Kung fu Panda 4 review. · 3:54am March 12th
Hey guys, i had just gotten done seeing Kung fu Panda 4 this weekend, and i was planning on reviewing it sometime this week, so for those who are curious to see this, i'll say that this review will have spoilers, so if you haven't watched it yet, i recommend seeing it first, i'll discuss the stuff i liked, the problems i had, and what could've been done more with it, hope you enjoy it.
Alright, let's start things off, the movie's release was strange to say the least, it's announcement last year was surprising, but a little welcome as after Puss in Boots 2, everyone was hoping this movie would carry on what it had, with it's animation and story, it felt like a perfect match for this franchise. But when the first trailer finally dropped 2 months ago, i started to feel skeptical on seeing it, while the premise of Po having to give up the title that was forced onto him which is something he values greatly, and learns to let go sounds interesting on paper, the trailer wasn't showing much from it, and it's lack of marketing was worrying until last month.
And then there was the big thing, bringing back the original 3 villains from the previous movies, while i thought that sounded cool at first, seeing how people like Tai Lung would interact with Kai after he supposedly took his Chi too along with Shen's, it would've made an interesting villain dynamic. But when we all heard this new villain the Chameleon was able to turn into those previous villain's, my worries started to become more apparent, and seeing this movie fully, i was honestly disappointed with it.
Don't get me wrong, i do like this movie, Po is always charming and fun to follow, i did like Zhen and she bounced off Po well, and the animation and music was awesome, Jack Black's version of Baby One More Time was fire! And i do recommend this movie for those who want more Kung fu Panda, but while this movie is fun and can be enjoyed on it's own, coming after the past movies, it was honestly a letdown for me.
I am going to go into multiple points of my problems with it to show my problems, i know this may sound more like a rant then a review, but this is one of the first times i've reviewed a movie, so i hope it doesn't feel too weird.
1: The Chameleon is clearly the weakest villain in the franchise, in terms of character development, and motivation. Her ability's sound cool on paper with shapeshifting into other villains, but she only briefly uses them during scenes she has with other people, and here's another problem i have with her, she isn't very threatening as a villain. The only partially scary thing she does in this movie, was push someone off some stairs after turning into an elephant, i'm like.. Shifu did that thing way better back in the first movie, it didn't feel that scary as it was intended to be. And to add more problems, she doesn't have any personal ties to any of the characters, not to Po, the 5, Shifu, or even Zhen, she didn't feel threatening because of how little she interreacted with the heroes, and didn't have any personal ties to them unlike the previous villains did. She barely got to do things because she didn't have time to show her powers.
2: And here's the next major problem i had, the pacing. This movie is only 1 hour and 20 minutes long, which is a huge problem for the movie. It makes a lot of the scenes in this movie move by so fast and it barely gave characters time to develop or interact, i felt like i was half an hour in only by the 15 minute mark, because of how awful it's pacing was. I do not know why it was this short, if the movie was 30 minutes longer, that would've helped things greatly for the pacing and characters, it was just too short to really get invested into. I felt like if it was longer that would've helped with all these problems honestly,
3: The 3 previous villains: This is what a lot can agree with as the most missed potential in the movie, we all love these guys for many reasons, Tai Lung and Shen both have great backstory's, and their dynamics with Po and Shifu was some of the most dramatic parts in the franchise, Shen was truly evil and did so much more then Tai Lung did, while Tai Lung only wanted the scroll after being told he was not the Dragon Warrior, after years of training he put into his life, Shen straight committed genocide most of the panda species, and killed Master Rhino in the first scene we see his weapon. Kai may have been weaker in terms of a character in the 3rd movie, but he did feel threatening, and was fun to watch thanks to J.K. Simmon's voice acting, who was perfect for the role. And when they came back in the movie, Tai lung was only the real person to speak, while Shen and Kai didn't speak at all, and they were only seen very briefly, making their appearances not as impactful and cool as many were hoping.
4: Let's discuss the new character, Zhen. While i do like her for what we got, she was fun to see interact with Po, Aquafina did a nice job in her role, and she and Po were fun to see play off with, she was nice to see, and i'm glad they added her in the franchise. But she barely has much to herself as a character, we barely know what her backstory is, why she's a thief, or even why she went to steal stuff from the Jade Palace, she didn't get enough attention to really show herself as a character, and i think that was missed potential. What if she had a personal connection to Chameleon in away? She didn't have much beef with her in my opinion, and i thought the movie would at least make Zhen and the Chameleon, have a personal struggle that made us want to see her defeat her.
What if the Chameleon killed Zhen's own parents like Shen did with Po's mom? That would've given a personal reason for us to want to see them take her down, and it would give Zhen something to relate to with Po, who overcame that trauma in the second movie, and she uses being a thief to cope with her grief, and try and push past it, but it never worked. And if Po was meant to give away the Dragon Warrior title, interactions like this would've helped so much more with how she is as a person to make her earning it feel strong and impactful, and imagine what her interactions could've been like with the Furious 5.
