Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings review – the best solo Marvel film since Black Panther

After a seemingly endless barrage of TV miniseries and the prequel/sequel (half-quel?) of Black Widow, Phase 4 of the MCU finally kicks off in earnest with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, introducing us to Marvel’s first new headline hero since Captain Marvel, and making an instant icon out of him. Shang-Chi (played by breakout star Simu Liu) pulls the MCU in a new direction, complete with refreshingly colourful mysticism and easily the best action sequences in this franchise to date.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton jumps back and forth between decades and even centuries to tell Shang-Chi’s story. We start around a thousand years in the past, where Shang-Chi’s father Wenwu (the one and only Tony Leung, making his first Hollywood bow) finds ten ancient rings that grant him eternal life and the power to conquer as he sees fit. To meet Shang-Chi himself, we cut to the present in San Francisco, where he has fled to avoid Wenwu’s gaze, living an unremarkable life as a valet driver with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina).

After a run in with some assassins proves Shang-Chi can’t escape his past, he heads back to China to confront Wenwu, who, it transpires, wants Shang-Chi’s help to find a mythical village where he believes the spirit of his wife, and Shang-Chi’s mother, Li (Fala Chen) is being held. There’s a lot going on here, but Cretton and co-writers Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham keep things moving at a sprightly pace, peppering in exposition and flashbacks where they feel most natural, never feeling the need to just dump all the relevant information at once.

Brilliantly, and in a way that feels mostly new for Marvel, they manage to fit a lot of their storytelling into the fight scenes. A film about a character labelled in the comics as “The Master of Kung-Fu” needs top-notch cinematography, and Shang-Chi delivers with fluid, wuxia-esque action that transcends the typical Marvel action problems of choppy editing and egregious CG. Liu isn’t a hugely compelling lead in the quieter moments, especially when measured against the magisterial presence of Leung or Awkwafina’s trademark hyper-activity, but he can really fight.

It’s his skill on this front that elevates Shang-Chi as a whole. A five-against-one brawl on a San Francisco bus is immediately a top contender for the best Marvel action scene ever, as is the flirty fight-turned-dance between Wenwu and Li when they first meet. This grounding in genuine thrill means that even the inevitable third-act CG-a-thon remains compelling despite some downright ugly cinematography. Cretton continually but gradually raises the stakes and absurdity of each fight throughout, so by the time Shang-Chi is riding a water dragon and trading blows with soul-eating bats, it still feels of a piece with the more grounded world of the first act.

Unlike, say, Captain Marvel, Shang-Chi is an origin story that mostly stands on its own two feet within the MCU, rather than being a glorified cold open for a new Avengers instalment, but there are enough connections here for fans to jump on. It’s particularly fun to spend a bit more time with Wong (Benedict Wong), who seems to be taking on the Nick Fury mentor/manager role for the MCU's magical side, while a super-powered fight club that Shang-Chi and Katy attend makes for a great piece of comic-book worldbuilding.

With an all-Asian cast and a full-on embrace of Chinese culture informing the plot and emotional beats, Shang-Chi feels like a significant step forward in representation for cinema’s biggest franchise. Add to that breathless fight scenes, nimble plotting, and the sheer charisma of Tony Leung, and you’ve got the best Marvel solo story since Black Panther.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in cinemas now.