I really love Kung Fu Panda 4

Holy shit, I really loved Kung Fu Panda 4. It's so fucking good. Not quite as good as the first two, but definitely a lot better than 3 with so much thingd I found awesome. Gonna watch through Dragon Knight and Legends of Awesomeness soon 9/10. I think the main thing that makes this movie so great is the action. Now, I don't think anything in the film surpasses Tai Lung's masterful prison escape (which honestly might be my favourite scene in Dreamworks history, it's as good as the I Need A Hero scene from Shrek 2), but the final battle with the Chameleon comes damn close. It's so fucking great, so grand, so awesome, so Kung Fu Panda.

The Chameleon is also a great villain, way better than Kai. I like how she's something different, unlike the previous villains, 4 isn't interested in making you sympathize with her. She's just a ruthless monster and yeah, it really works. Her backstory's so petty, she just wasn't allowed to be a kung fu warrior. It's great. My main issues with Kai were that they played him for comedy too much, which made him hard to find intimidating at points, and that his backstory kinda muddies things. He's clearly supposed to be have a sympathetic backstory like Tai Lung and Lord Shen, but the thing is, I don't find him all that sympathetic.

Kai was a ruthless warlord and Oogway only "betrayed him", because he tried to attack the pandas and steal their chi. Now, what Shen did is WAY worse than that. Like he's an actual genocidal monster. But I think his freudian excuse makes him at least more understandable, he genuinely thought that if he didn't wipe out every single last panda, than he'd be dead. One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it. I guess that applies to The Chameleon too!

I really like how they did something different with her, because let's be honest, they're never surpassing Tai Lung and Lord Shen. I genuinely believe we'll never have a Dreamworks film that cooks as hard as the first two Kung Fu Pandas (especially 2), so they shouldn't try and should try to be great in other ways. I will say though, I actually love how Tai Lung was used.

The focus wasn't on him, which is good because his story already concluded, this film just gave him a nice epilogue. Seeing him kick ass again was so amazing, god he's such an awesome character. I love him so much. I found his little arc of accepting Po as the Dragon Warrior to be a good ending for the character. It's a natural continuation. I will say though, Shen bowing down to Po is like, fundamentally misunderstanding his character.

Lord Shen does not bow down to anyone. I will say, Shen's story in 2 is so unbelievably perfect and complete that I'm happy he was basically just relegated to a background cameo here. I think they could have had some nice psychological torment with The Chameleon transforming into him and mocking Po's trauma, but than again, he did get over it in 2. Shen's my all time Dreamworks character by the way, I love him so so so so so much. 2's such a great movie, holy shit. I fucking love Kung Fu Panda 2, oh my god. It's so fucking awesome, like dude, holy shit.

Dreamworks knows how to make a damn good sequel. I know Disney will never make a sequel as good as the Kung Fu Pandas.

I also thought Po and Zhen's arcs were really good! I like Zhen a lot, got a little crush on her and she fits into the universe of Kung Fu Panda really well. She doesn't feel out of place or like a celebrity character at all, she's Zhen. People dismissing her just because she's voiced by Awkwafina is kind of dumb. I think Schaffrillas was pretty dismissive of her in his review, like, he didn't even call her Zhen.

But yeah, love this movie, 9/10, go watch it. I actually haven't seen The Bad Guys or Puss in Boots The Last Wish yet, so I better check those out. I'm also curious about Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken, I know people don't like that film, but I think I'll enjoy it!