Mediocre Panda

Rating: 5/10 (8 June 2008)

Can't believe the number of glowing reviews this has been getting. The Incredibles, the Toy Story movies, Shrek 2, Monsters Inc.--those movies deserve glowing reviews. This one was entertaining but forgettable.
The story has no surprises at all. Po is named the Chosen One. Po trains to fight bad guy, initially frustrating crotchety trainer but ultimately winning him over. Po fights bad guy and wins. That's it. That's the whole story.
You'd think with a story that thin there'd be lots of room for character development. But there wasn't. There were a lot of pratfalls. Jack Black improvised the occasional bit of funny dialogue, but there weren't a lot of laughs in my theater. The Furious Five characters had no personalities at all. The villain was villainous in the most familiar and boring way possible.
Visually, the movie had some nice moments. The fight scenes were fun to watch. I really enjoyed the villain's escape from a very impressive prison. I also liked the look of the turtle Master. And the scene in which Po is trained to become great at kung fu using his desire to eat a dumpling was great. But overall the movie was unsatisfying.