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Why I don`t like Kung Fu Panda 4

@kfpenjoyer helped me with writing and editing this post

I recently watched KFP4 and didn’t like it. So in this post I want to express my thoughts regarding this installment. If you haven’t seen the film yet, then, firstly, I sincerely envy you, and secondly, beware of spoilers!

1. PO:

We’ll start right away with the main character and his ever-repeating question «if I’m not a dragon warrior, then who am I?». The filmmakers apparently forgot that in the previous film Po had already fully realized who he is, and also became a teacher (by the way, doesn't this mean that he has essentially already become a spiritual leader? (editor's note: I don't think so, but Po's becoming a teacher is definitely was the first step towards becoming a spiritual leader in the future. But, like, in a VERY distant future)). But the fact that Po is already a teacher, and therefore a spiritual leader, is not remembered at all in this movie.

My next question is, WHY THE HELL DOES NO ONE OUTSIDE THE VALLEY OF PEACE KNOWS ABOUT PO?! Sure, like it doesn't really matter that he is the successor of Oogway, who should be known throughout all of China. Who cares that Po defeated a dangerous criminal who was able to escape from the most secure prison. Who cares that Po stopped a mad warlord who was trying to take over China and killed a legendary kung fu master with a weapon never seen before. And who cares that Po also defeated the strongest warrior from the past who literally rose from the dead (editor's note: and also captured all the kung fu masters throughout China, so it was simply impossible not to know about the existence of Kai, and, accordingly, Po ). Pfft, apparently for the people of China it's just an ordinary Tuesday.

Next complaint is about the election of a new dragon warrior. What is the reason for this? Why did Shifu decide that it was necessary to elect a new dragon warrior at this particular time?! Neither Po nor Shifu yet know about the existence of the Chameleon, so why the hell is there such a rush (by the way, they decided to choose the dragon warrior from some random people, and in the competition for the position of dragon warrior, the candidates demonstrate only their strength. Unlike the first film, where Oogway chose from the Five, about whom he knew much more. And need I say that the title of dragon warrior should be awarded for the internal qualities of a person, and not just for physical training)? It's just that in the first movie, Oogway and Shifu decided to choose a dragon warrior because there was a threat of Tai Lung's return, but what is the reason for choosing a new dragon warrior in this movie? What, Shifu was already about to die and decided to transfer all his responsibilities to Po (editor's note: I personally think Po should be the first and last dragon warrior. He can teach kung fu to others and spread his knowledge and wisdom without being limited to focusing on just one person. Like, that's exactly what the ending of KFP3 led to...)?! Speaking of Shifu...

2. SHIFU:

WHAT THE HELL DID THEY DO TO SHIFU?! Why does he behave so unhinged in this movie when he wasn’t like that in the previous installments?! It's just that I really like Shifu's arc from the previous films. How from a strictly and tough mentor he gradually becomes much softer and wiser, acquiring inner peace. Just compare Shifu from the first movie to Shifu from the third movie. I really doubt that Shifu from the first installment would have taken Po's failure as a teacher at the very beginning of the third film so calmly. And his attitude towards Poe changed from irritation to acceptance. Now forget about that wonderful character arc! Because in this fourth movie, Shifu becomes a fucking hysteric and everything Po does annoys him again! Just fucking great! Even in the first film, he was just a very strict master, not a psychotic fucker who is annoyed by everything and everyone. Not to mention that in the third movie Shifu's behavior is calm and balanced, and, unlike Shifu from the fourth film, who is simply puts pressure and forces Po to become a spiritual leader, Shifu from KFP3 gives Po time so that he can accept his new position as a teacher, and only gives instructions, and does not force him to make decisions on the spur of the moment!

And also this whole thing with Shifu’s jealousy towards Po is a complete crap, because if he really was so jealous of Po, he would not have been able to achieve inner peace in the second movie.

3. MISTER PING AND LI SHAN:

Why did they turn a loving goose father who, although he worries about his child when Po goes on a mission, still believes that his son can succeed (like at the end of the third movie) into a mother hen, who worries about Po over every little thing?! In the previous films, when Po went to fight Tai, Shen and Kai, Ping did not panic and did not follow his son around like an overprotective parent (in the third movie he followed Po because he was afraid that Po would decide to stay with Li forever, and not out of fear that Po would not be able to defeat Kai). And in the third film, of the two dads, only Ping believes in Po’s capability from the beginning, while Li Shan starts to believe in his son’s victory only after a conversation with Ping (before that, Li simply wanted to protect and hide his son from Kai in their secret village).

Li Shan has the same issue as Ping: he also was turn into an overprotective parent, although in the third film he learned to believe in his son`s capability. If this was not the case, then Li Shan would oppose Po's plan, in which Po would have to fight Kai one-on-one.

