Destin Daniel Cretton's 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' marks a bland start to the new phase of Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is a spectacle with regards to action sequence and fighting choreography, but the film misses a solid storyline for an origin story as its titular character lacks personality and does not go through any heroic transformation story arc. Simu Liu has a strong presence as Shang-Chi, yet he is overshadowed by many of his more experienced co-stars.

The story was riddled with holes and plot issues. Since when does Awkwafina's pedestrian character all of a sudden get invited to become part of the MCU team? What's her super power... stupidity? Don't get me wrong, I love her, but her character was lazily written. Then there's the whole daddy issues dynamic - Shang is with him, then against, then with etc.. Then we have these ridiculous dragons fighting, where one scores some power crystals and becomes stronger! This is just infantile lazy writing. There was zero shock value or anything spectacular in the entire runtime, with tedious long middle acts and a bumbling third act. The jokes were cliched and not funny. The funniest parts were Ben Kingsley's character, (of whom was in this for what reasons??) and the ending to go Karaoke - which was the only time I actually cracked a chuckle. You'd think with three writers we'd have something cohesive and coherent. But instead of a Marvel superhero story, we got a Disney evil vs good with dragons thrown into the mix. It's as if they tried too hard to create the Asian version of Black Panther.

It's a shame, because the directing and cinematography were spot on, and great S/VFX - although a little overboard with the CGI i.e. Dragons. The martial arts choreography was outstanding (although again, overboard after the awesome bus scene),and the casting and performances were excellent, especially Leung, who pretty much carried the film on his shoulders. It's a 7/10 from me.

Shang-Chi is a boring film. The characters were okay, but the story was choppy and confusing. The song choices were odd. Plus, this movie was way too long. And the scene at the end had me practically falling asleep.