'SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS'.....MARVEL-IZED KUNG FOOLERY

 Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021)    We approach this movie as someone who's at the end of their patience with the amount of time and attention our pop culture devotes to the ever complicated 'MCU"....the Marvel Comics Universe with their overlapping pile-up of superheroes. 

            And we've a gut feeling we're the not the only ones who've sighed heavily and muttered, "Who the **** cares about this crap anymore?"

             So don't look for this post to delve into any deep contemplations of where this movie fits into the various timelines of the MCU.  We truly and profoundly don't give a ****.

              All we wanted out "Shang-Chi" was two-plus hours of non-stop kung-fu ass kicking combined with the usual menagerie of CGI monsters, floods, explosions and people being flung 100 feet in the air.  

               With the whole circus presented in ear-numbing Dolby Surround.....on a big-ass wide multi-plex screen.

               Good news. The movie delivered all that stuff. 

               Here's the breakdown of the good and the bad:

               Good:  The opening Kung Fu-CGI clash between the villain and his magical future bride......a beautifully staged and photographed  duel that's a dance of both aggression and seduction......You know, like a better choreographed version  of "The Bachelor"......

               Good:  Some of the other action set pieces, like the already well known battle on a San Francisco bus and the equally jaw dropping dust-up on a skyscraper scaffolding.

               Good:  Chinese dragons. Can never have too many of those.

              Good:  The martial arts goddess, Michelle Yeoh, always a welcome sight in any movie.  And a brief appearance by Tsai Chin, who long, long ago, purred "I give you very best duck" to Sean Connery's James Bond, before having him machine gunned while trapped in a sprung murphy bed

              Bad:  The unrelenting, annoying Awkwafina as the comedy relief sidekick. She's like the Asian Kevin Hart......she never shuts up and nothing that comes out of her mouth is even remotely funny......

               Bad:  The Marvel teasers inserted into the end credits. To hell with them. (But the CGI artists must love them to pieces, since audiences sit through the entirety of the interminable credits, lest they miss some new MCU nugget.  

               We craved an afternoon of mindless, dumb multi-plex fun......and that's exactly what  "Shang-Chi" gave us.  And that's about the extent of attention we'll devote to a Marvel movie. 3 stars (***)