delayed till 2021 because of the Covid. Now after many delays here we are.

What I like most about these films is that they take a character that wasn’t popular and make them into a billion-dollar franchise. As a person who did and still does read comic books to this day, I find it great that people find these characters interesting, even though most of them might have never read a comic in their life. and it seems like Disney is doing the same with Shang-Chi. Back before the first Iron Man film was released people even wondered if it should even be made due to Iron Man being a C-level hero at the time.

Going into this film my expectations were very low. The Marvel Disney+ shows have been disappointing due to them losing my interest halfway in the season, Black Widow was a mediocre film at best, and the lineup for upcoming films in the franchise is mostly uninteresting, except for “Doctor Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness,” “Thor: Love and Thunder,” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” The only reason why these films even excite me is that No Way Home and Into the Multiverse of Madness will reportedly introduce the multiverse and will bring back and introduce different versions of beloved characters and will bring back some familiar faces such as the leaked return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man from their respective series.

When I walked out of the theater, however, I ended up enjoying it. Sure it’s not a masterpiece or anything but compared to all the Marvel-related things that came out this year it felt like a breath of fresh air, maybe because it reminded me of some of the Kung-fu films from the ’70s as Enter The Dragon and Game of Death. The thing that also made it stand out to me was it didn’t feel like a generic film. As I was watching this film I could that they wanted to tell a good story with emotion and heart.

The storyline of this film is simple After many years Shang-Chi has to confront the past he thought he left behind. Like every Marvel film before, it has a simple plot, over-reliance on CGI, and forced humor throughout the film. This isn’t saying that the film is bad, but it just shows there are things that we just expect when we see a Marvel film. The film is probably the best thing to come out of Marvel until another one of their films impresses me or in a way has some effect on me.

This film is good compared to the last film that came before it which was Black Widow. The thing that I liked compared to Black Widow was that it felt just like an average film that just needed to be made just because she died In Avengers: Endgame. I think this film has moments of heart, emotion, and decent character development. Sure I have to admit not all the jokes land but I had a good chuckle here and there. Overall I enjoyed it and I wouldn’t mind rewatching it.

I think it was a good idea that Disney didn’t release “Shang-Chi” on Disney+ as they did for Black Widow. The theater experience made watching this film much better compared to just sitting in my living room with my family moving around. Overall I enjoyed the film. Sure it isn’t perfect, but it has me excited about what the MCU has next.