it's long
Okay. A while back I went to see Kung Fu Panda (the first one) yano, when it came out. Personally I'm a fan of Jack Black and so i like to see everything he makes. That does not however mean I am going to give either movie a great shining review based on that. I will judge the movies on their quality and not who's in it.
You can't really talk about KFP2 without giving at least a reference to the first movie and since I haven't officially reviewed that movie I think i should give it a kinda review in here along with the full review of it's sequel.
Kung Fu Panda is great for anyone who is a fan of Jack Black's style of comedy and it also has fantastic effects and a decent usable story line.
I can't really say the movie is anything other than typical but for what it is it does it extremely well. It is truly a great movie: great humor, decent action scenes, nice balanced and rounded characters and what seems to be a deep running undertone of all the Chinese Kung Fu movies that were so good before the Americans got hold of them and made a ton of shitty action movies.
To be fair I feel that this must be said. When China was churning out Kung Fu movies they were all about a way of life I feel has sorta died since. When America got hold of Kung Fu movies they began to make typical action movies like the old Arnie movies or the Matrix and put Kung Fu in it and call it a Kung Fu movie.
I personally think a Kung Fu movie is about Kung Fu and an action movie is about action but maybe I'm just way too traditional for my own good.
Kung Fu Panda did something I haven't seen since the earliest Jackie Chan movies. It combined American cinematics and humor with traditional Chinese values and the way of Kung Fu itself. So for fans of both viewpoints it is aa great example of what can be done with these genre and not what sounds best on paper.
I also like the irony that Po in the first movie is like a modern day American thrown into a traditional Chinese setting and how the relationship between the two jars a little but the reactions between the two are genuine and natural and well acted i must say.
So Kung Fu Panda 1 flows nicely and although kinda what you expect it does however manage to add a little humor and deeper sense of things in there without the viewer being aware of it. It's a great movie and there really aren't that many like it nowadays.
Unfortunately for me my high standards mean that this is kinda what I expect from cinema and whenever i don't see it i am disappointed.
Dreamworks know how to make a movie roll along, they know how to do action scenes and they know how to direct but everything else that they add to this movie just makes it that much better than the rest and that is why i like it.
So now to Kung Fu Panda 2 and this movie is very different. Sure the directing, action, flow, graphics and stuff all seems to be like another KFP movie but there are a few things different and they are so different it was like I was watching a different movie all together.
For a start I love the bad guy in this movie. He never becomes a gimmick or typical but what he is a believable person. he fits the role of his character so well and never becomes cliche. To be honest he kinda steals the show from Po because his acting is top notch.
The movie itself takes a rather more serious approach to KFP but what jars an awful lot is the comedy. In some places its ok but there are the odd jokes that just seem so out of place in this movie it kinda ruins the whole scene for a bit. Apart from that though the movie is fantastic.
There isn't anything wrong with the movie which in itself is a great complement on my part and added to this is a great story, great characters, great graphics and great action scenes.
As before Dreamworks really know how to make a movie roll along and this does this thing well. The thing with Dreamworks is that they know how to get the basics right and this movie is just kinda like "well everybody expects it to be at least as good as KFP1 but we are going to take that template and add even more great things to the movie.".
However, unlike everyone who tries this they know what is important and don't cut it out of the sequel to add something they thought was a great idea at the time.
They clearly think things through before doing them and that is a quality which is sadly lacking from most movie studios nowadays.
This movie does kinda take a long hard look at some of the more traditional Kung Fu movies and add an American style action to it which actually does gel rather well in this movie.
The one issue i have is that i don't really understand the bad guy's death at the end. It looks like 2 different endings stuck together or if not the question is why the bad guy just lets himself die when he clearly had the chance to yano escape.
Me and my brother Fire Tiger came up with many alternative ending to the bad guy and even though they were all ideas that had been used before there were many ideas that would have made a better ending.
And one thing for those that have seen it. I'm not going to reveal any spoilers but the last scene and i mean the very last (not including the credits). What the hell? seriously. That kinda ruins the whole idea of Po's back story doesn't it?
Those who've seen it know what i mean.
Thanks for reading this by the way. I know this review wasn't a good one but there's not much to talk about Kung Fu Panda 2 other than it didn't do anything wrong and it's more traditional and more serious tones made this a great and possibly even better movie than its predecessor.
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