For fans of the 70’s classic “Master of Kung – Fu ” series – “Legend of the Ten Rings” is not for you. Now if you’re up on Gene Luen Yang’s recent “Shang-Chi” mini-series then this film should be right up your alley since it heavily borrows elements from Yang’s latest criminally overlooked run.
I started off reading Shang through going back and pouring through the Marvel MAX series where Shang was a noted M.I. agent. Here in the latest film, there was no mention of Shang here doing any of that, but one thing that ties each and every Shang series is his honor to his familial ties (and his home base stays in San Fran. WESTSIDE!).
In “Legend of The Ten Rings”, it’s the same story with Shang trying to run away from his lineage even with the name change of his pops now going by Wen Wu. There’s a Mandarin here, but Wen Wu holds the Ten Rings, even though they’re more like bands since they fit around his arms instead of his fingers. His father ends up searching for power, and ends up re-routing his plans when he finds love and loses it. Wen Wu’s actions to regain his lost love ends up heavily affecting the life of his children both Shang-Chi and Sister Dagger (one of my new favorite characters in the Marvel Universe thanks to her attitude that Yang wrote in, the comics translating so well on-screen with the performance of Men’ger Zhang who consumes the screen with her gorgeously dangerous presence) which makes for an awkward family reunion in the vein of the latest “Widow” film. The same goes with the stylized action, but here is where the problems in “Shang-Chi” lay in comparison to not only other action films, but the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe in general; if I want to see a good action movie with broken families on the mend – I’d check out “Black Widow”.
Whereas the dialogue in Black Widow was biting & comedic, most scenes (like those cuts in the bar with Chi’s friends) filled with dialogue felt plastic and begged to be missed. I closed my eyes during this movie, not of horror, but of utter fatigue when scenes like these came on the screen. They just could not hold my attention. The same goes for the action; I am all about legitimate stylized action, I am from the Jet Li – generation, but the fusion of CGI and stylized did not translate as well as on Black Widow.
Yes the creatures looked cool during the final battle, and got a laugh of two out of me as they went against the rival army, but I’ve seen better CGI creatures in “Black Panther”.
I know this is an origin story, but I still wanted to see some 007-type hi-jinks since that’s where I know Chi from. For those who want to get in to this characters rich history I recommend “Master of Kung-Fu” and if you want real Shang-Chi action, his Marvel MAX series will leave you floored. But unless you’d like to admire Zhang on the big screen for a couple hours, or shed a tear or two over the universal broken family trope – then I don’t know why you’re still watching Marvel movies and not reading the comics. Because this one here, isn’t up to code with the rest of its shared universe.
Overall Score : 2/5
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