It’s a bit of a year for animated sequels this year. Pixar are serving up Cars 2 this summer while Dreamworks have released Kung Fu Panda 2. To be honest both of them look a little underwhelming, Cars is probably the weakest film Pixar have done so it’s a strange choice to bring out another. Kung Fu Panda was a relative hit, a decent movie that is probably more variable than Cars to get a sequel.
That being said Kung Fu Panda 2 doesn’t
really capture the same magic of the first instalment. Po the Panda is
already a Dragon Warrior so the object of this movie is simply stop the
bad guy from doing evil stuff.
In
fairness to the movie, it isn’t that bad. In fact it’s quite good. It’s
a fun movie that will entertain kiddiewinks a plenty and also offers
something for the adult crowd. Overall though it lacked freshness; I
felt like I’d seen it all before.
Some
of the characters were either shallow or their actions made no sense.
Take Tigress, played by Angelina Jolie, she’s supposed to be a hardened
warrior who shows no mercy or compassion, but I didn’t really get that
vibe from her at all. There’s a scene in the movie where she hugs Po,
and everyone acts shocked as though the Pope randomly started praising
Allah. I just never got the impression she was hard-as-nails, apart from
the fight scenes obviously, but then again all the warriors are…so what
makes Tigress so special?
Most
of the movie is about Po finding out who he is, because apparently he
isn’t the biological son of a goose. Looking forward to Kung-Fu Panda 3:
The birds and the bees. Anyway, as usual the story focuses around Po as
you would expect seeing it’s called Kung Fu Panda not Kung Fu
Tiger or Kung Fu Monkey; however because of this it can get boring at
times, there are so many other characters to learn about but we rarely
even get glimpses of their personalities. There is so much potential in
the other characters that just ends up being wasted in the end.
Also,
what kind of role model is this Po to young kids who will no doubt
watch this movie? He effectively becomes the greatest warrior of all
time but he does bugger all to earn it. He doesn’t do any work
whatsoever and never trains like the other warriors do and yet he
becomes the Dragon Warrior? What message is that sending out? Be a
sloth, fill your face, become obese, you’ll make it in the end anyway.
God Bless America.
To be fair to Kung Fu Panda 2 it
has its funny moments. There are some parts here that will genuinely
make you laugh. My favourite is towards the end where Po talks to the
evil peacock: Shen (Gary Oldman) from a rooftop on the other side of the
harbour, and of course Shen can’t hear him. I though this was pretty
funny - how many times have we seen it in movies where someone is miles
away from another character and yet can have a conversation like their
in the same room? I personally love it in movies where people can hear
conversations through binoculars or scopes. Some directors are idiots at
times.
Overall Kung Fu Panda 2 is an enjoyable
movie that raises a few smiles here and there. It’s definitely not as
good as the first, but it’s a decent attempt nonetheless. The casting is
good, the actors perform well, the animation in some scenes is
brilliant as well as the art style. Hans Zimmer does the soundtrack too
which adds to the epicness of it all.
The
action scenes are great, the humour is more hits than misses, and Po
does look very cute as a baby panda. That all being said though it just
lacks that little bit extra to put it on a par with its predecessor.
You just get the feeling that Kung Fu Panda 2 only
exists because the first was a success and frankly it’s easy money for
the film studio. Rather than do something different they’ve played it
safe and made a sequel to a former hit. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a
Kung-Fu Panda 3 if I’m honest.
Final Verdict: 3 Stars. A fun, well animated movie with a great soundtrack. Lacks a bit of freshness though.
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