So, went to see these movies…

I honestly never thought it could be possible for me to get tired of seeing Penelope Cruz on screen. But wow. Did anyone else notice how few full body shots there were of Penelope? Lots of body shots of her stunt doubles, but very few of her directly.

I’ve never really been a big fan of any of the Pirates movies, although the first one was pretty good. They’ve all gone downhill from there. I got to where I cringed whenever Kiera Knightley came on screen, and I’ve long ago gotten tired of Johnny Depp’s mincing Keith Richards impersonation.

The movie had some moments. Although seeing Barbarossa in drag was not high on my list of cinematic memories…

Can’t really recommend this. Had much higher hopes for it than it managed to provide. The plot holes and logic holes could sink a galaxy.

So, Kung Fu Panda…

I had not seen the original Kung Fu Panda before seeing this movie, so some of the references to the previous movie went over my head. I did watch the original movie soon after this movie though, since we do have it at home and I had some time to kill in front of the TV while making foam trays to hold my 1,500 or so fantasy figure miniatures.

Back in the 70s I watched the original David Carradine “Kung Fu” TV series. At that time I was very much in a philosophical and religious soul-searching mood, so I found some of the philosophical underpinnings of the show interesting enough that I did some serious investigation into Eastern religions and philosophies. There’s a lot of really good stuff there, and I fee my life has been greatly enriched by that study.

But I’ve always found the fusion of those philosophies into standard action movie plots to be like mixing oil and water.

Both Kung Fu Panda movies are engaging films with moderately interesting back stories and some reasonably interesting characters and interaction. But of course we’ve all seen this movie a hundred times before, and will see it a hundred times again. It’s Karate Kid, Rocky, Rambo, Terminator, Cool Runnings…. take your pick.

It’s a decent diversion for adults and a lot of fun for kids. But don’t feel like you need to see it in the theater. Especially in 3D…