Marvel is home to a decent variety of superheros from different cultures and genders, but it’s hard to ignore that they weren’t always treated with the most respect. It’s a common problem of the times they were created in, but there is a backlog of history involving either Marvel’s female or ethnic cast of characters that comes across as at best bland and generic and at worst, offensive and stereotypical. While this problem did fade with time as now Marvel does have a fair share of great female and culturally diverse heroes, some still needed that exact coverage to get a proper chance in the spotlight. Shang-Chi is a great example of this; involving a pretty awful Asian caricature character as the lead character’s father (his name was literally Fu Manchu). Even in the early days of the MCU, the character seemed to keep get messed around with as one of the main early antagonists, the terrorist group, the 10 rings (which comes from the Shang Chi comics) got retconned around to have nothing to do with him. Thankfully, the character was officially given the chance to show off his abilities in his own film released in 2021, and after a long wait (including the pandemic interfering with production), it definitely feels like it was worth it. Trying to escape the sins of his family, mainly those tied with his father, Xu Wenwu (played by Tony Chiu-Wai Leung), Shang Chi (played by Simu Liu) attempts to live a normal life in San Francisco with his best friend, Katy (played by Awkwafina), but is pulled back to China by his father’s goons as they steal the necklaces held by him and his sister, Xialing (played by Meng’er Zhang) which apparently hold the key to unlocking a lost secret village harboring mythical creature, where their mother came from which is instructed to them by their aunt, Ying Nan (played by Michelle Yeoh). As their father plans to locate this village in order to supposedly free their deceased mother’s spirit , Shang Chi and Xialing (with Katy tagging along) plan to stop him from accidentally releasing a deadly evil while combating his deadly magical rings. Shang Chi brings a familiar tale with enough new elements to create something enjoyable and opens up good possibilities for the future.

A Shang Chi movie had actually been in production since as early back as 2001 (seven years prior to the introduction of the MCU) with thoughts eventually resurface around 2018 when Marvel was at arguably its peak. Shang Chi feels like a good choice for a new character in the world as it would bring light to a pretty forgotten character in a new interesting light like they’d done previously for other lesser-known characters.  The backing behind this movie felt like it was going in all the right directions; a majority Asian cast tackling Marvel’s first Asian hero in a newer direction from the comics, it fits the right categories to not only go big, but also go completely unique with its new style, environment and culture.  In comparison to other ‘MCU origin’ movies , this one is feels the most consistently good and well written in comparison to the others; it has a good fresh set-up, its paced surprisingly well, the script written by director Destin Daniel Cretton, and screenwriters Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham handles the balance between its quiet and bigger moments nicely, and it doesn’t feature as many flaws as others of its type.  The movie wishes to take its own direction away from the comics and structure the character in their own fun direction, which opens up doors that are a lot less restricting than simply following the comics. However, the film can’t stand out too much as it still feels restricted by the fact that its a Marvel movie with the basic marvel formula; this isn’t a stylistic spin on the formula like incorporating a martial arts atmosphere or even a flat-out family drama into the MCU, it is still a Marvel movie, with their kind of characters, humor and framework. Its done well (arguably better than most have done it), but it still could have been a lot more.  Destin Daniel Cretton previously worked on dramas before directing this film (with examples like Short Term 12, The Glass Castle and Just Mercy) which explains the movie’s heavier emphasis on a familial struggle that comes across a lot more real than others previous and gives the movie a more personal edge that acts as a nice anchor against would could otherwise be a straightforward martial arts action flick.  The story does somewhat stumble coming to the climax as despite ending on a pretty cool set-piece, the movie doesn’t quite capture the grand scale it was trying to go for with the film and it results in an enjoyable, but slightly messy conclusion.

The characters actually contribute to one of the defining problems with the film, and even that isn’t a dramatic problem. A majority of the characters have good set-up and characteristics to make them likeable and interesting people, but the movie sometimes fails to fully capture what the character’s arc and motivation is; it leaves them feeling slightly less finalized and leaves the audience trying to piece together exactly what led to this exact point come the film’s conclusion. Shang Chi is not a bad lead character; Simu Liu plays him with legitimate charisma as well as legitimate coolness, his issue of feeling aimless and without purposes after escaping the mental and physical abuse of his father and his dynasty is intriguing, he has a nice relationship with Katy as well as with every member of his family, and he would be a cool addition in future MCU films, but his arc and development is mentioned and slightly felt, but not to the level that it should have been. The villain is kind of similar; Tony Leung is fantastic as this role, giving this figure great weight in his voice, and managing to command this sense of frail genuine care underneath this harsh malice; honestly making for one of the best MCU villains. Through performance alone, it creates a great character and a great villain, but the movie could have used a bit more time with him so that the audience could experience more of what he is like before the final confrontation (especially the connection with his son). Its kind of a shame, as all of these roles are really great and it would be nice to see them again, but it doesn’t feel like this origin story did much for developing its lead outside of stating what is changing as opposed to feeling it.

One of the movie’s crowning attributes is its handling of its action, which drastically feels different from anything done in Marvel previously and really helps in creating this great style and feel for the movie. While Marvel is no stranger to fast hand-to-hand action sequences, there’s just something special about this specific type of martial arts fight choreography that just screams incredible-ness due to how quick, precise, and clean it all feels, which comes from not only how well a lot of these scenes are filmed by cinematographer William Pope (who knows to keep the shots clear and spacious enough to show off all the moves and allow the performers to grab the audience themselves rather than forceful camera trickery), but also the various talented stunt performs as well as fight co-coordinator Andy Cheng and stunt supervisor Brad Allan coaching a lot of these scenes. It honestly finds a really great balance between the more standard ‘Jackie Chan’ type of martial arts with the various physical fighting styles and clean moves, with the more fantastical ‘’floaty’’ type action sequences from something like ‘” Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’’. The MCU is a perfect environment to utilize both of these elements in a film and both work wonderfully in creating some fast and memorable flashy fight sequences, which are equally as well choreographed as they are filmed; with a lot of the fight sequences having tracking shots that so effortlessly keep up with the action to the point where motion in certain sequences feels like a dance in how gracefully it follows the action. The movie’s effects aren’t always the greatest (mainly on most of the mythical creatures), but its in an environment where they don’t need to look realistic, and a lot of these creatures have fun designs, so it doesn’t distract from anything.

Shang-Chi proves to be a pretty solid new entry to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as a new coat of paint on a character and franchise that desperately needed a redo in the current generation. This movie clearly has a lot of love and passion behind it with people that feel connected with the spirit and idea of what this movie (and the character)represents, and that love helps provide a film with enough quiet dramatic moments as well as enough high-flying action set-pieces that honestly provides a better live-action version of both Dragon Ball Z and Avatar: The Last Bender. The movie isn’t flawless and does suffer from typical marvel issues; like a not-so-impactful ending as well as character decisions being told to the audience as opposed to be truly felt, but for a starter movie and in comparison, to a lot of the other introduction films, its honestly one of the better ones overall. See for yourself if this film was worth the wait and see how you react to one to the world’s first Asian superheroes.

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