Film Review: Kung Fu Panda 2

The first Kung Fu Panda was a whimsical and effervescent affair, grossly underrated yet still managing to sing to the tune of some $600million. Of course, this prompted DreamWorks to produce a sequel. While Kung Fu Panda 2 is most certainly bigger than the first, it does not necessarily mean it is better. There's always a risk when you endeavour to expand a franchise. On the one hand you could be incredibly successful like with Pixar's Toy Story series. On the other, you could run it into the ground, a bit like another DreamWork's production, Shrek. Certainly, sometimes there is a case to be made that maybe some things should just be left well enough alone.

Po (Black) and the gang are back, this time facing a far bigger threat in the form of psychotic albino peacock, Shen (Oldman). Destined to fulfil an ancient prophecy whilst struggling to find his own inner peace, Po must first find himself before he can think about stopping Shen's ambitions to eradicate Kung Fu and take over all of China.

At its core the moral in Kung Fu Panda 2 is the same old; 'believe in yourself' with a dollop of 'what matters is who you are now, not where you came from'. This is essentially the root of Po's identity crisis, who has a goose for a father, and would certainly have appealed to Angela Jolie and her plethora of adopted kids. However if you've ever watched other DreamWorks productions such as Madagascar and Megamind you'll recognise that this is a story in exactly the same mould. In fact, Kung Fu Panda 2 is actually somewhat disconcerting for a children's film. It contains some remarkably morose material including themes of genocide and vengeance which might understandably be upsetting for kids. Likewise, having a psychologically disturbed panda as your film's hero is hardly the most inspiring comic material.

Po, like with Jack Black in general, is also looking tiresome. If you've seen the over-eager clumsiness once - which was the first film's strength - you probably won't want to see it again. While there is an attempt to add a depth to Po as he looks for inner peace, its execution is somewhat tepid, doing more to mimic the movie's already confusing screenplay. The overall effect of this is a strangely disjointed film with some questionable time lapses used to try and have it all make sense. Likewise, the Furious Five - Tigress (Jolie), Monkey (Chan), Viper (Liu), Crane (Cross) and Mantis (Rogen) - do more to crowd the picture rather than rouse proceedings, scarcely making the same indelible impression they did in the first film. What worked there - contrasting Po's idiot bravado against the humble aplomb of his team - seems kind of worn this time round. The best Kung Fu Panda 2 has to offer comes in the shape of two new characters. Michelle Yeoh's soothsaying sheep which provides the most laughs but, as with most children's films of this nature, the villain steals the show. Gary Oldman's peacock, Shen, is an ineffable villain with an evil rasp that will make your toes curl. He displays a similar appeal to another delightfully feathered foe, Rio's Nigel, voiced by Jermaine Clement. Like Rio, Kung Fu Panda 2 only ever seems to come alive when the big bad bird is around.

Ultimately the voice cast assembled is excellent but horribly underused. Lucy Liu and Jean Claude Van Damme for example couldn't have had more than five lines between them. The best thing about Kung Fu Panda 2 are its stunning visuals, a love letter to Chinese artistic styles in a world created out of lollipops and gumdrops. However, the film's capital, its charm and humour, are not nearly as present as in the first which makes for a superlatively bland experience. Still, at least we're finally given an answer as to why Po's dad is a goose. Expect DreamWorks to capitalise with a Kung Fu Panda 3.

Film Review: The Karate Kid

It would appear that the 80s are having something of a mini resurgence of late with two of this summer's biggest Hollywood blockbusters having borrowed from our beloved classics. The A-Team was relatively successful in paying homage to Mr T plus others, but does The Karate Kid with Will Smith's son, Jaden, and Jackie Chan as Mr Miyagi incarnate do the 1984 original justice?

To my great surprise, yes. Upon first hearing about and then viewing the trailer I was determined to hate it. Foremost, there's no bloody karate. Why call a film the 'Karate' kid when it's set in China and the martial art of choice is Kung-Fu? I'm a little bit anal about such things to the point where it is totally conceivable that it may ruin an entire premise for me. I'm also usually rather abhorrent to remakes of anything. You'll often find me amongst the hysteric chorus' of "stop blaspheming my childhood!", but I've come to realise that not all remakes are utterly shit. I reckon what gets me most is when a current generation only knows of the most recent version, never of the original. Why I care I don't know, but I digress. Onward!

In this reincarnation Jackie Chan plays maintenance man Mr. Han, taking on the role of sensei, or whatever the Kung-Fu equivalent is. Jaden Smith plays the far-more-petulant-than-I-remember-the-original-being 'Karate' kid, Dre, dragged to Beijing by his mother's job. Staying true to the original, Dre develops a crush on the 'wrong' girl, Meiying (played by Wenwen Han), where in this version the bully is played by an overprotective family friend rather than ex-boyfriend. I was a little incredulous by the whole 'love' thread going on given that the kids are played by 11 year olds, not adolescent teens as in the original. There was a moment where the young lady who takes Dre's fancy dances pretty provocatively for a child, which I was a bit weirded out by. Other than that it's all very innocent and never develops beyond anything more than friendship, thankfully.

The sequence of events is more or less in line with the original. Dre falls foul of the bully's gang only for Mr Han to take pity on the young outcast. In perhaps the most amusing scene of the film Dre is cornered, taking a pummelling from the gang when Mr Han suddenly jumps into the fray and takes on numerous Kung-Fu children. After Mr Han tries to reason with the bully's evil Kung-Fu school, he inadvertently enters young Dre into a local tournament. Mr Han takes it upon himself to train Dre to a sufficient standard through a series of seemingly meaningless tasks. Unfortunately, unlike the original, these were not nearly as humorous as 'a-washin'-tha-car' and 'wax on, wax off'.

What I found most fascinating were the small glimpses of what China is like. It is high on my list of places to visit so seeing a little bit of city life in Beijing was most interesting. The film also managed to work in some stunning shots of the Chinese landscape and countryside which was highly welcome, even though their tenuous links to the story itself were wholly unnecessary. It was merely an excuse to showcase some of China's most famous landmarks for the sake of it, but it wasn't unappreciated. 

In the end director Harold Zwart does an adequate job. This was not the terrible film I was expecting. I actually found it secretly enjoyable, but by no means is it as good as the original. Jaden Smith isn't great in and at times he's somewhat irritating. Given time however, and I'm sure if his Dad has passed on any of his talent, we'll see him mature into a much better actor. Admittedly it does take a while to warm to the characters as it's easy to remain sceptical for at least the opening forty-five minutes, but once you settle in you begin to appreciate a number of cute moments which give you a bit of a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Jackie Chan is the stand out here as the solemn and wildly different Mr Miyagi. What's most important is that this version doesn't defecate over the originals' memory. For the new generation who've never seen the 1984 version and are unaware of the plot they will definitely enjoy the new take. For those of us brought up on the original this will never be as good, but if you are able to detach the two from each other and try not to inevitably compare them, this is still a cute, feel-good and relatively pleasing effort.