Directed By Mike Mitchell and Stephanie Stine

Starring – Jack Black, Awkwafina, Viola Davis

The Plot – Po (Black) is gearing up to become the spiritual leader of his Valley of Peace, but also needs someone to take his place as Dragon Warrior. As such, he will train a new kung fu practitioner for the spot and will encounter a villain called the Chameleon (Davis) who conjures villains from the past.

Rated PG for martial arts action/mild violence, scary images and some mild rude humor.

KUNG FU PANDA 4 | Official Trailer (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

After four films spanning sixteen years of memories in the minds of its audience, this franchise still finds ways of capably justifying its existence, this time with Po’s arc coming full circle towards picking a pupil of his own to take over the role of Dragon Warrior which he earned during its initial chapter. This allows audiences to take in the complete picture in the extent of his journey, seeing him now as the capable defender in contrast to the bumbling buffoon that he once was when chosen by Oogway, but beyond that offers a fitting conclusion to the world and characters we’ve come to adore and appreciate, especially in the balancing respect to material that refreshingly offers something equally appealing for both sides of the audience, child and parents, who indulge upon it. As someone who loved “Kung Fu Panda 3”, but ultimately saw it as lacking finality to the trilogy, I can appreciate the emphasis in setting the movements to motion for a world that will exist far beyond the films, and while I unfortunately feel that the plot fell by the wayside of predictable writing, with a reveal that could truly only go one way, I’m always a sucker for movies and sporting events that pass the torch, especially with a third act climax that bottles continuity while appreciating the magnitude of the various enemies that Po has defeated along the way. Aside from the potential in plot, the animated renderings are just as thoroughly defined and breathtaking as ever, despite the film’s budget (85 million) being its cheapest of the entire franchise. What’s special here is not only how the character definitions vibrantly adorn something tangibly three-dimensional in the outline of their constructs, but also how Mitchell and Stine use the animation to craft admiration towards kung-fu films of yesterday, with split screens, side scrolling transitions, and winding camera movements supplanting the single most ambitious cinematography that this franchise has capably conjured to date. On top of it, the fight sequences are once more the series’ strongsuit, as simultaneously fun and intense action set pieces invoking a sense of imaginative indulgences conjure all of the urgency and vulnerabilities not typically instilled to animated kids movies, all with ample amounts of violence that never feels silly or downright stupid in the context of varying conflicts with so many stakes and circumstances on the line for its people. Then there’s Jack Black, who supplants to Poe what Robert Downey Jr did to Iron Man, in that nobody could or ever should play this character again, especially with Black’s infectious charisma, which hasn’t withered in four films throughout this franchise. Black’s personality seamlessly lends itself to the exaggerated emphasis of animated renderings, complete with vocal torquing and evolving volume levels that never questions his commitment nor passion for the project. Black once more brings to life all of the warmth and innocence of the character that we’ve come to appreciate, but this time with a tangible confidence factor that serves as the full-fledged evolution of his time as the Dragon Master, and one that I’m sad to see go, if in fact this is the final film of the franchise, as frequently touted. Black is opposed antagonistically by Davis, who as one of the film’s many newcomers to the proceedings, elicits a memorable turn while unleashing the vitriolic angst and deplorable consistency that Amanda Waller could’ve only dreamed of, in the D.C Extended Universe. Davis’ unrestrained deliveries and intimidation factors are quite remarkable considering her character is illustrated as one quarter of the size as Black’s Po, but what the character lacks in size, she more than makes up for in maniacal mayhem, proving once more that there is no genre or universe in which Viola Davis isn’t the gravity that keeps matters in orbit. Lastly, like its predecessors, “Kung Fu Panda 4” also refuses to overstay its welcome, clocking in firmly at 90 mostly entertaining minutes that constantly keeps the story moving and digestable to audiences lacking commitment. As to where kids movies sometimes take a twenty minute idea and stretch it unrealistically to fit a feature length film, the script here has plenty of arcs to capably bounce off of, and with an untimely twist and arrivals of various familiar faces in the franchise, it maintains that ability to continuously keep its audience guessing while invested, proving the mark of any effective sequel.

NEGATIVES

As previously indicated, not everything with the experience goes accordingly, especially in the aspects of saving budgetary costs with cutting so many memorable names and characters that have made this such an iconic franchise. If you haven’t already guessed by their absence in the trailers, The Furious Five are conspicuous by their disappointing absence, reduced to a single solitary throwaway scene to explain their outworld missions, as well as a mid-credits training montage serving as the proverbial slap across the face to anyone in the audience with expectations of seeing them and their family dynamic with Po grow further once more. I’m fine if the screenwriters couldn’t find a meaningful way of writing them into the script, but to replace it with Awkwafina’s Zhen, a character we’re meeting for the first time, and then expect the same results emotionally with an arc between her an Po, is a monumental failure, and one that comes across in Awkwafina’s various deliveries throughout the engagement. To be honest, I myself am not an Awkwafina hater, as I feel she is an emotionally gifted dramatic actress when she wants to be, but her brand of comedy here involving dry deliveries and abrasive sarcasm feels far more distracting than synthetic to the integrity of the material and tone, creating an unintentional disconnect from her character that costs the pay-off dearly, all the while surmizing another compromising character from her that surely won’t change anyone’s opinion about her any time soon. To be fair, Awkwafina isn’t even the only problem here, as the material itself lacks comedic consistency in the depth of the material, especially in its untimely sacrifice upon an overtly dramatic second half to the film that hinders any possibility of its improvement. During the first act of the movie, I found myself pleased by gags that were effectively delivering more than not, but the set-ups themselves grow all the more detectable and lazy by its second act, and soon we’re sacrificing the pungency in personality from a franchise that comedically stood out from any other animated property, especially with so many gifted comedians assembled to further emphasize their various deliveries. Finally, the script itself falls suspect to redundancy and derivative unoriginality as a result of reheated leftovers from previous installments that robbed it of finding a unique voice of its own. This goes far beyond the initial set-up of looking for another Dragon Warrior (Part One), with many obvious parallels between Po and Zhen, but also includes The Chameleon robbing other warriors of their kung-fu powers (Part Three), as well as Po and Zhen assembling an army of everyday citizens to fight back against the onslaught (Also Part Three). This isn’t all of them, but it’s all that I can capably mention without spoiling more about the film, and while Kung-Fu Panda’s franchise is all about homaging classic Kung-Fu movies and aspects about their various presentations, the intellectual theft here has the film veering as close to a remake or reimagining as possible, deeming it the obvious weakest installment of a franchise that otherwise is consistently great.

OVERALL
“Kung-Fu Panda 4” is an obvious decline in quality from previous installments but is nonetheless a visually stunning and energetically enacted final chapter that solidifies closure to the characters in ways they definitely deserve. Black further cements his larger-than-life legacy to the irreplaceable impact he lends Po, and while he and the movie are emphatically missing the charms of a surrounding ensemble that helped take this franchise to immortality, this panda continues to roll with the punches, delivering on the family friendly appeal that doesn’t fall to boredom, despite treading on the redundancies of familiar territory.

My Grade: 6/10 or C+