But aside from Li's senseless overprotectiveness of Po, it seems like the writers of the fourth installment forgot about certain events of the second movie, which is why Li doesn't feel any concern about being in a tavern whose main customers are wolves. And then, at the end of the movie, he`s just hangs out in the same room with Shen, again without the slightest concern, and does not show any reaction at all when he sees the peacock. Because it absolutely makes sense! Shen just simply killed Li’s wife, killed a bunch of Li’s fellow villagers and friends, and because of Shen, Li was separated from his son for 20 years, and peacock also tried to kill this very son, but hey, these are such little things! Why hold a grudge over something so minor, right?

It also infuriates me that both of these characters (Ping and Li) are constantly yelling and acting stupid, although neither Ping nor Li have shown such behavior before. And in general, if they had not been in this movie, then essentially nothing would have changed (Zhen could have gathered the thieves to fight the Chameleon alone).

4. ZHEN:

This is our new dragon warrior and she's just plain boring. Seriously, her backstory is the most banal thing you could come up with (a thief who has had to survive on the streets since childhood and is who also an orphan). And the plot twist about her being sent to steal the staff by the Chameleon is not only obvious, but after that comes the most annoying trope in all of media – liar reveal. By the way, the reason why Po decided that Zhen knows something about new threat is as far-fetched as possible. Well, that is, after Zhen was caught trying to steal the staff, Po immediately finds out that Tai Lung is supposedly back again, and after that he goes to the fox and says that “she definitely knows something,” but what exactly gave him this idea?

Oh and also, why the hell does the hired thief of the main villain, who lives in a huge castle and constantly collects tribute from her subjects, have no money for food or to rent a boat, so she has to steal money from others? So, like, the Chameleon gave Zhen food, clothes and a place to live, but she doesn’t give her money for various needs. By the way, in a city that seems to belong to Chameleon, Zhen is somehow wanted and could be put in prison if she is caught... what the fuck? This is really stupid. Imagine if Boss Wolf could have been arrested for dangerously driving a rickshaw through the streets when Shen took over the Gongmen city.

5.THE CHAMELEON:

Remember when the fandom considered Kai to be the weakest villain in KFP franchise? Well, now, compared to Chameleon, Kai looks like the standard for a well-written villain with a clear goal that doesn't contradict with their actions.

Firs of all, comparing her to Po simply does not make sense, since Shifu refused to train Po because Po was just some random guy with no kung fu skills, who also literally just fell out of the sky right during the dragon warrior selection ceremony. And because of this, he was chosen as the new dragon warrior, and not Tigress, whom Shifu trained for many years, and then some simpleton from the village just ruins everything. So I’m pretty sure that if Po were some kind of bull or rhinoceros who also didn’t know kung fu, Shifu would also dislike him and refuse to train him (editor's note: there is no point in denying that Po was treated with prejudice and outright hostility partly because he is a fat panda, but this was far from the only reason. For instance, Tai Lung could escape from prison at any moment, and it takes time to master the skill of kung fu, no matter how gifted a person is).

Chameleon was refused to be taught kung fu because, according to her, she was too small. And this is sounds stupid as fuck and is undermined by the existence of Master Mantis and Master Chicken (editor's note: and also Master Shifu, Master Viper, and even Master Frog, whose statue and painting can be seen in the Jade Palace). By the way, Mantis was a good fighter even before he became a student at the Jade Palace (this was shown in the short film «Secrets of the Furious Five»). Who taught him then? Or is he just self-taught? Then Chameleon's whining about not being able to learn kung fu becomes even more stupid. And based on her words, I got the impression that she only tried to enroll in one or two kung fu schools, and after receiving a couple of refusals, she got so angry that she decided to learn magic and take over China (and wow, how original! Because none of the previous villains had a similar goal).

And here two more questions arise: firstly, MAGIC IS A THING IN KFP UNIVERSE NOW?! Moreover, this is not explained by the power of chi or connection with the spirit world, as was the case with Kai, NO! THIS IS JUST FUCKING MAGIC!! Which is not even known how it works! The chameleon just says that she decided to learn magic and that’s it! Who taught her magic? Are there other magicians in the KFP world? Can anyone learn magic or is there a predisposition to it? Movie will not answer these questions for us! And yes, I remember that in the previous installments there was also an element of mysticism (prophecies, visions, chi, spirit realm), but all this had a certain limitations within the world. But in this film we are immediately told that KFP is just fucking fantasy now, wow!

Second question: HOW DOES TAKING OVER ALL OF CHINA RELATE WITH HER GOAL TO BECOME THE GREAT KUNG FU MASTER?! I mean, when Shen says that he wants to conquer China, this doesn’t raise any questions for me because this goal was paramount to him (that’s why he started experimenting with fireworks). But Chameleon`s main goal is to become the most powerful kung fu master, and how will the takeover of China contribute to this goal? Perhaps flashbacks from the past would help to better understand the motivation of the new villainess, but spoiler: THERE ARE NONE! Yes, you heard right, Chameleon is the only villain who does not have any flashbacks, and her entire backstory and motivation just told us in a few lines from her. And some people even wonder why out of all the villains most of the fans empathizes with her the least (btw the funniest thing is that Zhen has at least 2 flashbacks, while the Chameleon has none).

