Kung Fu Panda 4 is a movie that exists

and I hope it's just the beginning of a new creative Renaissance for DreamWorks again don't up Kung Fu Panda 4 they found a way to [ __ ] it up oh oh dear Kung Fu Panda 4 has been one of the most bizarre releases in recent memory starting of course with its relative lack of marketing that really baffled me and all the other Kung Fu Panda heads out there like surely DreamWorks would want to Market a new installment in one of their most popular franchise of all time and to make matters worse the one major trailer we got for it did not exactly paint a very flattering picture it looked like a typical generic Kung Fu Panda movie that didn't really do anything new or interesting like the other ones did I wasn't particularly excited but I figured I'd go in with an open mind and maybe it would surprise me like the original trilogy and you know what it did surprise me it's even worse than I thought don't get me wrong it's not a terrible movie or anything it's a breath of fresh air compared to Mega m versus the Doom Syndicate which I am working on a very large review of for later this month but like having a colonoscopy done is a breath of fresh air compared to mega mind versus the Doom Syndicate that isn't saying anything nowah when I say this movie didn't live up to my already not super high expectations I only mean that just barely I expected something decent but instead I got something that actually kind of pissed me off with its mediocrity which is crazy because there really isn't much to talk about here it just doesn't really feel like a movie owed in large part to the atrocious pacing and complete lack of any tension or Stakes po needs to defeat the chameleon who is Far and Away the worst villain in the Kung Fu Panda series The unanimously agreed upon previous holder of that Crown Kai was at least threatening and had the sickest theme song of all time he made up for his relatively weak Motivation by easily dispatching every Kung Fu Master and serving as a worthy powerful foe the chameleon does the same thing except not until the Final Act of the film so for the first hour the most evil action she commits on screen is pushing someone down the stairs oh no she's so scary you guys and the whole taking the old villain's Powers thing is so weightless it doesn't feel nearly as earned it just happens and most of the villains don't even talk so it doesn't even feel like those are the real actual characters the chameleon should be the deadliest fo in the series and like I guess her final fight was kind of cool but it really just is that one fight and nothing else she has no intimidating presence throughout most of the movie Viola Davis is a great actress but she just doesn't work for this character at all I never found her voice intimidating and her motivation is so stupid I won't get into it cuz it's a spoiler I guess but basically her entire motivation is completely negated by the existence of mantis and Viper did the writers just forget those character characters exist the answer is yes by the way the Furious 5 don't appear in the bulk of this probably because they didn't want to pay the voice actors same with those aformentioned villains it just makes this installment feel so cheap like the Kung Fu Panda Universe honestly feels smaller and more limited after this movie I don't know how you manage that most of the movie is po [ __ ] around with Aquafina is she annoying in this movie in the same vein as Rya or that scuttlebutt [ __ ] no not really but she's not good either this is just another generic and charmless performance from her and I was never able to see her as a character I just heard Aquafina the entire time again just because she wasn't actively obnoxious and unfunny that doesn't mean it was a good performance I also never really bought that she and po were becoming friends their chemistry was absolutely nothing special and hailes in comparison to what he has with Tigress they even do a worse version of the scene where Tigress hugs Poe in the second movie it made me feel nothing here oh wait I'm sorry who's Tigress never heard of her the action was decent I suppose and there were a lot of cool visual florishes here and there plus while not a lot of the jokes worked for me some of them definitely did especially the scene where Mr ping and Lee leave the tavern that was pretty funny speaking of which I'm going to be honest I would have liked this movie a lot more if it was just Mr ping and Lee doing a buddy Adventure their scenes are genuinely really charming and probably my favorites in the whole film as soon as it cut away from them back to the PO Aquafina stuff I was like oh great the main plot is back yippee po himself is the same as ever pretty charming and whatnot but I just feel like his character has been so stagnant for a while now it feels like he really stopped growing as a person after the second film and now he's just kind of hanging out and saying scoo and I don't know he's still Charming but not really interesting the film is about him relinquishing the title of Dragon Warrior and becoming spiritual leader which I don't understand and I thought there was only one Dragon Warrior but maybe I don't understand the lore that well I don't know but the thing is nothing really comes of Po trying to be a spiritual leader there's a couple scenes where he tries to avoid a conflict just by talking but in one of them it doesn't work and he just resorts to fighting like he always does so it doesn't really feel like a major change is taking place for his character aside from that he attempts to give Sage wisdom sometimes and messes it up that is pretty much the extent of Po trying to be a spiritual leader in this movie it barely felt different from he acted in the third one where he was trying to be a teacher what I'm trying to say is that this film adds nothing to the Kung Fu Panda universe and it just kind of feels like a waste of time I've noticed a lot of reviews saying yeah this definitely didn't feel like an essential or impactful part of the story but it was still enjoyable I could definitely see where they're coming from but I don't know I take this series a lot more seriously than the average Joe Schmo because well the first two movies really took themselves seriously this isn't really a franchise you can just do a quirky meaningless little Adventure in and say okay this is the next Mainline installment in the series everything about Kung Fu Panda 4 feels like a plotline you'd see in a TV show and this movie didn't necessarily have to be really dramatic or impactful for me to like it if it told a kind of fun story with funny moments and really good action I'd probably say it's decent and worth being a part of the Saga but I'm sorry that is not what I thought of this it just kind of feels like Kung Fu Panda on autopilot the action was mostly just fine the comedy was mostly just fine at best I guess I can say it's a watchable enough movie but at worst I think it kind of misunderstands the previous films and their characters there's a scene late in this film that is just complete [ __ ] and if you see the movie I think you'll know which one I'm talking about overall I just don't think this was a film that needed to be made it's not a complete betrayal of Kung Fu Panda's a franchise it doesn't ruin it or anything but like like I said earlier I just think it makes the universe feel so much smaller and I don't understand why this movie had to be like this because I think we all kind of looked at Puss and Boots The Last Wish and subconsciously hoped that this would be the style of the next Kung Fu Panda both in terms of the animation and the storytelling it just made perfect sense right Kung Fu Panda already had some of the sickest fight scenes and most dramatic storytelling in dreamworks's entire catalog so pairing it with the Last Wish art style see like a match made in heaven it really makes what we got all the more baffling I'm not going to hold this against the movie cuz I think it would be kind of petty to judge it by those standards but I thought it was worth mentioning instead of a true Banger that goes toe-to-toe with those excellent original two entries we get what is pretty unanimously considered the weakest film in the entire series at least from the reactions I've read so far and I doubt that sentiment will change over time unless Kung Fu Panda 5 is somehow even weaker speaking of the number five uh that's the score we got here five out of 10 anyway at least it's not Mega M too bad back to the trenches of working on that video I go good night Valley Of [Music] Peace [Applause] oh

Channel: Schaffrillas Productions

Views: 1,358,711

Keywords: Schaffrillas Productions, Po, Kung Fu Panda, Kung Fu Panda 4, Jack Black

Id: ulImIDp-itc

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2024