Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 17, 2021

Disney's march towards making sure every Marvel character headlines a movie (and turns millions in profits) continues with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The title character finds his origins in the 1973 debut comic and makes the transition to the big screen in 2021 as the latest MCU entry (at least the latest to land on Blu-ray; the MCU keeps a-chuggin' with Eternals already in theaters). And, it's a good one. The film shows command of the entertainment medium, offering a robust hybrid of intimate characterization and superbly developed action. While there's nothing necessarily "new" in the movie in terms of how it goes about its business, it at least builds a fully enjoyable film that should satisfy both hardcore MCU vets who have seen every film multiple times or relative newcomers seeking an escape into a high grade movie experience.

San Francisco valets Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) are about to have their lives turned upside down. An everyday bus ride turns deadly when the pair are suddenly attacked by a brute of a man and several henchmen. Shang-Chi, to Katy's surprise, dispatches the attackers, who are affiliated with the organization known as The Ten Rings, with a resplendent display of martial arts mastery. He reveals his true history, raised by his father Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) and trained in the art of assassination. Shang-Chi, with Katy at his side, tracks down his sister Xu Xialing (Meng'er Zhang) and the three find themselves hurtling towards a desperate battle against Shang-Chi's own father with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Shang-Chi doesn't bring anything new to the MCU table, at least in terms of its aesthetics; it offers a suite of familiar special effects and core choreography styles that see it seamlessly mesh into the larger Marvel movie world atop which it stands (24 films below it, to be exact, and surely soon to be in the center of a much larger stack). The danger is that the film would lack identity by essentially building up through a very familiar string of narrative events and action elements, but because of strongly defined characters and excellent performances, the film, like so many of its MCU brethren, overcomes whatever familiarity burdens might be in play. The result is hardly the best film in the larger MCU franchise but a very agreeable one, a picture with everything in order from the top-down. That's to be expected at this budget and within this universe, but it's always nice to have that confirmation, anyway, and find the film to be fully engaged and committed to every last detail morsel. And by its core story, its subtle and overt tentacle extensions to the rest of the universe, and its mid credits scene (which is not to be missed!) Shang-Chi indeed fully engages with the total world around it.

Even within a core story arc familiarity the film proves engaging for its home run character depth and interactions (particularly the father-son relationship) and action scenes. Simu Liu and Tony Leung are terrific in their shared time on screen together; the actors embody not just core characteristics but a soulful connection that is vital to transform the story from words on a page into living, breathing characters whose confrontations are defined by so much more than crude actions and dialogue. That both actors can dig so deeply in one another's presence, and away, is testament to both their skills as actors and the excellent writing building them up. Shang-Chi doesn't cut corners in character development, and these actors deliver titanic performances that ground it all in the human soul. The action is first-rate, too, particularly a trendsetting early bus battle that must be ranked towards the top of MCU action. The finale, while reminiscent of something out of Black Panther, makes for a fitting conclusion to a very good film.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings arrives on the UHD format with a 2160p/HDR presentation. This image offers a fairly standard suite of upgrades compared to the Blu-ray, itself a very capable picture but not quite as tight and colorfully vivid as this. The UHD resolution allows for a sharper, crisper, cleaner looking image overall. Audiences may not notice extreme improvements to sharpness, but moderate improvements are in evidence throughout. Essentials like faces and clothes enjoy a clear step forward for clarity and intimacy while environments are rendered sharper and more precise, even at distance. The 2160p resolution certainly seems to bring out the best the image has to offer, and the gains, while not monumental, certainly push this one to the head of the class for Shang-Chi home consumption. Likewise the HDR color grading improves upon a very good SDR Blu-ray. Subtitles and other whites leap off the screen with more luminous and bright intensity while blacks are deeper and more pure without swallowing surrounding detail. The palette is, overall, more vivid and bright, with deeper colors that pop particularly in brightly lit daytime scenes (the gang's arrival at Ta Lo); darker shots mostly just look darker (a fight on scaffolding midway through the movie). But the extreme vibrance and intense brightness breathe extra life into the image, seeing it excel beyond the Blu-ray. As with the Blu-ray, noise is minimal to nonexistent here and there are no encode issues to report. This may not be a UHD to remember, but it's a well worthwhile upgrade and clearly the definitive home video presentation of the film.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Disney brings Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to the UHD format with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack (the Blu-ray includes a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless track as its main presentation). This one is a modest improvement over the flat and hushed Blu-ray track. It's not quite so reserved and tame for volume or bass but both are still lacking, just not quite so seriously as the Blu-ray. While the low end fails to move the needle, the track is very expressive in terms of its surround usage and, with the Atmos speakers in play, spatial engagement. This is clearly a fuller track, more immersive and finessed. Never will listeners wish for more more swirling action or precisely localized sound elements during combat or aggressively positioned music as Joel P. West's score soars through the listening area. As surround and stage engagement go, this is an exceptionally large and successfully engaging presentation. Lighter ambient effects are well positioned, too, and dialogue is consistently clear, center focused, and well prioritized for the duration. If this one had the bass to back it up, it would be a great track. As it is, it's mostly more of the same from Disney.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' UHD disc houses no supplements, but the bundled Blu-ray, which is identical to the standalone and concurrently released disc houses all supplements. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• Building a Legacy (1080p, 8:53): Looking at the lack of progressive social content in source comics from the 1970s, the importance of having an Asian Marvel superhero, physical training, building key action sequences, shooting locations, digital creature creations, costume design and construction, and more.
• Family Ties (1080p, 7:28): Exploring core story details, The Mandarin's and The Ten Rings' places in the film and history in the MCU, character motivations and progression, Tony Leung's work and presence in the film, and the father-son relationship depicted in the film.
• Gag Reel (1080p, 2:10): Humorous moments from the shoot.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 14:23 total runtime): Included are They're Waiting, Take a Shot, Apology, I'm Here, Pep Talk, Greatness, Escape Tunnel, Two Sons, Postcard, Just Friends, and Do It Yourself.
• Audio Commentary: Director Destin Daniel Cretton and Writer Dave Callaham explore the film in detail.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is likely to get lost in the shuffle at some point in the future when it's not the featured new release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, buried under the avalanche of various Iron Man and Captain America and Avengers films, which is a shame not just because there's a lot to like here but because the film is wonderfully emblematic of everything that makes the MCU so good. Disney's UHD delivers rock-solid video, less than ideal audio, and a decent collection of bonus content. Recommended.