Another reason why Chameleon doesn't evoke much sympathy is because she doesn't have a character or characters that she could have feel affection for (like Tai Lung towards Shifu, Shen towards his parents, and Kai towards Oogway). The only character with whom she has some sort of connection is Zhen, but the problem is that Chameleon herself doesn’t really care about the fox, and she took her in not out of pity, but because she just saw potential in Zhen and wanted to use her skills in the future. She literally says out loud that she doesn’t care about the Zhen`s feelings. And here the question arises: why Zhen continues to work for Chameleon, who not only treats her like a tool, but also does not provide her with safety from the laws, which could lead to Zhen`s imprisonment (editor's note: well, it's possible that Zhen may see Chameleon as a mother figure, or simply be afraid of disobeying her, but as far as I`m aware, there is no hint of this in the movie)?

Perhaps the filmmakers did not want to make the Chameleon a tragic villain, but rather make her more frightening and ruthless. The problem is that she doesn`t do anything actually scary. She doesn’t even kill anyone in the entire movie, the most she can do is push a random guy down the stairs (I really thought that this guy would be killed, since he argued back the Chameleon the most and incited others to rebel against her)... wow how scary. So yeah, for the time being the most terrifying villain in KFP franchise is Shen with his genocidal murder of pandas and also murders of master Rhino and Boss Wolf.

I also noticed that every villain of the previous installments has their own cool scene. For example, Tai Lung has his prison escape, Shen has the destruction of the tower, Kai - destruction of the Jade Palace, but Chameleon... there is no such scene. The only cool thing she did in the movie was turning into a huge Godzilla-chimera thing, but firstly, in terms of scale, it’s not even close to the above examples, and secondly, this scene is too short.

By the way! In the first minutes of the film, the Chameleon appears in the guise of Tai Lung and begins to destroy a random quarry for… what? If she wanted to attract attention to herself in this way, then why did she send Zhen to steal the staff? In general, the new villain is not only weaker in terms of fleshed out backstory and motivation, but she’s also fucking stupid for revealing herself like that just to show off her cool ability. (For those who haven't seen this movie: no, she hasn't absorbed Tai Lung's chi yet. The Chameleon can take his form, but she can't fight like him without absorbing his chi).

6. TAI LUNG, SHEN AND KAI:

I just hate how writers and directors handled the return of previous villains. And if you went to the cinema to watch this movie only because of the return of the old villains, well, you can come about 15 minutes before the end of the movie, because that's when these characters appear. If in their place there were any other characters or just some furniture, absolutely nothing would change.

And now more about each villain:

Tai Lung: Of all three villains, he is the only one who has at least some lines. And congratulations, filmmakers, you've just wasted a great opportunity to show the interaction between three legendary villains of this franchise! Shit, I'm not the only one who sees great potential for comedy here, am I (editor`s note: also the fight scenes between these three could be AWESOME)? Also, as I said, Tai Lung only appears at the VERY end and he has a max of 2-3 lines, so you can consider Tai on the posters as a clickbait and fan service that was added only to attract old viewers. You want to know if there was any interaction between Tai and Shifu? Well… There was none! Moreover, Tai Lung does not even think about his master, so you can just forget about emotional and touching scene of the reunion of student and teacher.

Also this scene there Tai Lung admits that Po is the real dragon warrior after witnessing Po defeat the Chameleon is just pure cringe. So… when Po defeated Tai Lung in the first film, he did not perceive Po as a dragon warrior until the very end. But now, when Po would have lost in the battle with the Chameleon, if not for Zhen’s help, Tai Lung simply admitted that Oogway made the right choice! Bullshit!

Lord Shen: I'm ready to rip the filmmakers' hands off for how poorly they handled his return! I believe that Shen's death in the finale of the second movie was the best completion of his arc. The moment when his own weapon falls on him and he finally comes to terms with his fate, due to which he finds inner peace. BUT NAH, SCREW THIS GREAT ARC FOR THE SAKE OF FANSERVICE!!! Also, Shen and Po don't even exchange a few words, although out of all three villains, Shen was the one who had the greatest impact on Po (editor's note: he was also objectively Po's most personal villain)! And Shen's reaction to Li literally does not exist! Because it`s also makes a total sense! After all, the guy who was so obsessed with killing pandas wouldn't give a shit that there was another panda left alive! And the final scene of the film, in which all the summoned masters, including Shen, bow to Po is complete bullshit! There is no way my prideful crazy peacock would do that!

