A couple of weeks ago I saw Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and I was thoroughly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I was looking forward to seeing this for quite a while, not only because I am a Marvel shill but because I was very intrigued by how they were presenting this film leading to it’s release. Despite this being Marvel’s first Asian lead film they appeared to not put much attention into marketing it. Perhaps they didn’t want to put that much funding into advertising a property with a character not many people know about to begin with. Or maybe they were relying on those who viewed it spreading how good it was. All I know is that they severely underhyped this release especially considering how good it was. Not only is this one of the better standalone/origin film in the MCU, I would argue it is one of the better films in the entire franchise as a whole. One of the biggest criticisms of Marvel films, and one that I share as well, is that the studio is very hesitant to take risks and try something different. This especially comes to standalone and origin films where they tend to play it super safe when introducing a new property into the franchise. Films like Captain Marvel, Ant Man, the first Thor, and the recently released Black Widow are remarkably bland and uninspired. One would expect Shang-Chi to follow this trend, especially with such a little known character. However, either because of or in spite of this trend, the team behind Shang-Chi decided to stand out, and have taken more deviations from the standard Marvel formula than I think anyone anticipated. Again, with this being a standalone/origin movie for a fairly unknown property the decision to take risks in this film makes it that more… well… riskier! And I have to give regards to the people behind Shang-Chi for that. I would like to dive into specifics in regards to these risks I’m referring to, but it is difficult to do so without getting into spoilers. What I will say is I appreciate how they decided to forgo the typical romantic subplot, and took a different direction by having the male and female lead take on a platonic friendship. I was also surprised by how great the antagonist was. I say antagonist because I am hesitant to call him a villain. Rather than opt for another run of the mill evil bad guy, Shang-Chi presents a deeply flawed, misguided character who is properly fleshed out and given proper reasons and motives for the things he does. However, that is not to say the film is without it’s problems. While there are aspects that deviate from the standard Marvel formula, there are still aspects that are heavily clinging onto it. The humor, for one, is still very reliant on the standard Marvel quips. This is especially evident with the litany of sigh-worthy jokes sprinkled all throughout the rocky first act. It doesn’t help that this film stars Awkwafina who I typically find irritating in everything she is in, and this is certainly no acceptation. Although she does eventually become more bearable throughout the film, but this seems to only be a result of her character taking more of a backseat as she starts to function as an audience surrogate as events begin to unfold. The visual effects also seem to variate quite often. I am not sure why, but between this film and Black Widow the visual effects people at Marvel have seemingly lost their ability to animate vehicles. Every bus, truck, and car looks extremely out of place, and I cannot put my finger on exactly as to why. All I know is every time a vehicle is being driven on screen it looks noticeably detached from the world it is supposed to be in. Finally one of the biggest problems with Shang-Chi are some of the questionable choices in pacing. The transition into the third act is very rushed. Characters learn skills and abilities unreasonably quickly, and while this is slightly touched on and poked fun at towards the end of the movie that doesn’t excuse it. In the final encounter between the Shang-Chi and his father one of the crucial elements in their fight is how their differing styles of combat. Shang-Chi eventually takes a different approach to how he deals with combat scenarios, and the impetus for his complete change in style from what he is accustomed to is a 3 minute scene with his aunt where he immediately adapts to a completely different fighting style. I cannot help but feel if they had about 15-25 more minutes of runtime they would have been able to better flesh out the plot and bring the film from good to great. As of right now, the film sits at the same level of the first Doctor Strange, and I would rate it a 7/10.