Weekend Watch: Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, Cinderella
Marvel's newest hero and the latest version of an old story...
Image Credit: Marvel Studios
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, the Marvel Cinematic Universe welcomes a new hero, and a very old story gets a fresh(ish) coat of paint. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
Though Black Widow was my first Marvel movie back in a cinema since the start of the pandemic, I didn’t come away loving the film as much as some. It was a relief then, that Shang-Chi proved to be exactly the blast of MCU action and humour I’d been craving.
Delayed by the pandemic, Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings faces several almighty challenges. Bringing the MCU’s box office prospects back to life despite great uncertainty with moviegoing (and serving as a Disney movie that will have to prove itself solely in cinemas). Capturing the zeitgeist and serving as representation for Asian and Asian-American audiences in the way that Black Panther broke ground. Oh, and in case that wasn’t enough, try introducing a brand new (to non-comics readers, at least) hero burdened by a problematic publication history that is rife with racism. Director Destin Daniel Cretton, alongside co-writers Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham, make it look, if not completely effortless, then at least extremely entertaining.
Shang-Chi is ostensibly the story of a fractured family. We’re first introduced to Wenwu (played by the legendary Tony Leung) as a man who discovers mystical, powerful rings that offer him seemingly eternal life and enhanced abilities. He becomes a warlord, taking control of or influencing vast swathes of the world across centuries. Even that, though, doesn’t satisfy him, and he journeys to a strange land called Ta Lo, guarded by a group of skilled warrior inhabitants. One such is Li (Fala Chen) who easily bests Wenwu with her own magic and battle abilities, winning his heart in the process. Wenwu puts the rings aside and they raise two children – Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and his sister Xialing (Meng'er Zhang). Wenwu trains his son to become an assassin while Xialing is left to learn kung fu on her own. After tragedy strikes, Wenwu sends a teenage Shang-Chi out on a mission to enact vengeance, but he opts instead to run away, taking up life in San Francisco with his new best pal Katy (Awkwafina). Cut to the present day (in MCU terms, after Avengers: Endgame) and “Shaun” is making ends meet as a valet and drunkenly singing karaoke at night. That is until his father’s forces come calling and he has to confront his past.
The rest is our hero dealing with the fallout of his and particularly his father’s actions, and a trip to Ta Lo where other family members await, including Michelle Yeoh’s character (about which I won’t say too much other than she’s Michelle Yeoh, so despite being lumbered with plenty of exposition, is awesome). Also great in a role that is usually thankless comic relief? Awkwafina, who makes Katy into something much more watchable than simply the audience’s slack-jawed surrogate in exploring the world that her friend finds himself thrust back into. Around them orbit several people, including Benedict Wong’s always entertaining Wong, the fighting sorcerer first introduced in Doctor Strange. Despite his presence and a few other nods to the MCU at large (including one big Marvel throwback role that is already out there in the world, but I choose not to mention to avoid ruining it for the three people and the parakeet named Gerald who don’t know yet), Shang-Chi never feels overburdened with building on the mythology that has been established; instead, it takes the time and care to construct and introduce its own world and characters. And a big part of the success of that latter element lies in the casting.
I’ve been a fan of Simu Liu for a while now (my feelings on Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience are well known to readers of this newsletter, a show I started watching after seeing Liu introduced at Comic-Con) and was happy to see him get his shot at becoming a superhero. Though he might not be at the level of, say Leung (who offers a masterclass as Wenwu) and Yeoh, he more than proves he’s got what it takes to be charming and quippy and has clearly thrown himself into training as his martial arts moments are never less than convincing. That’s also thanks to the stunt team, led by the likes of Brad Allan and Andy Le, the former of whom spent years studying and working with Jackie Chan (and sadly passed away before the film’s release). They bring a level of kinetic action and fast-paced fighting that you don’t often see in the MCU, with the editing kept to a minimum and the combatants visible. After the choppy, disappointing likes of Snake Eyes, Shang-Chi is almost a revelation, blending Chan’s live-wire style with the sort of balletic wuxia-infused clashes you might expect to see in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Also on the fandom front: director Destin Daniel Cretton, whose Short Term 12 ranks among my favourite films. It’s great to see him as Marvel’s latest hire, taking filmmakers who have excelled on the indie front on smaller, more character-based work and giving them the tools needed to bring their personal style to the MCU. Some accuse the company of subsuming its directors into a bland corporate style, but while there is the occasional moment of visual flatness, Cretton and cinematographer Bill Pope offer some fantastic eye candy. Composer Joel P. West, a Cretton veteran, surrounds the whole affair in a beautiful, propulsive score.