Kai: It's even worse with him. Do you remember that in the finale of the third film, Kai was literally split into atoms in the spirit world? He was erased from both worlds! But, apparently, the creators read only a brief description of the third movie because Chameleon has no problem summoning him along with the rest of the villains. Well, now thanks to this bullshit, the ending of the third movie doesn't make sense at all! Because if Kai is not completely erased and he is reborn again in the spirit realm, then what prevents him from gathering chi of dead masters again and returning? It's not a happy ending anymore, it's a vicious circle. And at the end of the film Kai calmly enters the portal with the others and does not even think about escaping to start collecting chi and try to destroy Oogway's students again which is absolutely unfounded and goes against Kai’s goals and motivation from the third movie. And just like Shen, Kai has absolutely no lines, despite the fact that he was probably the most talkative of the three villains.

And before I get off the topic of returning villains, I want to say a few words about the their new models: they are just terrible. This is especially noticeable with the texture of Shen's clothing, and with the texture of Kai's fur (editor's note: I don't think we should blame the animators for this, since the Shen and Kai `s models had to be done at the last minute. But we can safely blame director Mike Mitchell for the fact that the long-awaited return of the previous villains turned out to be a complete failure :))

7. FURIOUS FIVE:

This is just fucking awful! Their appearance only in the credits of the film is nothing more than jangling keys in the face of fans. So, do you remember how everyone used to joke that with each new installment Five was more and more relegated to the background? Well, now they are not even minor characters, but extras in the background without a single line. And I don't care that filmmakers didn't have enough budget to hire voice actors for the Five and for the past villains. Because a logical question arises: why the hell was it necessary to show them at all? Just to piss off fans??

And in my opinion, Tigress deserves to become a dragon warrior much more than Zhen. Zhen does not care about the fate of China. She decided to help Po only because she realized that Chameleon didn't appreciate her. And fox didn't care that she helped the main villain carry out a plan in which innocent people could suffer.

8. CHARACTER DESIGNS: The designs of the new characters do not fit KFP stylization at all. Apart from the Chameleon and her henchmen, the rest of the new characters look as if they have escaped from Zootopia. But Kung Fu panda had its own unique way of stylization, for example, different patterns on characters' faces and bodies. Zhen, despite being the second main character in the film, looks like she was designed by Disney. In addition, there was also a problem with the clothing design of most of the characters. The clothes of the background characters are too colorful and do not match in color scheme, which is why it starts to ripple in the eyes during scenes in Juniper city.

9. THE MESSAGE OF THE FOURTH MOVIE MAKES NO SENSE: Firstly, I think it's very hypocritical to push a moral about not holding on to the past in a film that is literally milking a franchise that ended 8 years ago. Secondly, this whole plot point about Po having to pass on the title of dragon warrior to someone else contradicts the message of the first film. Because the movie made it clear that there is no such thing as a dragon warrior title (there is no secret ingredient). Having this title doesn't make you special because it's all about you and how you see yourself. «To make something special you just have to believe that it's special». Remember this idea from first film? But creators of fourth installment don’t seem to remember! Because now dragon warrior is a specific title that can be passed on to a specific person. And you can forget about the message about the importance of believing in yourself, it is no longer valid. In comparison, the ending of the third film now seems much better to me, as Po passes on his knowledge and skills to not just one person, but to many people (editor's note: I seriously dislike the way this film went from having the teachings of kung fu ubiquitous to kung fu being something more limited and elitist again, if I may say so. In addition, a situation similar to what happened with Tai Lung may happen again in the future).

10. CONCLUSION: I hate the fourth film and refuse to accept it as a continuation of the legendary trilogy. You may like this movie and I don't blame anyone for that. But for me personally, the fourth movie is complete garbage, which I will rewatch only to laugh at the stupidity of the script. The only good thing for me in about this movie is that it reminds how awesome the first three films were.

Yeah I watched Kung Fu Panda 4 😬🫢

ANYWAY! Lord Shen was and still is my favorite villain so I made a human version of him that didn’t make me wanna pull my hair out

Comparisons under the cut

he's SUCH a son of his father, i'm crying-

shifu taught him not only kung fu, but also how to bring others to a heart attack through emotional swings.

they're such assholes. love them <3

I feel like these are getting out of hand but I don’t plan on stopping

no offense, but the scene depicting tai lung’s escape from a maximum security prison in kung-fu panda (2008) is more dramatic and exciting, and has better pacing and cinematography than 90% of fight scenes in any superhero movie

Tai Lung could not become the defender of the valley as a dragon warrior, but he was able to become the one who keeps order in the spirit world.

Yes, I like to think that Tai Lung has become something of a cop, having gone into compensation. the fact that he waited until all the villains returned home and was the one who took the chameleon "into custody" so that she would not escape only reinforces my opinion.