RATING: 1.5 out of 5
Kung Fu Panda” trilogy of movies were a pillar of my childhood and many others. They taught me many important life lessons, such as not judging someone by their appearance or the value of dreaming big. However, the newest installment, “Kung Fu Panda 4,” falls remarkably short of the expectations set by its prequels, both in terms of characters and overall plot.
Released on March 8 and directed by Mike Mitchell, the story follows Po (Jack Black) and his quest to defeat the emerging shapeshifting sorceress, The Chameleon (Viola Davis). The plot is also driven by Po trying to find his successor to be the next Dragon Warrior, which introduces the new character of Zhen (Awkwafina) to the Kung Fu Panda universe.
While I was originally interested in the concept of having a Po solo movie without the group members of the Furious Five, the kung fu group Po grew up idolizing and fought alongside, I soon realized how boring the movie was without them. In the prior movies, the Furious Five, along with Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), pushed Po to develop as a character and defeat his opponents.
The only replacement for these characters is the newly introduced Zhen, who seems just thrown in. Her connection with Po feels too artificial, and their friendship at the end of the movie seems rushed and unpolished. In the duration of 94 minutes, Zhen goes from trying to steal from Po to leading him to The Chameleon, and then becomes his friend at the end of the movie. There are no critical moments where they bond, and they seem forced into connection for the sake of driving the plot along.
By far the biggest flaw of this movie is the main villain, The Chameleon. Whereas the other movies have some iconic and fleshed out villains such as Tai Lung (Ian McShane) in the original movie and Kai (J.K. Simmons) in the third movie, The Chameleon lacks the motivation to become a villain in the first place. In the original movie, Tai Lung’s motivation to cause destruction leads him to train his whole life to become the Dragon Warrior only to be denied the right, thus going after Po. Meanwhile, The Chameleon becomes a villain because she was not taught kung fu due to being too short. This motivation for becoming a villain is idiotic on so many levels, especially considering that members of the Furious Five include characters smaller than The Chameleon, like Viper (Lucy Liu) and Mantis (Seth Rogan). Not to mention, The Chameleon isn’t even intimidating as a villain. In the second movie, Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), the antagonist, causes genocide of the entire panda race just to stop a prophecy from coming true. In this new installment, the most evil thing The Chameleon does is push someone down a long flight of stairs.
To counteract her lack of kung fu, The Chameleon summons villains from the prior movies and steals their kung fu skills. While the call back to some of my favorite villains is nice, it doesn’t take away from the fact that instead of the much better villains present, The Chameleon is the primary antagonist in this movie.
Another strange aspect of the plot is that to steal the other masters’ kung fu, The Chameleon simply touches them to steal their strength in a matter of seconds, defeating characters Po spent an entire movie fighting. This basis for obtaining strength goes against all of the other prior villains, who actually train and are legendary warriors before they become evil, compared to The Chameleon who is just a simple crime boss.
The only redeeming factor of this movie is Po himself. Similar to all of the other movies, Black does an incredible job voice-acting for the character and capturing his kiddish tendencies. Po still has his humor, morals, and kung fu, which, along with interesting villains and world expansion, make the Kung Fu Panda universe what it is. By adding a lackluster villain and side character, this movie dilutes the standard that the other movies formed.
Watching this movie made me realize just how perfect the original trilogy of the “Kung Fu Panda” movies is, and how there was no need for another addition. I only recommend this movie if you just want to see Po on the big screen again, and even then, I warn you that the film doesn’t even really focus on Po, but instead the relationship between Po and Zhen.