I saw Shang Chi and the Ten Rings last Sunday as well and I liked it a fair amount. I waited a couple days to make sure it wasn't just initial impressions as I usually watch movies and tend to think they are better then they are after a few days, but after awhile my opinion hasn't really changed.
This movie was better then Black Widow. In fact I think it's actually an above average film even for the MCU since I tend to think most MCU movies, even if formulaic, tend to be above average.
In brief, I liked most of the characters and the protagonists seemed relatable and likable. The main character, Shawn Chi, had an everyman quality to him and seeing him acting as both a secret Master of Kung Fu and just some guy who seemed to be in the audiences role of taking in the adventure he's been plunged in was pretty neat. Also I liked his (and his sisters) interactions with each other and with their parents and the troubled relationships with them. There are a lot of family themes in here, and it does touch on Asian-American stereotypes of parental expectations and duty and parenting and relation to your culture itself so it touches me on that level as well being both parent and child in those kind of wacky families even though Jungle Asians like Filipinos are superior to Fancy style Chinese-Asians.
I digress.
Surprisingly, Awkafina was not annoying. I went into the movie expecting her to be annoying but she was not. She was a good addition to the film and actually legitimately likable. There was some eye rolling moments in the Macau fight scene where she seemed a bit too competent but that's typical for civilians in distressing situations in movies. But I can't recall a single annoying moment with her. She was fun and the low key friend-romantic interest relationship they seemed to have was novel as they never actually seemed to have a romantic scene together but plenty of scenes of them building rapport with each other and everything. It touches on the idea of long term relationships that have a failure to commit on them.
The humor seems more lowkey and less awkward and that helps as well.
The truth is the best character and one of the better aspects of the film is the main villain. Our 'Mandarin' or Wenwu is the Father of Shang Chi and he really overcomes one of the flaws of many MCU movies. He has depth. A big part of the story is his relationship with his Wife who dies tragically before the movie and with his estranged children who ditched him as well as the fact that he's a millenia old Warlord and leader of the Ten Rings. The movie explores all of this and Tony Leung puts in a great performance for a character that didn't really seem like it could of had much going for it, especially in a movie this packed with stuff.
Another surprising part of this film that I didn't even realize until recently was that there was a lot in this film, genre shifts and setting locations and characters but it never felt bloated. It starts out as a normal family drama in San Francisco, then we get a great martial arts scenes in the Bay Area. Then the movie adds onto it a Buddy Road Trip storyline and as they travel, there's tones of it being a thriller and a superhero film... AND THEN... somehow, it ends as a fucking magical fantasy.
SOMEHOW this all works. I was never taken out of it or going "This is ridiculous" like I did with Black Widow's final act or a lot of bloated DCEU movies and their overly climatic finishes.
There's a lot of good fight choreography as well and Simu Liu looks great with his shirt off.
Would recommend watching even if Simu Liu is kind of a whiny dork IRL. Good themes, interesting plot (don't get me wrong, there are plot holes but that's the same as every superhero movie) great characters, good fight choreography and I really liked all of the genre shifts and everything. Humor was reeled back a bit and Awkafina's character was amazingly not annoying. And yes, it did feel like a MCU 'Superhero' movie so the worries of it seeming too lowkey didn't really pan out thankfully.
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