Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ and I’m Tim Bradley!
Well, I’ve seen the latest film in the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ at the cinema – ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’. This makes it the fifth film I’ve seen at a cinema in 2021. I’m sure I’m going to lose count on how many films I’ve seen at the cinema this year, but I’m glad I’ve seen this lately. 🙂
Shang-Chi is a Marvel Comics character I barely knew anything about. But like the Guardians of the Galaxy, I was willing to check this film out and find out whether I would enjoy him or not. Thankfully the cinematic experience was worthwhile since I had an enjoyable time watching this new character.
The film focuses on a young man called Shang-Chi who is forced to confront his past after he is drawn into his father’s Ten Rings organisation. There are a lot of Chinese influences with this Marvel Comics character. They were fascinating to discover as I enjoyed the characters’ particular journeys.
Simu Liu stars as the title character Shang-Chi. He’s joined by Awkwafina (who I’ve seen in ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’) as Katy, Shang-Chi’s best friend. I wasn’t sure if there was a romance going on between these two when watching them in the film as I think they’re just best friends by this stage.
There’s also Meng’er Zhang as Xu Xialing, Shang-Chi’s sister in the film. Xialing has a grudge against Shang-Chi earlier on in the film since he didn’t come back for her three days after being sent on a mission by their father. I do wish more of Shang-Chi and his sister’s relationship was explored in this.
Fala Chen stars as Ying-Li, Shang-Chi and Xialing’s mother in the film. There’s also Tong Leung as Xu Wenwu, Shang-Chi and Xialing’s father in the film. It’s interesting how Wenwu is the villain of this film as he wants to get his wife back from the dead and uses his Ten Rings to overthrow his enemies.
There’s also Florian Munteanu as Razor Fist, a member of Wenwu’s Ten Rings army who has a machete blade for his right hand. There’s also Michelle Yeoh as Ying Nan, Shang-Chi and Xialing’s aunt and a guardian of Ta Lo, the place where Shang-Chi and Xialing’s mother came from in the film.
There are ‘MCU’-related characters you’ll recognise in this film from other films. First off, there’s Benedict Wong as Wong, who is usually with Dr. Strange. It was interesting to see him in this film participating in a cage fighting tournament as well as meeting Shang-Chi and Katy at the film’s end. 🙂
There’s also Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery, whom you may recognise for being in ‘Iron Man 3’. Honestly, I didn’t think he had any real need to be there apart from being the film’s comic relief. Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner and Brie Larson as Carol Danvers who make an appearance in the film!
That’s during the film’s mid-credits sequence. Honestly I was expecting Bruce Banner to look more Professor Hulk-like from his ‘Avengers: Endgame’ appearance. I wonder why that’s not the case here. The Abomination (voiced by Tim Roth) who was in ‘The Incredible Hulk’ appears in this film too. 😐
There are quite a number of action-packed sequences in the film, including a bus fight between Shang-Chi and a number of the Ten Rings members sent out to steal his green pendant by his father. There also dragon-like creatures that appear at the film’s end, but they don’t breath fire like Smaug. 😀
‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ has been an enjoyable film experience to check out at the cinema. I wouldn’t say I was totally enamoured with it, but it was fun to check out and it’s nice to see a new superhero introduced in the ‘MCU’ series. I look forward to when Shang-Chi appears again.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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