BY RICARDO LUJAN JR
Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings is the latest film to emerge from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). After saying goodbye to one of the original Avengers, Natasha Romanoff, in Marvel Studio’s Black Widow, Marvel is now introducing us to a new character in the MCU. How does Shang-Chi hold up compared to the rest of the MCU films?
The story – one of the strongest parts of the film – follows Shang-Chi as he deals with his past and his family. The film does a great job of world-building all the new material that is being brought into the MCU. The new lore introduced meshes well within the MCU and already has established connections with the older films and characters.
This movie is a departure from the MCU in many aspects but still manages to keep that same charm the previous films have. The main villain in the film is one of the most memorable villains to appear so far in the MCU, second only to Thanos in terms of character and villain development.
Shang-Chi’s fight choreography was the highlight of the whole film. The stunt director and the entire stunt team did a phenomenal job. The action scenes in this film are allowed to breathe which allows the viewer to truly appreciate and see what is happening during the fights. Most MCU movies have a habit of just doing cut after cut after cut during fights which can greatly distract from the choreography. That isn’t the case here.
Shang-Chi does a great job of showing the different martial arts styles each character uses. Shang’s fighting style incorporates a lot of parkour movement into each of his actions. These additions and the allowance of letting the scene sit rather than constantly cutting during the fights make the action in Shang-Chi quite easily the best the MCU has to offer.
The soundtrack of the movie was superb as well. They have the typical instrumental score that is played throughout the movie that is good. The best part of the soundtrack was the songs created for the movie that combines rap with Asian elements. It is a really interesting sound that fits well with the film and some of those songs will more than likely end up in your playlist.
Other audience members that were in the theater said this movie surprised them with how good it was. One person even commented they were surprised to see just how different the film was from the other MCU films.
Overall, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a spectacular film. It has established itself very high in the echelon that is the MCU and it will be interesting to see where they take the character from here.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is currently playing at the Hays AMC Theater. Check online to see what times the film is playing.