GLKnight Spotlight: Kung Fu Panda 2

    The Knight's BACK, baby! And he's bringing you a new Spotlight! Current runs, reruns, and maybe even a special event involving yours truly! After a long hiatus, the Knight has done some soul searching, and has left his castle just in time for the Summer Season. I may not cover it all (I live in a CASTLE, after all. A lot of things come first. Like electricity. And stones for my catapult.), but what I will cover, I'll be the best of who I am. And speaking of who I am, as anyone who's interacted with me can tell you, I LOVE Martial Arts movies. And so far, there's only one that I was able to catch. The other two were far too enlightened for my area, mostly because they don't have fart jokes, lots of (nearly) naked women, really fast cars going vroom vroom to a rap/metal soundtrack, and have the mental level of a 10 year old. So, I was left with one option: Kung Fu Panda 2. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the first one. But does the sequel live up to the first film? Is it on the path to Enlightenment, or is it just some filler for the next big blockbuster?

    Set a few years after the first film, the Valley of Peace is... still at peace, with the defeat of Tai Lung. In three years time, not only has the Furious Five had their renown grow, but the Dragon Warrior, Po, has reached Legendary status as well. When seeking to learn more from Shifu, Po is told that discovering Inner Peace will allow his skills to become that much greater. Stopping the lesson midway, Shifu and Po discover that a local village of musicians is being ransacked. Po and the Furious Five set out to stop them, but are unable to, when Po sees the emblem on the bandits, which allows them to get away. The bandits are the minions of Lord Shen (played by Gary Oldman), a megalomaniac who seeks to take over China, with the help of his new weapon. When Po tells his father about the emblem, and asks why the two don't even look related, Ping openly tells the truth: Po was found in a radish basket by Ping, and he was adopted. This sends Po on a mission to discover where he came from, and why he is where he is now. What is Po's connection to Shen? Why is Shen seeking to take over the known world? Why does the Soothsayer (played by Michelle Yeoh) have a beard, when she's obviously female? Okay, that last one's really easy to explain, but the last two are intrinsic to a tale of Fate and Consequence, of letting go, and never giving up.

    Right off the bat, let me say this: The story is not the same, tone-wise, as it is in the first film. Whereas the first film is about passion, and discovering what you are, the second film is about strength, and what you are not. Are you in control of your destiny? Are you in control of yourself? Does what you do matter to those around you? And mostly, should you let what you are not affect who you are? In a nutshell, this film presents these questions to the audience, and let's them make up their own minds about it. But regardless of the feelings afterwards, it's still a solid, enjoyable movie. In terms of acting, there's less than the first film, mainly because the focus is action versus exposition. Instead of the characters trying to tell why they do things, they tend to take more internal, physical reactions to events. Po freezing up when seeing the emblem, the Masters refusing to leave their cell, Tigress taking actions to comfort Po, Shifu showing Po how to release his baggage. Everything is SHOW, don't tell. Of course there's dialog to move the story, but it's the characters doing something that takes precedence. Most importantly, it's Ping and Po's actions that weigh the most. Ping trying to comfort his son, who is leaving to find himself. Po trying to put all these conflicting emotions in order to figure out what it means to be adopted. Is Po a man who's lost his people, or is he a man who's found his own family? There's a new found depth to the Martial Arts, when you put it in the context of what makes someone who they are.

    Something I found really great about the film is the fact that they had to come up with new technology and techniques for graphics and effects. There are many, MANY moments where you will lose yourself in the backgrounds and textures present. Matting wet fur can be a real nerve hold on the animator, but the design for this film is second to none. There's an amazing amount of technical skill in this film, which shows that Dreamworks has REALLY stepped up their game for this one. In all, it took a team of over 150+ graphic designers to make this film, and that amount of work showed. The depth of certain shots was spectacular, with special notes being made in the Munitions factory, and the Delta scenes. There was a greater contrast of colors and shades, and that lead to some distinct touches between characters for the normally harder areas to discern from. But, when you take into consideration who an Executive Producer was for the film, that makes it all the more obvious that care was taken into the work.

    That Executive Producer? Guillermo Del Toro. Yeah, that's makes things a little more obvious about the quality, huh?

    One of the things I always bring up is the score. Well, thankfully, I'll be brief: You HAVE to get this soundtrack. Once again, they brought Hans Zimmer into the mix. But they added someone all soundtrack junkies have to pay attention to: John Powell, the man who wrote the How to Train Your Dragon score. It's a dream team that instills the right chills down my spine when I remember the soundtrack. Everything was energetic (even the down-tempo moments), and fit the mood perfectly. One of the things I loved about the soundtrack was that there was more attention to making the individual moments feel more in tune with a Beijing Opera score. They obviously paid attention to the fact that the Shifu/Po training sequence from the first film was the biggest scene for a lot of fans, and they worked on making more timing and orchestrations like that.

    Now for the actual criticisms. This film is darker than the first film. As in, "Genocide, on-screen character death, incredibly heavy emotional material, especially for a kid's film" dark. It's not something that even fully grown adults may be able to handle at times. It HAS to ask these questions, because without the conflict, there would be no resolution. But by today's standards, this film might be way more adult than kid's might be able to handle. Acting wise, the performances can be quite flat. No emphasis is given on the Furious Five outside of Tigress. What makes that even more apparent is if you haven't seen the Furious Five direct-to-dvd film, leaving the casual viewer a little lost in some characterization. I feel that's an issue that must be addressed in the next film. And speaking of next film, this film does one of the most obvious things you can do in a sequel: the SEQUEL-BAIT. I won't give it away, but I will say it's very obvious. If Jennifer Yuh (who makes her directorial debut with this film) can do something interesting or refreshing with it, it'll be worth it. If not, it will surely not rest well with the fans.

    One of the things I must address is the fact that Kung Fu Panda 2 went in a direction I was surely not expecting. Instead of a western-created film inspired by eastern story and stylistics, it was akin to an EASTERN-created film, with western animation and direction. One of the things that threw a lot of critics about this film was that it took a lot of standards from Asian cinema, rather than remain in the comfort zone of centralized American or European tropes. It abandoned the first films aspects to deliver a story of destiny and decision. The entire concept of "letting go" is, in itself, a very hard concept for most western viewers to handle. Just how does one let go of their past and move on? How can one accept something, when they feel they can do something about it? Why should they let go, when that trauma or reason lets them live on? Well, in this reviewer's opinion, you can because you CHOOSE to. Some of the greatest Martial Arts stories are about letting go, and moving on. There are many strong films and stories to choose from, so if you want, go ahead. No one's stopping you.

    If you see this one, treat it as you would 36th Chamber of Shaolin or a film like that. If you treat it as anything less, you will be disappointed. I'm sad to say I can't recommend this one to everyone, but if you believe you or your children are able to handle this sort of material, then definitely see this film. At least it'll be an hour and a half of your time wasted properly. And hey, if you needed any more reason to see it, it has Jean Claude Van Damme as a Kung Fu master crocodile! And you know what he does in every movie!

    Knight! Out!

    Damn, now I gotta go work on my flexibility...