Kung Fu Panda 4 Review

 

Kung Fu Panda 4 is a martial arts comedy movie. It's the sequel to Kung Fu Panda 3 thus making it the fourth installment of the franchise. It's produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. Kung Fu Panda 4 is written by Rebecca Huntley and directed by Mike Mitchell.

The story is, Po has been loving his life as being the Dragon Warrior, and feels like this is a good as it gets. Then Master Shifu gives Po a big surprise. He tells him that he must find his successor as he takes steps to become the Valley's spiritual leader. While going on this quest, he must first put a stop to a new villain called The Chameleon.

Initial Reaction

My initial thought was skepticism. Because despite having issues, Kung Fu Panda 3 did feel like a pretty good conclusion to the story. So I was wondering where they could possibly go from there.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

The mix bag is just the same as Kung Fu Panda 3, that being the villain, The Chameleon. Now I'll give credit for the fact that they didn't make her way too comedic like they did with General Kai. In matter of fact she does have a quite a few cool moments. What didn't do for me though was a lack of depth. Sure they gave her a pretty decent backstory, but they didn't dive into the factor enough. For the most part she just seems like a standard power hungry villain. Then there's the story. Now I do like the aspect of Po going from Dragon Warrior to having to be a spiritual leader. It's actually a great way to move his character forward. I also liked how that big change in his life scares because it's unfamiliar territory to him. That worked to because people do fear a big change in their life. Where it falls is it's very predictable in a lot of scenes.

Pros

Now for the good things. One of those being the humor. Sometimes I didn't laugh, but for a good nine times out of ten I was having a good time. Then there's the voice acting. Unsurprisingly Jack Black is amazing, and I'll be honest, I dreaded knowing Awkwafina was going to be in this. It's nothing personal against her, it's just sometimes she gets roles that make her very annoying. Just as Shang-Chi and the less said the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid the better. But then there are roles where she's actually pretty good in. Thankfully this isn't an annoying role.

Overall, I still liked Kung Fu Panda 4, but not as much as the previous films.

My final rating is, Okay.

That's all for now. Come back on Monday, Mar 18th, for my Look Back at review of 1989's Road House. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.