Kung Fu Panda 4

Going into "Kung Fu Panda 4" I was concerned. The 4th entry of a franchise after a solid trilogy is a very tricky thing. I am very much of the opinion that a film series should leave people wanting more. But I was not completely opposed to the idea of a 4th Kung Fu Panda movie. The 3rd movie didn't end things in such a way that no follow up was possible. The thing that made me nervous was the trailer and the casting of Awkwafina

Beyond the fact that Awkwafina is all over the place right now, whether it is "Angry Birds 2", "Little Mermaid", "Storks", "The Bad Guys", "IF", "Raya" or "Migration" she is everywhere right now. What's worse is that she plays the same role in every movie. It isn't like Jack Black, who plays his role of Bowser completely different from Po, Awkwafina just plays Awkwafina.

In general, Kung Fu Panda's celebrity casting has caught up to them. It is clear that they don't want to put out the money to get all their big-name actors to reprise their roles. At this point it comes across as cheap that the characters show up, but conveniently don't have anything to say. It feels less like the characters, and more like cardboard cutouts of the characters.

The villain is nothing that impressive. The shapeshifting mechanic is cool and fits in well with the story's theme. But the character never does anything that impressive with her power. Her big power movie to intimidate the audience is pushing a character down the stairs. Her endgame isn't that interesting, and her backstory doesn't add up with the world she's in. What do you mean she's too small? Mantis is smaller than she is and he's a member of the Furious Five.

There is a B-Plot going on with Po's two dads, voiced by James Hong and Bryan Cranston. And yes, it doesn't really add to the plot, but it some of the most entertaining parts of the movie. I could get a whole spinoff movie just following these two and I would be content.

The problems I have for this film really all come back to Awkwafina's character Zhen. She was annoying, her attempts at comedy fell flat. And the entire story she is nothing but a hinderance to Po. Why was she even brought along? She said it was to "help find the Chameleon" But the Chameleon wasn't even hidden. As soon as they get to the town its Po that points out where she is. Every action set piece leading up to the finale is caused because of Zhen. More trouble than she was worth does not begin to cover it.

I like the animation; I like Jack Black's cover of "Hit Me Baby One More Time". I liked some of the jokes, specifically from the boat captain. And I liked the themes that the movie teaches.

But beyond that, I came in thinking that this wouldn't live up to the previous entries, and Kung Fu Panda 4 didn't do anything to change my mind about it.

This movie did not respect the background of the previous ones or the development of the characters, everything is very predictable and basic. Comedy is getting worse and worse; even if I prefer the humor of the first two movies, the third managed to get some laughs out of me, this one didn't. I wish the directors understood that what made the first two films successful was how deep the story was and how well the characters were developed, something that was lost in this one. Yes, it's a movie for kids, but the previous ones were also and they still managed to touch on dark themes and be enjoyable for adults; I'm currently 22 years old and I never got tired of watching Kung Fu Panda 2, laughing, crying and getting emotional like when I was 11. But this one is just forgettable.

You can REALLY feel the writers and actors strike with this one. It wasnt *terrible,* but it was just really lame and a major step down from all the previous KFP movies. Yes, even the third one. Not as much of a step down as megamind 2 mind you, but its definitely there. Firstly they ditched a lot of the voice actors from the original series, and so what they did was they either shoehorned them out of the story with some lame excuse, or just not gave them lines and just had them appear silent. The emotional depth is there, but again, its just a step down from what we've grown to expect from kung fu panda. The movie has a lot of filler and pointless subplots, po is reduced to a whiny baby in the first 10 minutes of the movie, the pacing is off, and the villain, OH MAN the villain was weak. Again, not the worst thing in the world, but her motives were purely contradictory from things that were established in the movies universe, shes never portrayed as a real threat. (remember back in KFP 2 when it was stated that lord shen literally killed a king fu master early on? The worst thing the chameleon does in this movie is push a guy down a flight of stairs. Oh no.) the action was there i guess, it had some creative and somewhat exciting action scenes, the animation was pretty good overall, especially with the chameleons morphs (Probably just because there isnt an "animators strike" going on as well) its definitely kung fu panda, but it just feels like they forgot a couple ingredients for the stew, so to speak. It just ended up being a step down from what we were expecting. Not terrible, just disappointing.

The simple formula like the one used in Cars 3. If you want to introduce a successor then you have to nerf the MC or other villians. The makers had an opportunity to utilize all the previous villains but they missed it. They could have atleast give Po a good shining moment and they kind of missed it too. They could have made the main villain more influential like Tai lung or Shen.

Po is quite young to pass the torch and atleast they he should have a big moment before he could agree on doing it. They took about 9 years to make this movie and still felt rushed.

I THINK THE BIGGEST ISSUE WITH MOVIE WAS ITS LENGHT. They could have give more screen time to all the important characters.

Probably the weakest of the franchise. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun watching it. Four movies in, the charm is still there, and the chemistry between Po and Zhen were great. The charm might be there, but the emotion is missing. The villain was very weak and brought the movie down to me. What the first three were able to do were truly special with how they were able to bring humanity to the villains by connecting them to our heroes we love so much. That wasn't there for the Chameleon, but that being said. It's a new story, and it's time to let go of the past, don't worry it'll always be there.