Kung Fu Panda 4 wastes its super-cool villain

In Kung Fu Panda 4, Jack Black returns to the role of Po the Panda, the super-duper enthusiastic kung-fu superstar and leader of the Kung Fu Panda franchise. This is the fourth movie in the series, which also includes three separate animated TV shows and several short movies. That’s a lot of Panda — which means there isn’t much material left to squeeze out into a solid, stand-alone movie.

From director Mike Mitchell (The Lego Movie 2) and co-director Stephanie Stine, Kung Fu Panda 4 has enough solid scenes to make it an acceptable fourth entry in a franchise, but the plot doesn’t come together in a way that would elevate it to the franchise’s earlier heights. That’s especially true when it comes to the main villain, whose super-cool power set is entirely wasted on a movie that’s mostly exposition.

[Ed. note: This review contains setup spoilers for Kung Fu Panda 4.]

Image: DreamWorks Animation

In Kung Fu Panda 4, Po (Jack Black) is tasked with finding his Dragon Warrior successor — but once he gets a whiff of a new big villain on the horizon, he abandons his apprentice search and instead partners up with Zhen, a thieving fox played by Awkwafina, to take her down. That villain, the Chameleon (Viola Davis), is a powerful shapeshifting sorceress who can take on any appearance, including perfectly mimicking other people.

Mitchell and the other filmmakers emphasize in her introduction scene that anyone — including well-known, trusted friends — might actually be the evil crime lord in disguise. Yet beyond that first scene, this plot device is rarely used to its full effect. Instead, the Chameleon spends the movie sitting in her pretty little fortress and bossing crime families around. What’s the point of having a shape-changing villain if she’s just going to be completely open about her identity? Why emphasize that she’s sneaky and subterfuge-y, then have her spend the movie cackling loudly about her (completely bland) evil plans?

The final act of the movie does, thankfully, use her powers in more meaningful ways, but it feels disconnected from the first act. Most of the movie involves getting the characters where they need to be for the finale, but that place-setting isn’t done in any particularly fun way. Yes, it’s cool to see the city where the Chameleon rules, a bustling metropolis that’s a far cry from the tranquil valley Po hails from, but the plot and the characters don’t quite gel together.

The Furious Five, introduced earlier in the Kung Fu Panda series and presented as valuable, powerful allies for Po, have completely disappeared from the narrative. Po’s grumpy master, Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) is only around briefly to yell at Po and try to hammer in the movie’s message about accepting change. The new character and setting are lively additions, but there’s a lot of expository setup to get the pieces into place.

Image: DreamWorks Animation

Jack Black as Po is still delightful, though, selling the character with an endearing earnestness wrapped in bumbling enthusiasm. His line delivery is perfect, especially when he’s punctuating moments of tension. But the real standout of Kung Fu Panda 4 is Awkwafina, who gets a chance to shine beyond her usual animated-character typecasting of “loud, wacky comic relief.” As smart-talking crook Zhen, she definitely has her share of one-liners, but the character has more depth. When her past and her motives are revealed, Awkwafina gets a chance to bring in more of the dramatic chops we saw in The Farewell. It’s a far cry from characters like The Little Mermaid’s Scuttle and Migration’s Chump, who mostly just exist to be loud and obnoxious.

As a whole, the Kung Fu Panda movies have a great sense of character physicality that lends itself to both humor and action sequences. The fourth film in the series is no exception. It’s hilarious to see Po’s biological panda dad (Bryan Cranston) toss Po’s adoptive goose dad (James Hong) up onto the next step of a mountainside staircase so the goose has enough momentum to flutter his little wings and land with a satisfying thump. The fight on a shaky cliffside tavern that rocks this way and that also rules. There are so many little details in the visuals that help really sell the physicality of the characters and their world, a testament to the care taken in this movie’s animation.

But while the individual scenes and moments in Kung Fu Panda 4 are entertaining (and sometimes even great), it never quite gels as an enjoyable movie on its own. The message of change tying it together is flimsy, and the plot feels strung along, trying to get the characters in the right place to launch a few seconds of cool action. After four movies, it isn’t really a surprise that the Kung Fu Panda machine is running out of steam — thankfully, though, it has just enough power left to churn out some genuine laughs at the end.

Kung Fu Panda 4 opens in theaters on March 8.