The fourth film in a series is a big make-or-break moment. It is often where a series runs out of ideas and begins recycling old ones or else it becomes a self-parody. That’s true of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Matrix Resurrections, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Batman and Robin, Alien: Resurrection, and The Next Karate Kid. However, most of those series managed to reinvent themselves after their fourth films, so it’s still possible to recover from a poor outing.

Sometimes the fourth film can be great on its own, as well as the start of something even better, like with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Thunderball, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. That last one actually managed to parody many aspects of itself and still be successful, leading to a long, prosperous collection of spinoff TV shows and films.

Unfortunately, Kung Fu Panda 4 falls into the category of being a repetitive entry in its series. And it’s unclear if it’s the end or the start of something better. The story ended just fine with the third film, and the fourth one feels like it’s been tacked on.

No Surprises

I’m really sorry to be negative, and I’ll try to be as gentle as I can. I just don’t think Kung Fu Panda 4 works very well.

The most surprising thing about Kung Fu Panda 4 is that it contains no surprises. For example, as soon as you see a certain character, you know who the next Dragon Warrior will be. And when you see a rickety tavern perched precariously above a body of water, you know it’s going to fall into the water at some point.

For a film series that started out so unpredictably, it has become entirely predictable this time around. There’s a character who is a thief but who also claims to want to help Po defeat the bad guy. Guess what. She steals from Po and betrays him to the bad guy. And she feels bad about it afterward and later betrays the bad guy to Po. Pretty standard stuff. We’ve seen this in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and many other good films and stories.

Retreads from the First Three Films

Kung Fu Panda 4 tries to recreate magical moments from the first three films, like the fight in the sanctuary and the selection ceremony for the Dragon Warrior. But they fall flat because they were done to perfection in the first film. This time, they just feel like lesser retreads.

We already saw Po travel to a far-off city ruled by an evil bad guy who wants to take over the world. And we saw Po fight a close friend and get hugged by her at the end of their fight. Both of those things were handled much better in Kung Fu Panda 2.

And we already saw Po’s adoptive father and biological father quarrel and worry about Po’s wellbeing in Kung Fu Panda 3. They do that quite a bit in Kung Fu Panda 4, and it feels unnecessary since they learned to get along in the last film.

I can give this film credit for one thing when it comes to retreads. The series had run out of things for the Furious Five to do by the third film, so the fourth one mercifully leaves them almost completely out of it. That was a nice touch, probably brought on by budgetary and story limitations.

What I Think Happened

Here’s what I think happened with this film. It feels like the filmmakers paid Ian McShane a lot of money to return as Tai Lung, and they trimmed the budget by leaving out just about everyone else, even though they wanted to have lots of cameos.

To have the best of both worlds where they had every cameo they could imagine while not paying the voice actors, they had the villain be a chameleon who could look like anyone. But she would only speak when it’s an actor they could get to reprise their voiceover.

A Metaphor for This Film

Tai Lung is probably the most interesting villain the series had: a failed version of Po who was driven to madness by the misguided ambition of his beloved sensei. Once again, he’s nothing but a sad, pale retread in this film because he lacks the fire and drive that animated his character in the first film. This time, he’s reduced to his nerve attack in the eyes of the chameleon. She’s just stealing everyone’s signature move, and that’s all he has to offer her.

That’s a pretty good metaphor for this film. It boils down the essence of former characters and moments to a single attribute and then tries to amass them all into a giant, soulless hodgepodge. Even the final, terrifying form the bad guy takes to fight Po at the end of the film lacks true terror or awe, even though Po tries to make the audience believe that by saying it does.

The emotional power of Tai Lung’s fight with Shifu in Kung Fu Panda or Po’s destruction of Lord Shen’s fleet in Kung Fu Panda 2 completely overshadows the emptiness of the confrontation between Po and the chameleon.

The Truly Most Surprising Thing About Kung Fu Panda 4

With no heart of its own, Kung Fu Panda 4 relies on nostalgia to connect with audiences. This film made about $193 million domestically and $547 million worldwide, which were more than the $143 million domestic and $521 million worldwide gross of Kung Fu Panda 3. Yes, it made less than the first two films, but there was still an appetite for it.

Perhaps that is what is actually the most surprising thing about Kung Fu Panda 4. Not that it lacked surprises or originality, but the fact that it did connect with audiences.

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.

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