Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) UMR Stats
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) UMR Links
UMR Review of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Why I watched this one? This is a MCU universe movie. Those movies generally get me motivated to see in theaters. Also my son-in-law had a high interest in seeing this one, so we took him.
What is this one about? Shang-Chi, the master of unarmed weaponry-based Kung Fu, is forced to confront his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization.
My thoughts on this one? I read many many glowing reviews of this movie. I heard all about the awesome fight scenes, especially the bus fight scene. So maybe my expectations were too high going into this movie. Overall, I thought the movie was ok, but far from being one of the better MCU movies.
On the good side, I enjoyed the performances of Simu Liu as Shang-Chi and Tony Chiu-Wai Leung as sort of the bad guy. The technical aspects (sound, special effects, sets, costumes) of the movie are all top notched and impressive.
On the bad side, I did not enjoy the roles of Awkwafina or Ben Kingsley. I normally really enjoy their roles but not this time. Awkwafina gets the romantic interest role, but has little to do in the movie and does not have much screen chemistry with Liu. Kingsley and his pet are the comic relief. The more they appeared on screen the less I liked them. The fight scenes are ok, but even the bus fight scene fails in comparison to the bus fight scene in Nobody. The grand finale is essentially watching CGI for about 20 minutes…..which bored me about 10 minutes in. The story falters when you realize there really is not a villain.
Final thought: An entertaining movie, that I did not enjoy as much as almost everybody else.
Awkwafina wasn’t in a romantic interest role. Shang-Chi and Katy were never meant to be romantically connected which is why they didn’t have chemistry in that manner. They are like a close brother and sister. The grandmother comments on when they are getting married but that’s typical for an Asian grandmother when she sees a boy and girl always hanging out with each other. They’ve probably heard the same comment everyday from the day he was first introduced to the family. Good and fair review by the way, I just needed to clarify there wasn’t any romance interest for Shang-Chi in this movie. Not sure if a romance was part of your expectations.
I gave it 4 stars.
Hey Dan, you liked it much more than me.