Kung Fu Panda 4
I'm a fan of the Kung Fu Panda series so I made sure to see this movie when it came out. As expected, it was fun, light, and easy to watch. That said, I have to say that it is my least favorite of the four Kung Fu Panda films. The thing that made me enjoy the first three movies was how Po's learning became the key revelation on how he would be able to defeat his key opponent. In the first film, the dragon scroll being empty was a lesson on how one needs to believe they are special to be special and that helped him defeat Tai Lung. In the second movie, the theme was inner peace achieved through balance (as represented by yin and yang) and Po was able to use that to throw Lord Shen's cannonballs back at him. In the third movie, General Kai was stealing people's chi (or their life force) and it delved into the question of one's identity. In the end, it was this understanding of identity - not only of himself but also enabling other's to know who they are - that enabled Po to prevent his chi from being taken and inevitably defeat General Kai. However, in this fourth movie, it kind felt like Po and his new protege Zhen just managed to beat the Chameleon. I was hoping for better a-ha moment, similar to what we had in the previous three films haha. That said, it was still good entertainment and something that certainly helped me destress.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
I'm also a fan of Godzilla, King Kong, and all these other monsters and kaiju (I have been since I was a kid). That said, this movie probably wasn't my favorite one in the recent MonsterVerse films. I think the series peaked at Godzilla: King of the Monsters which I absolutely loved and everything after that just hasn't been as good (in my opinion). I am a bit weirded out by this love-hate relationship between Kong and Godzilla, where Godzilla always seems to want to kill Kong but then they team up (in this case, to fight against the ape-like creatures led by Skar King and the ice-age dragon Shimo). In these last two Godzilla-Kong films, it almost feels like Godzilla doesn't particularly care if thousands of people are killed. There was that battle in the previous film that destroyed in Hong Kong and in this movie, Godzilla destroyed Rome and a French nuclear power plant. He also killed Tiamat who was minding her owned business in the Arctic when Godzilla sought her out. In previous films leading up to King of the Monsters, it kinda felt like Godzilla was protecting man from other threats and monsters while trying to minimize damage. That hasn't been the case in these last two movies where Godzilla kinda feels like a bit of a jerk, making it a bit hard for me to like him as like an antihero. It's kinda weird though because On the plus side, I do love that Mothra is present again in this film. Also, at the end of the day, I watched this to see epic battles among giant monsters and I did. So it was still a positive viewing experience.
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