Shang-Chi was a well-paced, highly entertaining and exhilarating film to watch that was well punctuated with great comedic moments (mostly courtesy of Awkwafina - finally in a role that daftly balanced her comedic and dramatic chops) and viscerally exciting, mostly-kung fu, fight scenes. But, most importantly, it gave us perhaps the MCU's best villain since Tom Hiddleston's Loki with the infinitely charismatic Tony Leung's updated Mandarin - now known as Xu Wenwu. Leung owned the screen and essentially the whole movie with his presence, his acting and those ever-emoting eyes.
Also, kudos to the rest of the great supporting cast, especially the equally charismatic Michelle Yeoh, an enigmatic Zhang Meng'er, surprise comedic relief Benedict Wong in what was essentially an extended cameo and scene stealers Sir Ben Kingsley and Morris.
With such an arresting supporting cast, Liu Simu, ostensibly the lead actor in his own superhero origin story, was unfortunately relegated to a seemingly peripheral role. He had great chemistry with Awkwafina and the early scenes with them both were immensely fun. However, once Liu met up with Leung in the Second Act, the gulf between the two actors was obvious and the latter effortlessly dominated the screen and the narrative. Even when Leung was off-screen, Liu's dramatic efforts of emoting loss and regret only served to highlight the disparity between a screen legend like Leung and a relative newbie like Liu.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, an Asian-American, we finally got an Asian superhero movie that broke down Asian stereotypes. Cretton and fellow co-writers, David Callaham and Andrew Lanham, subtly inserted racial politics into the screenplay and also not-so subtly broke down Orientalism with its normalisation of Asian martial arts, and religious and cultural beliefs. Some of it may have gone over the head of most Western audience, but to an Asian audience, the nods to Qing Ming festival, ancestral worship, Asian-millennial/Gen X angst, etc were well appreciated.
It was also refreshing to watch an MCU/big Hollywood film that started in Mandarin and with at least 20% of the on-screen dialogue also in Mandarin. Although it was rather annoying that there seemed to be no consistency in when the characters spoke English and when they spoke Mandarin - except for Awkwafina's character which was clearly - and authentically - an American who barely spoke her mother tongue.
The action sequences were a major highlight up till the final climatic battle. Most of the early fight scenes were kung-fu based and the action choreography was strong. The fights were visceral but also graceful in their violence. Although it was a wasted opportunity not to have Leung and Yeoh have a spar-and-talk scene together. That would have been awesome! Instead, Leung's big fight was inevitably with Liu, and thankfully Leung was capable of acting solely with his eyes to imbue the fight with the significance and emotion that it deserved.
Unfortunately, in the end, the film succumbed to the MCU-mandatory CGI final battle that verged on messiness. It only got by because the larger and brighter IMAX screen allowed the action to be more easily discerned and distinguished. Not sure how it would look like on a smaller screen.
Bill Pope was the cinematographer and music was by Joel P. West. Both of which were distinctive but also not entirely standouts. The IMAX experience really benefitted the film, especially with regards to the final battle.
As usual, stay on for the standard MCU mid-credits and end-credits stingers which nicely set up future movies and/or Disney+ series.
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