Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Having fled his father’s hand and moved to America as a teenager, Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), is drawn back to China when a mysterious warning comes his way. But, facing the wrath and power of his father (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung) could have devastating consequences to earth if Shang-Chi isn’t able to repair is relationship with his sister, Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), and, finish his training in unarmed Kung Fu.Written By Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, and Andrew Lanham and Directed by Cretton this film represents the first breakout of an Asian superhero from Marvel and manages to check all of the requisite Marvel boxes along the way, which is to say, the film does exactly what it needs to do, gives the viewer an understanding and origin of the character within the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, offers up some thrills, chills, and spills with increasingly impressive fight choreography, and, lays out some impressive CGI whilst clearly setting up the viewer for more action to come in future installments; check, check, check and check. Oh and, there’s a splash of humor along the way with Awkwafina being…well…Awkwafina. So, does the film challenge us in any particular way? No, it’s standard faire, but that doesn’t make it bad either, if anything, it’s consistent, and it’s fun….And, a little too long at two hours and twelve minutes of runtime. None the less, this one’s cut out for the big screen if you can make it happen. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is rated PG-13.