Summary
Marvel’s newest addition to the cinematic universe combines old-school action with their on blockbuster formula, and the result is a ridiculously fun outing.
After an unplanned pause in 2020, the sun hasn’t set on Marvel in 2021. Between WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Black Widow, and What If…? — and Eternals, Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home still to come — there’s been no room to breathe for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Which makes the elegant wuxia inspired prologue to director Destin Daniel Cretton’s (Just Mercy) Marvel debut a pleasant shock to the system. The millennia old Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) is in possession of the mystical ten rings, which gives him immortality and supernatural powers. In searching for the mythical city of Ta Lo, he is stopped by guardian Ying Li (Fala Chen). The two promptly fall in love, but Wenwu is refused entry to the city.
Cut to the present day and one of their children, Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), lives in San Francisco under the name Shaun, estranged from his sister Xu Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) and working a menial job with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina). When members of his father’s Ten Rings army are sent to retrieve a family heirloom, it sets him off on an adventure that will change the course of his destiny.
In anticipation of a Phase Four filled with team-ups, crossovers and multiversal shenanigans, it’s a little bit refreshing to see a solid solo outing from Marvel’s newest hero. Which is to say the MCU’s newest hero, as the character of Shang-Chi having been around since Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin originally pitched a Kung-Fu adaptation to DC Comics in the 70s. An original character inspired by the genre craze found a home at Marvel, and the first half of the film is certainly a throwback tribute to that era.
Marvel is clearly inspired (*cough*) by a plethora of martial arts films. If you also grew up on a steady diet of SBS Friday night fare, this all felt like a perfectly natural fit. The bus sequence alone, in which Shang-Chi fights off a series of attackers while Katy drives a bus through the streets of San Francisco, is worth the price of admission. There’s also a scaffolding fight, backlit by the neon horizons of Macau, that feels like a perfect blend of the Marvel formula and the films it wholesale lifts from.
Yet there’s a dramatic tonal shift in the second half with the introduction of a familiar face and a CG creature. While one is intended to appease outraged fans by ‘redeeming’ a previous film’s choices, and the other is there to sell merchandise, both are added for comedy value. In some ways, it’s all to set the tone for a large scale digital rag doll fight like every other Marvel solo outing. Still, as the 25th feature film in this series, this is hardly a shock, and if you’re in by this stage you’re probably all in.
Following a decade of television roles, include the multiple award-winning Kim’s Convenience, Liu confidently steps up as Marvel’s latest hero. With a charming on-screen presence, he brings humanity to a character going through a classic hero’s journey. Awkwafina might be there as the comedic sidekick, but a well-written character arc gives her far more to do than Darcy in the Thor series, for example. The presence of Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh elevates any film, and this is no exception.
This was my first trip to a cinema in over four months thanks to an extended Sydney lockdown – not to mention being able to catch up with a mate – so this review is just as much a reaction to the experience of big screen cinema as it is for the film itself. Yet it’s hard not to get caught up in this fun blend of genre styles, one that’s a clear indication of where Phase Four is going.
2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Destin Daniel Cretton | WRITER: Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham | CAST: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, Tony Leung | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 132 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 2 September 2021 (AUS), 11 October 2021 (NSW)
