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Giving ten rings and five stars for Marvel's "Shang-Chi"

TUES. | 11-09-21 | ENTERTAINMENT

     Marvel Studios’ new movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, has taken the whole world by surprise, quickly becoming the number one grossing movie in North America.

     If you are anything like me, when you first saw trailers for Shang-Chi you thought “Who? What?” and that is very understandable. Shang-Chi is not a very well known character at all, having never been in any previous Marvel movies or shows. His only prior mention was in comic books, first appearing in 1973.

     Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a story about a man named Shang-Chi (AKA Shaun in the beginning) who was living in America. He was living a normal life for many years until the Ten Rings organization (led by his father) came after him and his sister to bring him back to their homeland. This is what led into the real meat of the movie and the conflict arose from Shang-Chi’s father. It eventually leads into an epic battle at the climax of the movie, but I won’t spoil anything.

     The fact that Shang-Chi has become such a popular movie is awesome for many reasons. It is so cool to see fans enjoying this movie even though it isn’t a well known story. Some people believe that the only reason Marvel is popular is because of the characters that everyone knows, like Spiderman and Captain America. This movie is the perfect example of a counter to that argument. I’ve asked many people for their opinion on the movie and haven’t gotten a single negative review.

     Another reason that the popularity of this movie is good is because of the representation in the movie. There had never been a popular Asian Marvel superhero prior to Shang-Chi, and the movie features a lot of traditional martial arts and Chinese dialogue. The movie is based on traditional Chinese legends and represents them very well. It is great to see more

shang chi.jpg

Photo courtesy of marvel.com

widespread representation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it grows more and more popular.

     This movie is just good overall. It doesn’t have any complicated gimmicks that make it super unique from other movies. It is just a solid, well done superhero origin story and it is great to see a more traditional movie like that. It all feels very Marvel, with intense fight scenes and gorgeous computer-generated imagery (CGI). It flows very well and didn’t feel like it was dragging at all throughout my time watching. I feel like this movie is a great representation of the evolution of Marvel Studios over the years. It shows the storytelling, fighting, CGI and creativity that makes Marvel what it is.

     I recommend this movie for anyone out there, be it a Marvel fan or just a normal movie enjoyer. It is an action-packed movie with great jokes, fights and CGI that I believe anyone can enjoy regardless of whether or not they have seen previous Marvel Studios movies.

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