Shang-Chi is your typical “Hero’s Journey” with some new flavors.
I will say one thing before I start the review., I absolutely loved Shang-Chi: The Legend Of The Ten Rings. I know we have seen lots of origin movies by Marvel till now. But Shang Chi might be one of the best in that terms. If you are a Marvel fan, you will love this movie. Because it has everything a typical Marvel movie has and it provides something new as well. Unlike most people, I was really hyped up for Shang-Chi because of the potential this movie holds. It was an unknown realm for most of the Marvel fans and they could have taken so much advantage. And they did that brilliantly. They have knocked it out of the park.
Shang Chi Review: Plot
The official synopsis of the movie reads “Shang Chi, the master of unarmed weaponry-based Kung Fu, is forced to confront his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization.”
Shang Chi follows the story of a man named Shang-Chi only. His dad was an assassin and ruled over countries for almost 1000 years now. But he gave up on that life after meeting the love of his life and eventually the mother of Shang-Chi. But after the death of “Li”, Shang’s father once again gets on the dark path. And because of that, first Shang and then his sister ran away from the house. But their father hunts them down after 10 years and asks them to destroy the only thing they hold dear. But is the story as simple as it looks? Or there is another dark side behind all of this?
Shang-Chi: Positives
Action
Shang-Chi’s action was on par with “The Winter Soldier” and that is the highest compliment I can give. The action was poised and somehow calm at the same time. It was something new from Marvel that is for sure.
Cinematography
Shang-Chi might be the most aesthetically pleasing Marvel movie to date. It looked so beautiful right from the start to the absolute end. And for the first time, I was satisfied with the lighting in a Marvel movie. I can say that Shang-Chi was almost on par with Thor in terms of how beautiful it looked. And especially the scenes in Ta Lao were things of beauty. I can watch this movie just for those scenes.
Tony Leung
Tony Leung is a very known and respected actor for his work. And he showed it here why he is so respected. You can say that he is the secret trump card of Shang-Chi. And the fact that the villain was one of the better (non-Avengers level) villains that they’ve had, which is usually the weak point for Marvel movies helped a lot.
Emotional Sub Plot
The last thing I expected Shang-Chi was to be this emotional. At its very core, Shang-Chi is just a family drama with lots of action scenes in it. And this is a very good family drama. The father and both of his children are hurting. And they grew distant because of it. All of them have abandonment issues but all of them reacted to it differently. And that is the only reason that this movie worked so well. The conflict between the character’s past and present was amazing. You can say that this is the best a drama can get.
Shang Chi: Final Rating
If you haven’t figured it out by no then, Yes!! Shang-Chi is worth all your time. It is just 2 hours long so you won’t be investing that much time anyway and it will all be worth it.
