This movie is a lot better than I expected. Like a lot. The trailers don't do it justice, but they don't do it justice because they don't show the best parts of the movie, a rarity for Marvel. Usually their trailers are a summary of the movie, but not in this case. This is not another Marvel generic actioner. This is Marvel at its best.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings follows Shang-Chi. He has a regular job with his best friend Katy. Together, they have the regular life of two people who still don't know what to do with their adult lives, but like to have a good time. Until one day, Shang-Chi's past catches up to him. His father is actually the leader of the Ten Rings organization and now his son cannot escape him anymore and must face his past and who he truly is.
This movie is beautiful. Most Marvel movies don't exactly lack color, but this is different. This movie has eye popping colors in it. The cinematography is excellent. Everything on screen looks amazing. There are some scenes that are just spectacular to behold. And unlike some Marvel movies in which the CGI is occasionally not so great, here it is prefect in every scene. Even things that you know are CGI, don't have that fake CGI look to them. This is a brand new world inside of the MCU and it looks fantastic.
Now for the most important part of the movie, the action. This movie is action packed. A lot of then it advertised itself. The train scene that Marvel released? It is much longer and even cooler in the movie. This movie has a lot of really cool hand to hand combat scenes. And a really cool finale third act. Some of it a bit predictable and some of it not. But still totally cool.
The biggest surprise of the movie is the villain. Marvel villain problem? Not a problem in this movie. Tony Leung kills it as the leader of the Ten Rings. I don't want to spoiler it, but his evil motivations are not generic and totally relatable, which is the material of a good villain. Also, Tony Leung has so much charisma and screen presence that it is pretty cool to watch. He is definitely going to the better Marvel villain list, which basically has Thanos, Loki and Killmonger in it.
The rest of the cast is also great. Simu Liu does a great job as a Marvel lead actor. He is funny, charismatic and is great with action. All the qualities that Marvel needs in their lead actors. I can't wait to see him with the Avengers, part of it is because of the mid-credit scene. I don't want to see him alone though, I want to see him with Awkwafina's Katy. I always liked Awkwafina, but she really shines in this movie. She is really funny, but never at the expense of the emotional impact. This movie does comedy in good taste and Awkwafina helps it. Meng'er Zhang crushes it as Xu Xialing. Fala Chen is brilliant as Ying Li. She is great both at the action part of the movie and the emotional part of the movie. Michelle Yeoh is also excellent, though she doesn't have much to do in the movie. There a few surprise cameos and not so cameos that just add so much to this movie, even if for a moment. The cast does a great job, no one feels like they fall short.
I am not sure what I want more. To see Shang-Chi and Katy with the Avengers, to see them in a sequel, or to see a Ten Rings prequel movie. I think I want it all. This movie leaves a lot of open questions and I want answers. Yet it also feels like it part of the MCU and builds into it perfectly. You should totally watch this movie, and it is worthy of the big screen.
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