Into this realm steps Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings<\/em> which, thank goodness, strips down that Marvel glut for a story that stands on its own, while connecting back to elements of the existing movies. It\u2019s a story that feels \u201cin\u201d the MCU, but not \u201cof\u201d it, adding cultural diversity and a refreshing outside perspective. Amazingly, at a point in the Marvel life cycle where very little is surprising anymore, it manages to feel new<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and his sister Xialing (Meng\u2019er Zhang) are the children of two beings who gave up immortality to live a human life together. Wenwu (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), their father, controls the fabled Ten Rings, a mystical set of bracelets that give him endless power, which he\u2019s used for self-gain and domination. Jiang Li (Fala Chen), their mother, comes from a mythical land called Ta Lo. Though she\u2019s easily Wenwu\u2019s match in battle, her ethos is based in love and connection to the Earth. After Jiang Li\u2019s death, Wenwu returns to his merciless ways, eventually driving Shang-Chi and Xialing away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In current-day San Francisco, Shang-Chi is a slacker, happy to work valet parking with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina). When members of his father\u2019s gang come to collect a pendant his mother gave him, Shang-Chi and Katy head to Macau to alert Xialing, who has the pendant\u2019s twin. The three of them end up back at the family compound, where Shang-Chi and Xialing learn Wenwu\u2019s purpose for the pendants, and are finally forced to confront both sides of their inherited legacies for the sake of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shang-Chi <\/em>is lively and fun, thanks mainly to the excellent dynamic between Liu and Awkwafina, who have each other\u2019s backs, but mainly love hijinks. Their relationship is never saccharine, and Katy gets her own significant character arc without feeling like a love interest or a thinly-developed sidekick. The film also isn\u2019t afraid to get weird, featuring mythical creatures that are adorable, yet confusing enough to baffle the mind when you consider how they might fit into the inevitable tie-in merchandise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The film\u2019s main coup, however, is its casting. In addition to Liu and Awkwafina, Leung\u2019s Wenwu is a compelling character, made all the more so by the man inhabiting the role. Fans of John Woo and Wong Kar-Wai are obviously familiar with Leung in layered, soulful roles (even in Hard Boiled<\/em>, where he plays a badass undercover cop, he comes off as ultra-sensitive). That gravitas helps Wenwu from feeling like an outright villain, communicating the underlying regret and grief of a man whose ability to process his emotions is severely hampered by his toxic masculinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shang-Chi<\/em> feels like a welcome step forward for Marvel, in a direction not only of inclusivity, but true creativity that we can only hope suggests further interesting developments to come. It\u2019s worth noting that the studio\u2019s most interesting films to date have all come from directors of color. With filmmakers like Chloe Zhao and Nia DaCosta lined up for future entries in addition to Shang-Chi\u2019s <\/em>Destin Daniel Cretton, that continuing pattern suggests an intriguing future. “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is out Friday in theaters.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Marvel\u2019s latest is refreshingly light and fast-paced, and (mostly) free of the copious lore that has weighed down much of the franchise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":17077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[1098],"class_list":["post-17074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22196,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17074\/revisions\/22196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Shang-Chi-and-the-Legend-of-the-Ten-Rings2-1-1024x512.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nA-<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n