In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the Marvel Cinematic Universe continued its tradition of putting its own superhero spin on familiar genres, but in portraying its first martial arts film, the MCU left the martial arts themselves something to be desired. In the comics, Shang-Chi is known as the Master of Kung Fu, and he is hands down the most skilled fighter across the expansive stable of heroes, but in Legend of the Ten Rings, he never really had a chance to shine.
While certainly adept in hand-to-hand combat and a variety of weaponry, nothing in Shang-Chi ever made the hero feel like he was one of the best in the world. Compared to other MCU heroes, he's likely not even the world's greatest fighter, and he has a lot left to learn if he is ever going to enjoy the status of his comic counterpart.
In the context of the film, Shang-Chi is certainly no slouch when it comes to fighting. Trained in all forms of combat by his father from an early age, Shang-Chi showcases his skill against several assassins and Razorfist on a bus, in a cage match against his sister and on the scaffolding where he manages to navigate narrow terrain to his own advantage. However, as the story progresses and magic features more heavily in the movie, his prowess in martial arts begins to take a backseat to his mastery of the Ten Rings. What's more, the other characters introduced all seem as skilled as Shang-Chi.
Shang-Chi's sister, Xu Xialing, trained herself while observing her brother's lessons, and her skill seems not to have suffered in the absence of direct instruction. His father, Wenwu, primarily uses the Ten Rings, yet he still can fight his son via hand-to-hand combat on even grounds. Meanwhile, years before the main events of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, his mother bested his father in combat. Many of these sequences make for riveting action, but what they don't make is a hero with superlative talent that is one-of-a-kind in his world.
In the comics, Shang-Chi is such an immensely talented fighter that it more than makes up for a lack of superpowers or sci-fi gadgets. He runs circles around others like Iron Fist, Spider-Man and Captain America, regardless of how much power those individuals have or how they in turn learned to hone it with their own skills. However, in the MCU, viewers get the sense from watching Captain America storm a ship of mercenaries in Winter Soldier and Black Widow demolish a hallway of agents in Iron Man 2 that these characters have truly superhuman levels of skill that puts them head and shoulders above their competition.
Shang-Chi doesn't capture that feeling. Without the Ten Rings aiding him, it is hard to imagine his skill is sufficient to overcome the gap in physicals or weaponry that Captain America or Black Widow would present. Unlike in the comics where he could easily best them, in the MCU, he would need to rely on the magical artifacts in order to close the gap.
While it could be claimed that the henchmen he was up against had sufficient skill of their own to give him trouble, there was little done to even demonstrate that. Razorfist comes close to shearing the hero apart at multiple points in the film, and he seems to have little more going for him than a few rudimentary skills and a blade for an arm.
It is important to remember that the character is far newer than many of his more storied compatriots in the MCU, so audiences may yet see him attain the superlative status he gains in the comics. To do that, however, Shang-Chi may have to set the Ten Rings aside and allow his martial prowess to take the focus.
He has the potential to be one of the MCU's most skilled and entertaining fighters to watch, but the story he is in needs to trust that those talents are enough to keep audiences engaged. Martial arts films should be about martial arts, and with the stunning fight choreography of Shang-Chi's early action sequences, filmmakers clearly have the ability to portray that. With just a shift in focus and a confidence in what its hero can do, future Shang-Chi films and team-ups can truly prove why he is the Master of Kung Fu.
0 Comments