On March 8, “Kung Fu Panda 4” made its way to the world’s theaters. As a child who grew up watching the “Kung Fu Panda” movie franchise religiously, I was very excited to hear that there would be a fourth movie added to the “Kung Fu Panda” movie franchise. Like all the movies before, The Dragon Warrior, Po, is a panda who fights villains to protect the Valley of Peace. The movie stars actors like Jack Black, Awkwafina, Viola Davis and many more. It is about a shape-shifting sorcerer who transforms into a different villain and tries to steal the Staff of Wisdom. After all these years of Black playing Po, he has not lost his touch. Despite this, the movie was a letdown, being my least favorite movie out of the “Kung Fu Panda” franchise.
This movie is by far the funniest out of the “Kung Fu Panda” movie franchise, but some of the jokes were very childish with some cheesy dialogue. It’s more of a kids’ movie than a family movie. For the movie having the lowest budget out of the entire movie franchise, the animations were still outstanding. The plot of this movie was not as exhilarating compared to the other three movies, but what really carried this film was Davis playing the villain. Her actions, dialogue and the way her voice would deepen helped bring her character to life. Awkwafina’s character, Zhen, is also amazing in this movie and grows on you as the film continues, the character fits the actress’ comedic personality. Even though Tai Lung, the villain in the first movie, had a small appearance in this movie, for the parts that he was in, his presence in those scenes was out of this world.
One of my biggest questions of this movie has to be, ‘where are the Furious Five?’ I knew that they weren’t going to have the biggest appearances in the film, but their appearances were less than expected. The side plot for the Furious Five was not necessary and they could have helped Po on his journey.
This movie lacked the essence of Po’s journey featured in the past three films. It also lacked the childish humor, funny remarks and all of the things that make the past movies so great. The “Kung Fu Panda” movies are truly one of Dreamworks’ best works of animation; a bad movie in such a long movie franchise was bound to happen.
This movie gets a 3/5 from me. To be honest, this movie was a bit of a letdown for the past three movies. It wasn’t a bad movie, but it just doesn’t live up to “Kung Fu Panda” hype. As a kid who grew up with the movies, it was just okay. I had a fun time watching the movie, but it wasn’t as enjoyable as the past films. However, the best part about this movie that made my day were the laughs. The jokes did help make this a memorable movie.
