Shang - Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings (2021) Movie Review

Hello guys and welcome back for another round of movie reviews with Movie Nerd, a place where you can be nerdy about movies.

So guys, the reason for the lack of reviews from last week and the beginning of this week was that I was away, like I said before I left, at Bucharest to attend the East European Comic Con but I have returned earlier this week with nothing to review. So, I had to wait for the weekend to see the latest Marvel Studios movie so I can write, edit and post a review for it.

Before I dive into this review, I will give you guys a bit of a synopsis because that is how we doe things here at Movie Nerd:

• Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.

When I heard that they were making a movie with a new character, I said that this is going to be another origin story, with all the Marvel elements in it and it will not be that different than the rest. I was right, the movie does follow the Marvel recipe like the others, especially the solo movies but, what sets this one apart from the rest is that it brings something new to the Marvel universe and it expands it. It opens some new directions on which these new characters might end up appearing in other Marvel movies.

The movie is great. It's got some excellent visuals, great aesthetics, amazing fight sequences with some excellent stunt work mixed with some good special effects, most of the time. The pacing is very fast and it feels very fluid, it does not feel rushed. The fighting did reminded me of movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the Jackie Chan movies, with some of the fighting style that Shang - Chi was using at the beginning of the movie. It also had some elements very similar with the Kung Fu Hustle movie, a film that also features some type of rings or, in this case, wrist bracelets. It also has some good humor, which Marvel movies always provide and the humor goes very well with the much more seriousness of the story. There are some moments when the humor cuts a serious scene and it does not feel weird or out of place. Plus, the soundtrack works very well with the scenes that it is used in, although it's not that memorable.

It has a good story, a story about legacy and inheritance and the burden of it and, in some parts, it does not feel like a Marvel movie. Sometimes it feels like a beautiful choreographed martial arts movie with some comic book elements in it, just to keep things in the land of Marvel.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this movie, I love the relationship between Katie and Shang - Chi, that was one of the highlights of the movie, visually pleasing with great fighting sequences and amazing special effects. A movie that broke some cultural ground for the MCU, that might send phase four into something else, without losing the humor, action and emotion Marvel movies are used to offer. 8.2/10

OK guys, that was my review for this one. Sorry if the review is not very up to par and feels a bit off but I am a bit tired. Hopefully I will get a recharge during the night and come back tomorrow feeling a bit more fresh for the review of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Yes, another one of the missed ones but I am almost done with those so, it will soon be over.

Until then, take care, stay movie nerdy and keep on reviewing!