I did have one or two issues with the film – the third act shift into a massive melee full of CG creatures felt like the expected choice and for all that it manages to do with Shang-Chi himself, the character could have been explored more deeply, with one or two fewer flashbacks, most of which fell under the “tell” instead of the “show” category. Those few quibbles aside, I was fully taken in by this latest outing for the MCU and found myself applauding after more than one action sequence, taken right back to my teenage days in the Scala Cinema in London watching Jackie Chan, Biao Yuen, and Samo Hung do their thing on the screen. Unusually for a new release, I’m eager to see it again as soon as possible.
Where Black Widow was more concerned with filling in a narrative gap and (sometimes awkwardly) laying plot and character pipe for the future, Shang-Chi is an example of a nimble, dynamic, funny origin story, bringing a different world to Western eyes and proving that there’s plenty of life in the MCU if you go looking in the right places.
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings is in UK and US cinemas from today.
Image Credit: Amazon
How many times does Cinderella truly need to be told? While the dissemination and updating of stories is an ancient tradition, new generations adding their own meaning to the story, this is one that has been brought to screens so many times that there’s only so much you can do before the update lacks freshness. Kay Cannon’s attempt only reaches so far.
In the new film – which Sony decided to sell off to Amazon – singer/songwriter Camila Cabello is the titular Ella, dreaming of… well, that’s one of the ways Cannon’s story diverges from the norm. This Ella is looking for a way to become a businesswoman rather than wishing for a handsome prince to come and whisk her away to a new life. There is a handsome prince lurking about (Nicholas Galitzine’s Robert, himself unhappy with the strictures that royal life is placing around him), but Ella would rather design and try to sell dresses, which is not so easily done in a world where women can’t own businesses. That, and she must contend with her stepmother Vivian (Idina Menzel) and stepsisters Anastasia (Maddie Baillio) and Drizella (Charlotte Spencer), who think nothing of mocking her ambitions and consigning her to life mostly spent in a basement. Ella wants to make her own way in the world and see as much of it as she can, so it’s refreshing that she (initially) turns down the chance of a life with Robert. Over in the palace, meanwhile, King Rowan (Pierce Brosnan) is unhappy that his son isn’t comfortable fitting in with his future duties and worries that the passion has gone out of his marriage to Queen Beatrice (Minnie Driver). There’s also Tallulah Greive’s Princess Gwen, who is bursting with good ideas about how to modernise and improve the kingdom. You can figure out for yourself where all this goes, but suffice to say the wish-fulfillment element is, of course, in full effect.
Cannon has made other tweaks; Vivian is less a wicked stepmother (despite being played by the woman most associated with Wicked’s Elphaba on stage) and more a pushy mother type who does show moments of her own vulnerability. And, stealing the one scene he gets to appear in, Billy Porter is naturally magical as Fab G, this movie’s Fairy godmother. Some clunky dialogue aside, he brings his star quality to the role.
Elsewhere, the musical element sits awkwardly: the jukebox likes of ‘Material Girl’ and ‘Somebody To Love’ are adequately performed (particularly when Menzel is belting tunes) but they clash with the songs created for the film by Cabello, which all have the slight whiff of first draft efforts. At least this movie has the good sense to gently mock Brosnan’s singing ability (including by the man himself) and lets Minnie Driver sing in a much-improved manner to the first time she and Brosnan shared the screen (GoldenEye, in case you were wondering).
Cinderella wants to be something new and shiny, but never quite breaks out of the fairy-tale tropes, even with Ella’s attitude and the added storylines. There’s little to no chemistry between Ella and Robert, and you may end up longing for your own fairy guardian to spirit you away from it before the tale is told.
Cinderella is on Amazon Prime Video from Friday 3 September.