|
Kung Fu Panda 2
| Released |
10 June 2011 |
| Director |
Jennifer Yuh |
Starring
|
Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman, Seth Rogen, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, David Cross, Lucy Liu, Michelle Yeoh |
| Writer(s) |
Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger |
| Producer(s) |
Melissa Cobb |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
90 minutes |
| Genre |
Animation, action, adventure |
| Rating |
PG |
|
|
Panda versus Peacock.
The original Kung Fu Panda was a big hit three years ago with critics and cinemagoers alike. It made 630 million dollars at the worldwide box office and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. So it’s no surprise that it returns for a sequel.
This time, the villain is Lord Shen (Gary Oldman) a peacock whose family once ruled China. However he was banished by his family for attempted genocide but now he’s returned, having mastered the science of explosives and wants to use this power to take over China again. The ‘Dragon Warrior’ Panda, Po (Jack Black) is now happily working with the ‘Furious Five’ of Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross). After Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) hears of Lord Shen’s plans, he despatches his team and they set off to defeat him and his team of wolves.
Meanwhile Po is haunted by terrible memories of the past and is questioning his ‘father’ Mr. Ping (James Hong) about how he came to end up in his care. Even in battle he becomes increasingly distracted by these visions and he is told by Master Shifu that he needs to attain ‘inner peace’ to become the ultimate warrior he can be.
That’s pretty much it in terms of plot and essentially the film is one long series of kung fu battles that are very well done, if a little repetitive. The problem with the sequel is that it’s simply not as funny as the first one. In that film most of the laughs came from Jack Black’s repartee with Dustin Hoffman. In this film, because of the plot, Hoffman is mostly absent and he’s badly missed. Without Hoffman to spark off, Black is reduced to working mainly with Angelina Jolie. Anyone who saw Jolie’s lifeless performance in The Tourist will be aware of the theory that she’s been replaced by a cyborg and her voice performance here won’t do anything to dispel that notion. Seriously, Stephen Hawking would put more depth and emotion into the role.
Perhaps acknowledging the weakness of the script the filmmakers have crammed in as many stars as possible so you have Michelle Yeoh, Danny McBride, Dennis Haysbert and Jean-Claude Van Damme thrown in with varying degrees of success. In fairness Gary Oldman does a decent job as the villain bringing in a nice touch of Basil Fawlty type exasperation to the role. His scenes with Black are the funniest in it.
In truth this is a perfectly decent action-adventure yarn that should keep the kids happy enough. The fight scenes are pretty spectacular and they made decent use of the 3D technology. It just doesn’t have the charm or the laughs of the first one.
-
Jim O’Connor |
