Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 2021 by AverageMansReviews

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 2021 by AverageMansReviews

Review Time

Warning/Disclaimer: there is flashing effects/colourful effects/shooting/stabbing/cutting/electrocution/child abuse/medical. Disclaimer: when I make any references to Asia or Asian or anything like this I don't mean this as a racial thing or a lazy dictation. I mean it as safety political correctness as something I can say without offending anyone.

The Wenwu family's tragic story: the heading of this paragraph very much sums up the storyline for this film at points throughout Shang-Chi/adult Shaun [baby unknown/young; Jayden Zhang/teen; Arnold Sun/adult; Simu Liu] and his sister's Xialing [young; Elodie Fong/teen; Harmonie He/adult; Meng'er Zhang] lives together and separately. The pacing for this 132 minutes film is good, but here is a kind heads up for anyone that has dyslexia like myself or anything like this. This film does use an Asian language, it does use subtitles but my point here is this; this is roughly for the first roughly speaking 10 minutes and now and again throughout this title, so you will have to put up with it.

Now because I have watched a decent amount of Asian martial arts films starring Bruce Lee and/or Jet Li [including Jackie Chan movies] I have learnt the Asian cinema puts great emphasis now and again, even being comical in a Jackie Chan film how beautiful martial arts can be.

As this relates to this title; clearly went with the same ethos with putting the word art into martial arts as we have Xu Wenwu/other aliases [Tony Leung Chiu-wai] with his 10 rings vs.  Ying Li; the Guardian the village of Ta Lo [Fala Chen] that refuses him entry she uses her hat as a weapon and it quickly becomes apparent she has learnt the skills/abilities to be an elemental; such as using leafs as misdirection or using the energy of wind [I should point out; on the other hand I am smart enough to realise that she can do all of this; because she has mastered her Chi or something like this; so she is one with herself and all around her.] Now having taken two seconds to think about it; it is probably the second one, because later on we have adult; Simu Liu learning this technique from his auntie Ying Nan [Michelle Yeoh,] but I will keep in both, just so on either prospectives I am wrong or right, but everybody is happy.

But back to this action sequence; quick paced jumping off and to trees, a slow down passing sequence. But speeding up or slowing down it doesn't interrupt the natural high-intensity of the action sequence or neither does it sacrifice its artistic vision, during this martial arts dance; they develop this unspoken chemistry of Romance in fact at the end of this sequence of events there is a drop of comedy as Ying Li decides not to hurt or kill Xu Wenwu, but instead with her final attack make sure he doesn't get hurt or worse she redirects him by the use of a gust of wind under her control, to landing in a pond to connected to very tiny declining stream into a pond; this is also elegant yet natural yet powerful character developments and performances between these two. I mean to pull off all of this simultaneously has to be given high praise indeed.

Yes absolutely the scenery, costumes and everything else that this film has to offer has to be given high praise as well, this film is a real treat for the eyes as it pulled out all the stops to bring this film to life and there are other comedy elements such as from a returning character/performer [as they have obviously, brought back this individual as a surprise to smooth out a previous wrinkle, I won't give it the way.]

Character developments and performances; generally speaking they are very good on both counts, there is good chemistry throughout this cast; a special mention has to go out to Awkwafina as Katy, Shang-Chi/adult Shaun's girlfriend other than being comical from time to time with her boyfriend or on her own, she is character that is completely new to this other world, so consequently she is basically a vessel for the audiences questions/comments/anything other, this in itself was subtle yet smart characters design/performance, so it brings you are viewing audiences smoothly further more and more into the world/universe on this side of things you are trying to create here and now [on reflection I will award another mark to this film based on this.] I wouldn't mind seeing any of them again in future MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe] projects.

This film receives: 9/10, this film is excellent; the only problem I had which is obvious based on what I have already said in this review, was the Asian language and consequently subtitles [before I receive backlash, even I get why they did it this way, because without making this a racial thing which I am not, but I can't be held responsible for how people react, because we are in the part of the world of Asia, I expect them to use their native language, but maybe next time use the old-fashioned black box with different colour text for the conversation; these I can read okay and well, but two things; one I know they don't use subtitles like this anymore, but they could bring them back it filters things for me and 2 yes I am that old that I can remember old-fashioned subtitles] but I digress; so it brings some new characters into the fold of the MCU and it sets things up nicely for the present and the future of things to come and just a friendly heads up there are two ending credit scenes one each at the end of this section of credits. This is no surprise but this project has many awards accredited to its name; 18 Winners that includes Gold List 2022 Gold List Award Best Supporting Actress Awkwafina and 67 Nominees that includes Academy Awards, USA 2022 Oscar Best Achievement in Visual Effects Christopher Townsend Joe Farrell Sean Noel Walker Dan Oliver.