Put Ten Rings On It

2021's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is easily the best MCU movie since Thor: Ragnarok and it's entirely because of the action sequences. Everything else about the film is pretty run of the mill but the fight choreography is like a real wuxia film.

The performances aren't bad. As usual, there are a few big names in supporting roles, in this case the standout is Tony Leung as Shang-Chi's father. He's genuinely cool and charismatic, making up for the fact that his motives are often muddled in the screenplay. One minute he's trying to protect his family, the next moment he's willing to sacrifice them all. He believes in harsh discipline for his kids, something that obviously benefited Shang-Chi.

Simu Liu as Shang-Chi gives a decent enough performance, though the screenplay doesn't give him much personality. He's a good guy trying to figure out what's happening and that's about it. But Liu is obviously a truly skilled martial artist, which is easily apparent in the first great action sequence, a fight on a bus in San Francisco.

San Francisco remains the best city in the U.S. for car chases. Shang-Chi follows in the footsteps of Bullitt--those crazy downhill streets still add instant magic. Ang Lee knew that when he made Hulk.

Michelle Yeoh is kind of wasted later in the film as a leader of some villagers in a secret magical land. But that secret magical land is is really pretty, featuring stylised lions and dragons that look like they jumped out of an ancient Chinese tapestry.

As usual, the cgi has a cheap, sweat shop quality, but the designs are almost good enough to overcome it.

Awkwafina is mostly pretty annoying as Shang-Chi's sidekick, Katy. In a few moments, her husky voice reminded me of Margot Kidder, especially in a scene where Shang-Chi is trying to rescue her during a fight on some construction scaffolding. But once again, an MCU screenplay blushes and refrains from exploring romantic chemistry between its leads. Instead, she gets a lot of the increasingly monotonous "normal folk" gags that generally encumber MCU movies, visually reflected by her ugly pants and fanny pack.

It would've helped a lot if she'd been gorgeous, I have to say. If you're not going to put any effort into the dialogue, you can make some amends by giving us a pretty face to look at.

Ben Kingsley makes a mildly amusing appearance, reprising his role as the false Mandarin from Iron Man 3. It would've been nice if they'd found more for him to do but by the climax he's just another bystander.

So, yeah, a mostly standard Marvel package except unexpectedly kick ass ass kicking. Shang-Chi is available on Disney+.