5: Speaking of which, the Furious 5. Out of all the problems in the movie, this one was one i was the most frustrated with, it was huge missed potential to have them not be here, if they went with Po to stop the Chameleon, fight against the other bad guys Po fought, maybe even letting Tai Lung redeem himself like so many people wanted with this movie, that would've been awesome. Seeing Zhen play off the 5, have them teach her what it means to be a warrior, and slowly having her become less of a thief, and more of a snarky but fun friend for them to interact with. The 5 was important to Po in the first 2 movies, because the way he interacted with them, helped Po grow more and help him prove why he's the Dragon Warrior. I would've loved to see if they helped Zhen grow more as a person, and become a found family to her.
6: My final problem with the film, Po himself. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying Po was bad as a character here, he's always a fun person to see and there's no way we can ever not like him. But the arc he was supposed to go to about giving up the Dragon Warrior title, was very subtle, because of this movie's runtime and bad pacing, we never got enough time for Po to struggle giving it up, having him learn to give up the title he's held onto dearly for so long, and become Spiritual Leader is a good idea, but again, the pacing didn't give nearly enough time for Po to grow past his title, and become the next Spiritual Leader. If the movie was taken seriously, focused less on the comedy, and more on the action and character depth, it would've made things far better. It honestly feels like Po doesn't have much more to grow from after overcoming all his struggles, and it made him not feel that strong as a character like in the previous movies, i just hope they don't make him repeat his arcs in the next movies.
So, that's most of my problems here, i have other ones too. Like i think the focus on comedy, rather then action and interactions is one of this movie's problems, the first 2 movies struck a great balance between them, but the comedy got in the way of the important stuff, and i think the next movie's need to lean away from that. This movie was made by the director of the Trolls movies, Mike Mitchell. and i thought he was not the best choice for this franchise. He's good at other stuff, but when it comes to Kung fu panda, he did not suit the director role that well, and the reason it was comedy focused was probably for how he envisioned it, which is what a lot of people had trouble with. If the series does continue, i hope they get the previous directors for 2 or 1 to come back, because i honestly can't see him handling the next movies well if he comes back.
While this movie is a fun time, it is easily weaker then the 3rd movie for me, i do like this movie, but if the movie focused on the characters and interactions more, had at least 30 more minutes and gave the villains and 5 actual screen time to add more fun stuff to the movie, it would've been a lot better. I can see why some people may like this more then the 3rd movie, i do not have any problems with their opinions, it's their thoughts and i respect it. But for me, this movie was the definition of missed potential, it could've been so much more if things were handled more carefully. While this movie is good and i do recommend it, i just hope the complaints will be addressed in the future, and the next ones do better, for me, this movie is a 7/10, it's good, but had the potential to be so much more.
With all these problems addressed, i'm gonna be making a lot of changes when i get to it in my own story of Kung fu Panda, as i think i can fix them with tweaks, and make it like how people wanted, feel free to give me suggestions for it, and what i can do to help it be better.
In conclusion, i think we all agree that Dreamworks needs to try harder, while they're always inconsistent with their quality, and always experiment, after Puss in Boots 2 and The Bad Guys, it gave people hope that they would start making bangers each year, but after Ruby Gilman, and other ones like Orian and the Dark, it started to become more apparent it may have been a one time thing. And don't even get me started on what they did to Megamind, 0/10 for that dumpster fire of a sequel! This is showing the Dreamworks is still the same, and in my opinion, they need to try harder after this, because they can really make amazing things, and amaze all of us when done right, i have really high hopes for their next movie The Wild Robot, it looks really amazing. Dreamworks is just a company that can make something good or bad, and they need to steer away from that, and make good movies constantly, because if they actually put effort into stuff that sounds silly, they can make something truly amazing. I just hope soon they listen to the complaints, and become what people truly see them as, something that can be truly great.
Always, i hope you all liked this review, sorry if i said that i had more problems with the movie, or it felt like a rant, but again, this was one of the first reviews i've ever done. I hope this was good to some of you, and i apologize to those who may not agree to this, if you like this movie, i have no problems at all. I've come a long way from my first story, and with stuff like this, i hope it helps me grow more as a writer, this movie was a good time, but i just hope there's more in the next ones. Thank you all so much for reading this, and feel free to give me your thoughts too, and what i can do to make it better!
Does this mean that you might alter the events of this movie when you reach it in Dragon’s Destiny?
Also, here’s a link to a Tweet about the troubled production behind the scenes:
https://x.com/DespicableOutof/status/1767223357554950275?s=20
OK look I admit, it would’ve been great if they brought in the voice cast of the five, Kai and Shen, and gave them more screen time, but one has to realize that if they did, it would’ve cost more, and they wanted to introduce new characters.
Also cut them a little slack I mean it’s been eight years since they’ve done kung fu panda.
And who knows maybe they might make an extended cut of kung fu panda 4 to fix the pacing.
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Perhaps Kung Fu Panda 5 will not only have Gary Oldman reprise Shen, but also Randall Duk Kim come back as Oogway (since they haven't appeared together in the franchise).