Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 4K Ultra HD Digital Review
Brad Sturdivant
November 30th, 2021
Marvel’s latest attempt to take an obscure comic character and turn them into a mainstream success comes in the form of Shang-Chi and it’s a surprising success. Blending the supernatural and natural worlds is always tricky when it comes to comic book characters, but Marvel now has a strong track record of making it work and they do it again with Shang-Chi, blending the mystical world of the character with the reality of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Backed by a great cast and some fun action scenes, SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS is a worthy entry in the MCU.
Shang-Chi (Liu) is the son of the notorious underworld criminal Xu Wenwu (Leung), living a quiet life as a valet in San Francisco, content to slack off with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina). Wenwu has managed to keep control of his criminal empire by harnessing the power of the Ten Rings, which have granted him super powers. Wenwu and Shang-Chi are both still reeling from the death of Shang-Chi’s mother, which has propelled Wenwu into an obsession to bring her back to life. Li is from a magical village, which becomes endangered as Wenwu’s obsession grows and becomes violent.
Shang-Chi succeeds on many levels, but the most obvious is the film’s ability to blend multiple genres. Fans of Asian cinema will instantly recognize inspiration from movies like CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and HERO in the latter parts of the film, while fans of more traditional martial-arts movies will spot similarities in the first half of the film. Both genres are wrapped in the superhero narrative where the disinterested hero must overcome his reluctance and stand up to his evil father. There’s a lot going on, especially for a superhero movie, but director Destin Daniel Cretton does a good job of keeping everything flowing well and sticking to a solid point of view.
That said, the movie isn’t perfect and as with a lot of Marvel movies, it succumbs to an overuse of CGI in the third act. I would have been more than happy watching Simu Liu and Tony Chiu-Wai Leung battle it out ala Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in RETURN OF THE DRAGON, but instead we get an overblown spectacle with dragons, flying demons and a rubbery-looking Shang-Chi flying through the air. I wouldn’t call it boring, but it was unnecessary for a movie that had done such a good job of humanizing its characters up to that point.
Simu Liu was fantastic as Shang-Chi and he was surrounded by a very strong supporting cast. Awkwafina has carved out quite the niche for herself in Hollywood and she shows up basically as her CRAZY RICH ASIANS character, providing plenty of laughs and giving the film a much needed levity. Tony Chiu-Wai Leung is great in everything and here he does well as the redeemed, yet still tortured bad guy that’s not as one-dimensional as other villains.
Marvel will of course wrap Shang-Chi into the greater MCU and there’s an end credits scene and a few cameos that set the stage for his bigger role. But for this movie at least, Shang-Chi is off to a very strong start and should help ease the pain of losing Captain America and Iron Man from the MCU.
4K Ultra HD Digital Review
Video: I watched this on Vudu and I was very pleased with both the stream quality and video presentation. SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS is a surprisingly bright and colorful film and it pops on 4K.
Audio: The Dolby Atmos track was wall-shaking during action sequences and crystal clear during dialogue heavy sequences.
