For the past 13 years, the MCU has experimented with all kinds of sci-fi and fantasy tropes, from Infinity Stones and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:multiverses to the decades-old idea of a little nerdy lad getting bit by a radioactive arachnid and suddenly being able to do whatever a spider can - although, actually, it never really has been explained why Spidey is Spidey in the MCU. Odd. Anyway, while this usually culminates in relatively enticing plot points and occasionally imaginative trajectories, it’s often a bit… uninspired. I’m not sure how much I care about the universe’s biggest boxing glove, and if not for Thor: Ragnarok being one of the funniest films in years, I’d likely have raised a few points about how Marvel’s Asgard misses an astonishing number of tricks despite having mythology’s greatest trickster at its finge🦋rtips.
It would be remiss to write this piece without formally acknowledging that I am not a huge MCU fan. I have seen the vast majority of the films and like most of them well enough - on top of the aforementioned Ragnarok, I also love 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: Civil War, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Black Panther, although I could take or leave most of the rest. Last week, however, my entire perspective of Marvel changed when my brother and I went to see Shang-Chi and Legend of the Ten Rings. I hones📖tly never expected to write this sentence, and yet here we are: I cannot wait to see where the MCU goes from here. Thanks to the br✱illiant performances of Simu Liu, Awkwafina, and Michelle Yeoh - as well as the comedic genius that is oh-so-typical of the ever-impressive Ben Kingsley - I am, for the first time in my life, a huge fan of a Marvel story. If you read the headline of this piece, there’s a good chance you’ll have an idea as to why that is now the case.
While Marvel regularly indulges in sci-fi and fantasy, it’s usually pretty surface-level. There’s a big difference between inventing jargon and standardising a fictional lexicon that is consistent across an entire world or worlds - “Infinity Stone” isn’t quite the same thing as a palantir or doublethink. With Shang-Chi, the entire tide has shifted rapidly and violently, to the point where Marvel now has an opportunity to convert itself from what many people see as conveyor belt popcorn flicks - I am not saying I see it that way, just that a lot of people I’ve spoken to do - to an imaginative, cohesive, and courageous universe worth investing in. The witty skits and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:balletic fight scenes play a role in this, of course, bu𝄹t for me, it mostly boils down to the fact Shang-Chi has its own distinct mythological ethos.
Spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings follow. Obviously.
After Shang-Chi - who goes by “Shaun” for the first part of the film - finally embraces his true identity and returns home to confront his father, we are introduced to Ta Lo, a mystical world that is detached from our own and is only accessible via a magical forest that, er… eats you. This dimension is where Shang-Chi’s mother, Ying Li, originally comes from, which sets the precedent for why Wenwu - Shang-Chi’s father and the current holder of the all-powerful Ten Rings - wants to invade her family’s village and unknowingly unleash the Dweller in Darkness. Already we have a mythos that extends far beyond “bad guys bad” - the only other MCU antagonist this compelling is probably Black Panther’ܫs Killmonger or Captain America’🍌s Zemo. Don’t get me wrong, Thanos is pretty decent too - Wenwu and Killmonger don’t have crustacean chins, though, and again, I don’t give a rats about the world’s biggest boxing glove.
It’s not just that Wenwu - or the Mandarin, as he is known by his enemies - is a fascinating villain. It’s everything to do with Ta Lo itself - the people, the architecture, the nature, and the magical creatures derived from Chinese mythology. We’ve got shishi (guardian lions), huli jing (nine-tailed foxes, who also inspired a beloved Pokemon), fenghuang (phoenixes), dragons (er... dr🍸agons), and so much more.
All of these animals cement Ta Lo as its own distinct place, filled wiꦐth wonder and awe that is now retroactively, conspicuously absent from previous entries in the MCU. As a result, all fantasy efforts up to this point have been drastically outshone. While other Marvel films have made an effort to introduce intriguing spins on real-life logic - again, Black Panter’s Wakanda is the best example here - no one film (except Black Panther) has succeeded half as well as Shang-Chi. It has set a new benchmark for what the MCU can accomplish with fantasy, and if the kind of innovative, imaginative, and inventive creativity we see in Ta Lo isn’t retained from here on out… Well, let’s just say the MCU will likely end up getting crustacean chin-snapped.
Even Shang-Chi’s final fight scene is in a league of its own. Our editor-in-chief, Stacey Henley, has previously written about how disappointing it is that all Marvel films end with boom boo൩m bang bang punch punch bomb! bomb! although I personally reckon Shang-Chi - while it does technically end with a massive battle - is exempt from this critique due to how inspired it is. The wuxia-style fight between Shang-Chi and Wenwu is one thing, but the war of attrition between the Great Protector and the Dweller in Darkness? It’s visual poetry. The fluidity with which they move, the harmony in how they interlink, and t💧he majesty of the conflicting magic they manifest all combine into one brilliantly cohesive piece of wonderfully choreographed cinematic spectacle. I spent about ten minutes after the film ended looking for my jaw because, despite dropping it on the floor in the final third of the film, I’d have rather lost it than miss a single frame while attempting to pick it𝐆 up.
I enjoy most MCU films as much as the next person, although I’m not super invested in lore or theories or ensuring I see the next one at the inevitable midnight launch. Shang-Chi, though… Sha꧃ng-Chi hits different. As a massive fan of fantasy, I’ve always found the MCU’s sporadic indulgences in it to be fairly surface-level and tame, if not uninspired and - occasionally - borderline juvenile. Shang-Chi has convinced me that this doesn’t need to be the case anymore, and given its post-credits൲ nod towards The Eternals… Well, let’s just say that against my better judgement, I have somehow, some way, almost entirely unbeknownst to myself, become that guy who won’t shut up about the next MCU film.
Damn - they finally got me. I suppose iജt was inevitable.