Shang-Chi & The Legend Of The Ten Rings Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

4. The Strong Character Work

Characterisation is extremely important in any origin story, and this is thankfully one of Shang-Chi's strongest assets.

Much of the film is devoted to examining Shang-Chi's family dynamic and troubled past, making him and his sister Xialing (Meng'er Zhang) well-realised, fleshed-out people beyond their stature as the villain's children.

But Wenwu surely has the most potent and fascinating character work in the entire movie, ensuring he's not simply a superficial, mildly sympathetic antagonist but a man as monstrous as he is easy to understand.

The fact that the characterisation is so strong throughout makes it all the more a shame that the film's finale leans back on typical CGI nonsense, honestly.

If there's any MCU film that could get away with a smaller final showdown, it'd surely be this one.