Direction: Destin Daniel Cretton
Country: USA
Another hectic, effects-drenched superhero film culled from the Marvel compendium, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is likely to satisfy only the core audience seeking for sweaty fist fights and lurid scenarios. However, apart from some interesting visuals, the film reveals to be pretty much flat in everything else.
The story - written by director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, 2013; Just Mercy, 2019) with his habitual screenwriter Andrew Lanham and their new teammate Dave Callaham (The Expendables, 2010; Wonder Woman 1984, 2020) - takes our hero, Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), to move from San Francisco, where he works as a valet, to China, where he expects to meet his family. The good news is that his kinetic co-worker and friend Katy (Awkwafina) is delighted to accompany him, while the bad news is that he will have to team up with his estranged sister Xialing (Meng'er Zhang) against their difficult father (Tony Leung), who leads the powerful Ten Rings organization.
The director experienced difficulties in balancing the introspective side of the main character with the extravagant backdrop against which he moves. It’s like joining the dancing kung-fu of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the magic of The Never Ending Story and the ridiculous antics of Mortal Kombat in one single setting.
With every beat of the story feeling like an intense relapse of forced tension, the film becomes stupefyingly excessive in its last third, making the big Asian stars Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh seem like puppets. Unfortunately, and despite the charisma of its first Asian lead, this Marvel adventure is less cool than it thinks it is.
