SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS

Shang-Chi in his spiffy new costume

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (2021). Director: Destin Daniel Cretton. 

Shaun (Simu Lui), AKA Shang-Chi, is the son of a woman, Li (Fala Chen), from the magical dimension of Ta Lo and an immortal man of various names, including Xu Wenwu and the Mandarin (Tony Leung). The essentially evil Wenwu was tamed by his lovely wife (one has to wonder why she ever fell for him) but after her death he trains a young Shang-Chi for combat and pretty much ignores Shang-Chi's sister, Xialing (Meng'er Zhang). Xialing now runs a fight club in another country while their father sends assassins after both her and her brother. This leads to an exciting fight on a bus between Shangi-Chi and Razor Fist (Florian Munteanu), as well as another thrilling battle high on scaffolding outside a skyscraper. Shang-Chi and his sister learn that Wenwu is convinced their mother is alive, and is calling to him from Ta Lo, but it's actually a voice from the Dweller in Darkness (how Lovecraftian!) who wants to escape from behind a mystic barrier. The race is on for Shang-Chi, Xialing, and Shang-Chi's adorable friend, Katy (Awkwafina), to get to Ta Lo before the Mandarin can and prevent disaster from affecting both universes. 

Razor Fist vs Shang-Chi

Shang-Chi was introduced to the Marvel Comics Universe in the 1970's in a series called Master of Kung Fu. The very serious, biracial Shang-Chi was the son of Sax Rohmer's licensed character Dr. Fu Manchu. When Marvel lost the rights, Fu Manchu was said to be only an alias (which was also true in Rohmer's novels), and then long-time Marvel (and Iron Man) villain the Mandarin was made our Kung Fu fighter's father. Although much less of a stereotype, the Mandarin as depicted in this movie is also much less interesting than the fascinating Mandarin of the comics, whose appearance was revised and updated over the decades. This movie has little to do with Master of Kung Fu (for more on that comic series see Superhuman: The Bronze Age of Comics Volume One), although Razor Fist was a recurring villain there. 

Meng'er Zhang

Considering that I always thought he was a minor Marvel character, Shang-Chi made a lot of money at the box office and a sequel is being made. The film is entertaining, but overlong, throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. The climax turns into Marvel's old comic series Where Monsters Dwell with two giant monsters battling each other while Shang-Chi and his sister are astride a mammoth flying serpent. Simu Liu is excellent as Shang-Chi, and the film's big delight is Awkwafina (gotta change that name, gal!) as the amusing and plucky Katy. Meng'er Zhang makes a striking and sexy Xialing, but Ben Kingsley, reprising his role from Iron Man 3, is just a waste as alleged comedy relief. The film sinks quite a bit into silliness when he appears along with a strange mouth-less creature named Morris. 

Verdict: Essentially a fun if relatively minor Marvel movie with some good FX work and great closing credit music. **1/2.