A Day At The Movies: Kung Fu Panda 4

 

Hello everyone, it's been quite a while since we've had a proper movie review on this blog hasn't it? To get back into the swing of things let's take a look at the newest offering of Dreamworks Animation: "Kung Fu Panda 4". Now this franchise is bar none my favorite from Dreamworks. Yes even more so than "How To Train Your Dragon". "Kung Fu Panda" boasts charming characters, moving storytelling, and of course some of the best fight scenes ever seen in an animated film, if not THE best. So imagine my surprise when I found out that there was going to be a fourth installment to the franchise, especially when it seemed like the third film wrapped things up perfectly. 

Just like a certain other franchise.

In Po's fourth outing, Shifu informs him that his time as the dragon warrior is coming to an end as he now has to take up Oogway's old position as spiritual leader of the valley of peace. Naturally Po is hesitant to give up being the dragon warrior. But things start to heat up when a shapeshifting sorceress named The Chameleon (voiced by Viola Davis) starts to make her move on trying to take over China. And she's quite possibly the most dangerous enemy Po has to fight to date as she has the ability to summon and turn into enemies that Po has faced in the past, including Tai Lung. With the help of a thieving Fox named Zhen (voiced by Awkwafina), Po now has to embark on a new journey all the while learning that while change might be intimidating it doesn't mean that it's bad. So is this new chapter in Po's journey filled with as much awesomeness as the previous three movies or has the Panda overstayed his welcome? Let's find out.

The Good

First and foremost the animation of this movie is still as beautiful as previous entries. As I've stated before, the Kung Fu Panda movies have some of the most impressive fight scenes of any animated film and its obvious the animators haven't lost their touch from the moment you first see Po doing battle with a stingray. Not to mention that Po has gotten an impressive upgrade to his skillset in the form of a chi dragon blast from the staff that Oogway gave him at the end of the third film. And the fight animation on the new characters is no slouch as well, the standout out being the new villain Chameleon as she quickly changes form to try and throw Po off his game.

As for the characters, they remain as charming as ever. Jack Black still shines as the titular Kung Fu Panda himself and it is interesting to see Po try and adjust to this big change in his life as he moves up to the position of spiritual leader along with having a mentor/mentee relationship with the new character Zhen. Their relationship is the backbone for this movie and the two of them bounce off each other very well. Also the relationship between Po's two fathers makes for some great laughs as well. Unfortunately this is where the positives for the movies end, because this movie has some very big flaws.

The Bad

Hoo boy, this movie has a lot of issues. The biggest one by far is the villain. Viola Davis brings her A-game to her vocal performance of the Chameleon but unfortunately it can't make up for the sub par writing of this character. The one thing that kills this villain for me is her motivation for being evil to begin with. The reason why she does what she does is because she was turned away from learning kung fu for being "too small". Yes in a world where some animals that are considered masters include a mantis and a chicken of all things, Chameleon was turned away for being "too small". 

Not to mention that the Chameleon doesn't even feel as threatening as previous villains in the franchise. We saw Tai Lung kill every guard in the prison that was holding him in addition to beating every character save for Po within an inch of their life. We saw Lord Shen commit a genocide against pandas, and we saw Kai collect peoples chi one by one. Meanwhile the worst thing we see Chameleon do is, push someone down a flight of stairs. Yeah that sounds bad at first but considering we saw characters fall from great heights and survive in this franchise before, a flight of stairs seems rather tame.

And man this movie really suffers from the absence or underutilization of certain characters leading to a lot of missed opportunities. For one thing, the furious five don't even make an appearance until the credits, and apparently this was because Dreamworks wanted to cut costs because getting their actors back for this one would've been too pricey. But the thing is they've been a major part of Po's journey from the beginning. Yes they may have disliked Po at first but they grew to be his closest friends after he proved himself as the dragon warrior (Tigress especially) and without them a piece of the franchises heart just felt missing to me. 

But the characters that were underutilized the most to me were the returning villains. You all know from the previews that Tai Lung returns in this film, but in the film proper he doesn't show up until the third act of the film and as a result he doesn't have as much screen time as I hoped he would. So if you had any hope of him reconciling with Shifu or going through a redemption arc you are gonna be sorely disappointed. And you'll be extra dissatisfied if you're a fan of Lord Shen or Kai as they don't even get a single line of dialogue. 

Which brings me to another thing, why the hell is Kai even here? He's a spirit warrior and Po destroyed him at the end of the third film. Usually in fiction if your spirit gets destroyed then that's it. You're 100% gone and there's no possible way for you to come back, so how the heck was Chameleon able to summon him from the spirit realm? Plot hole much? Ugh.

Conclusion

Overall Kung Fu Panda is a decent film on its own. But when compared to the previous films in the franchise this is bar none the weakest entry, bogged down by its weak villain and absence or underutilization of key characters. It's not a terrible film by any means and it still retains the charm and humor that the franchise is known for. I hope the next one will be an improvement but the drop in quality shows why sometimes it's best to let a trilogy stay a trilogy.

Final Rating: 6.8/10