Simu Liu makes debut role for Marvel

     Marvel recruits yet another superhero to join the Avengers, Shang-Chi. The adventure and action filled movie, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is about martial-arts master Shang-Chi and how his past involves him with the Ten Rings Organization 

    Canadian actor, writer, producer, and stuntman Simu Liu plays the main character in this film who is the first Asian superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). His castmates include American actress and rapper Awkwafina, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, Chinese actress Meng’er Zhang, English actor Ben Kingsley, and many more

     Filming production started in February of last year but was put on hold in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was officially released to the United States on September third of this year. . 

     In the film, Shang-Chi’s father’s army of magically powered soldiers follow best friends Katy (played by Awkwafina) and Chi. They decide to travel to China to protect Chi’s sister, Xu Xialing (played by Meng’er Zhang) in the hopes that his father will not be able to harm or hurt her. 

    The film heavily emphasized the expression and representation of Asian culture throughout.  Junior Julia Eakes comments, “I think the cultural aspects of this movie were really great […] the action and fight choreography (were) amazing.” She emphasizes, “The comedy was well-timed, and the soundtrack was phenomenal as well as the visual effects.” 

     Junior Sierra Weaver agrees, “I thought it was a really good representation of what a Marvel movie is […] this movie was more on the funny side rather than the serious side which I liked a lot.” Weaver adds, “(the film) also had a bunch of new and old characters that were introduced into the movie really well.” 

      Eakes mentions, “I liked the incorporation of ties to other movies such as mentioning the events in Iron Man 3.” She adds, “Marvel always does a great job of interconnecting movies with separate stories.” Junior Domonic Franklin says “I think this is one of the best movies Marvel has released.” He adds, “I believe it combines the great fights of the older movies with better story and character building of the more recent movies.”   

     Weaver says she would rate the film an eight out of ten, “I don’t think I’d consider it a favorite […] It would definitely be close to a favorite though.” Similarly, Franklin rates the film a seven or eight out of ten, “In my opinion, nothing tops the original three Iron Man movies.” Eakes says that this movie is “definitely a new favorite because I like it so much […] I would rate it a nine (out of ten). I enjoyed it a lot and thought it was a great movie overall.”