Review of Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) by Nikoloz S — 18 Jan 2014

Not a good story, and not well told. Sure there are plenty of complicated action sequences that are kind of cool, but could have been much, much cooler if they were fewer and further between (there's waayy too many action sequences) and if more attention had been given to just the few.

There's also plenty of slapstick humor and Jack Black awesomeness that cracked me up. But it just doesn't work as a story. There's also pacing issues, where it feels like the climax happens an hour into the two-hour feature and the rest should be falling action, but it isn't.

Now this is a personal issue: but I'm not a big fan of the old Chinese-esque visual style this movie takes. And the stark contrast between dark imagery in the scenes with the villain and the light-hearted slapstick in the scenes with Po doesn't work when they're juxtaposed so closely.

The main story-line is also predictable from the outset, which makes for a boring watch when Po is discovering things throughout the running time that we've known since the opening narration. I wasn't a fan of Po's first outing, and Kung Fu Panda 2 has failed to make me reconsider my allegiance to the franchise.