Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

 Saturday night movie night, and this time it was the new Marvel film (though I miss quit a few in between, I for one haven`t seen the "finale movies" of the previous phase), Shang-Chi.

Now, I must confess, I barely knew the character, and I read A LOT of obscure Marvel B and C lister comics in my days (Excalibur and Alpha Flight where my favorites).

But what Black Panther took from African culture, this does so from the Asian culture.  Shaun (Shang-Chi) is the son of the Mandarin, who lived for centuries thanks to the power of the Ten Rings, and his mother who came from the mythical land of Ta Lo.  But after his mother died, his father, a former crimeboss, returns to his former ways, out to take revenge.

Shang-Chi was trained as a child to become an assassin, and together with his sister he is captured by his dad, who needs their pendants to find the entrance to the lands of Ta Lo.  A voice is informing him his wife is being held captive there, and he plans to use all his means to get her out.  Shang-Chi and his sister, together with stage actor Trevor (Ben kingsley is back after his fake Mandarin from Iron Man) and a creature called Morris, they enter the land and rally the defences to face his father, and learn the truth.

In days of old, soul eating monsters where locked away in the Dark Gate, and they use the voices of beloved ones to lure and free them.  As the Mandarin attacks, and manages to open the gate, Shang-Chi awakens his inner powers.  Together with the Great Protector, a dragon, he manages to overcome the monster that in the process had claimed his father's life and soul.

This is actually a good movie, and to be honest, not even a Marvel movie to my feel (bar that mid-credit scene).  If you take a look at the asian action movies on Netflix, this one could perfectly fit in that category instead, which isn`t critique at all.  On the contrary, I felt it rather refreshing from other movies, a bit like the first Guardians of the Galaxy was in the days.

Not bad for a superhero movie at all, and all the asian legendary creatures in Ta Lo was a nice visual spectacle!