First Take: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - forget everything you ever knew about the MCU

SYNOPSIS: Shang-Chi, the master of unarmed weaponry-based Kung Fu, is forced to confront his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization.

And here we go for real. After the prequel of Black Widow, we have brand new characters, stories, and a whole new Phase to get stuck into within the Marvel Cinematic Universe - and for us here in England, it is the first Marvel film back at full capacity. Having been fast tracked for development, shut down at the height of the Covid pandemic (only finishing the shoot this time last year), and controversially avoiding the Premier Access debacle, Shang-Chi has finally arrived - and it is one of the stronger Marvel origin stories.

As is the case with the newer movies, independent director Destin Daniel Cretton, the man behind Short Term 12 and Just Mercy, has been brought into the Marvel fold to helm a very well put together 2 hour 14 minute movie which has plenty of inspired action, a lot of backstory which will come in handy later down the road, and importantly, an understanding of not only the source material, but the cultures which inspired it, something which is in evident in the script he, Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham have put together - while it suffers the usual ‘origin story’ predictability issues, the action alone is worth the price of the ticket. It’s shot brilliantly by DOP legend Bill Pope, and the score from Joel P West comes in at just the right points. Oh, and before I forget, The Eagles’ Hotel California blares out over the end credits. Any film that has the courage to pay for those rights gets an extra few brownie points- it is not an easy song to secure.

Performances on this film are also a strong point, with Simu Liu nailing it, Awkwafina being an absolute scene stealer, Tony Leung having an absolute field day (to say more would spoil the film), and a supporting cast which includes Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley (returning as Trevor Slattery), a brief cameo from Benedict Wong (again, to say more about how he is involved would spoil the film), and Florian Munteanu, best known as being Drago in Creed II. But one person I do have to mention, particularly with this being one of his last films before his death last month, is the stunt co-ordinator Brad Allan. A member of no less than Jackie Chan’s stunt team, any film Allan worked on always had some incredibly complex stunt work that looked so easy - and it is a big loss for the Marvel family. His last film will release in December (The King’s Man), but Marvel Studios, in their classy best, dedicated Shang-Chi to him.

THE VERDICT

Die-hard MCU fans will absolutely love this film, and the direction Phase 4 appears to be heading in thanks to two big post-credits scenes, and as a standalone film, it works just as well. If this movie does well stateside, our industry is on its way to bouncing back after two rough years - and if last night across English cinemas was anything to go by, this is going to be a big box office weekend.

RATING: 4/5