Liu and Awkwafina have a delicate, delicious chemistry that raises this picture above the pack.

— Chris Knight reviews Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,

Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

With its eight-word title making it the longest Marvel moniker to date, Shangchi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ultimately fails to deliver on its titular promise. Sure, we get a whole lot of Shang-chi, played by Canadian actor Simu Liu of Kim’s Convenience. But if you want to know “the legend of the 10 rings” or what kind of power they possess, you won’t find much enlightenment here.

Then again, perhaps that level of knowledge is fit to reside only with the comic book aficionados who I refer to as “nerds” in only the most hushed and respectful tones. Suffice to say that the deca-bracelet worn and wielded by evil patriarch Xu Wenwu (Tony Chiu-wai Leung) provides a layer of immortality (Xu is more than a thousand years old but doesn’t look a day over 60) and an extreme boost to one’s natural fighting prowess.

What it can’t do is deflect the course of true love. As we learn in a decently paced backstory, Xu once met and fell in love with Jiang Li, guardian of a mystical realm called Ta Lo. Why she in turn fell in love with him, a confirmed megalomaniac, is never explained, but they produced two children: Shang-chi and Xialing (Meng’er Zhang). After their mother died and their father became obsessed with bringing her back from the hereafter, the barely adult children fled their home, with Shang-chi changing his name to Shaun and finding work as a hotel parking attendant in San Francisco.

There’s more than a touch of Star Wars in the story of an evil dad and his two on-the-run children, one of whom has barely changed his name. As noted by Katy (Awkwafina), Shaun’s best friend and fellow valet, it’s not much of a stretch from Shang-chi to Shaun (pronounced SHONG-CHEE).

Liu and Awkwafina have a delicate, delicious chemistry that raises this picture above the pack. Maybe you go to Marvel movies for the muscle — there’s a wicked fight scene in the early going that mixes elements of Bullitt, Speed and Iron Man 2 — but you stay for the heart. And truth be told, some of the film’s special effects aren’t quite up to par. It’s as if director and co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton blew his FX budget on the movie’s many water effects (which are eye-poppingly good) and didn’t have quite enough left over to make the bus chase all it could be.

But the film lives in its quieter moments, many of them delivered by a voice from the past. It would be a spoiler to reveal who he is. If the inevitable sequel has the same cast, characters and chemistry, I’ll be there.

∏∏∏½