The success of the original 1984 coming-of-age martial arts film, The Karate Kid, starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita wasn’t a huge surprise as it effectively portrayed a simple yet relatable story of a teen defeating a violent bully with the help of a wise old master, but it’s that interesting despite forming a pretty big franchise, it was never able to truly recapture the spark. While some people have a soft spot for the sequels despite offering diminishing returns, and projects like the 2010 Jackie Chan reboot and the Netflix show, Cobra Kai, did inject some fresh life into a brand that was slowly reaching middle age, it doesn’t feel like a series that needed as many renditions as it got. However, this didn’t stop Sony from noticing the mania, which probably prompted them to greenlight another movie in 20205, this time starring both Macchio and Chan, hoping to capitalize on nostalgia-hungry fans of both films in order to illicit the most profitable result.

After moving to New York from Beijing, Li Fong (played by Ben Wang) prepares to adjust to a completely new environment, made especially hard since his mother (played by Ming-Na Weng) forbids him from practicing martial arts, mainly due to the recent passing of his exceptionally gifted martial artist older brother. Having plenty of potential but no outlet to use it on, Li gets a roundabout way of fighting when his new friend, Mia (played by Sadie Stanley) introduces him to her pizza shop owner and former boxer father, Alan (played by Joshua Jackson) who plans to enter an upcoming boxing tournament to pay off a group of loan sharks attacking his business. With Li agreeing to help train Alan before the fight, Mia’s former boyfriend, Conor (played by Aramis Knight), a highly volatile karate prodigy whom Li already badly lost a fight to, is expected to win the upcoming Five Boroughs Tournament, prompting Li to enter in order to help with Alan’s money trouble, even though he doesn’t have anyone to train him. This results in Li’s Uncle and former Kung Fu master in Beijing, Mr. Han (played again by Jackie Chan) travelling to the big apple to help train his old pupil, even managing to recruit former karate prodigy, Daniel LaRusso (played again by Ralph Macchio) to help perfect Li’s blended form of martial arts. Now with two legends training him, Li has all the right tools to face off against Conor in the tournament and take home the win.

Karate Kid: Legends doesn’t offer much new to the formula and is probably not going to become the highest grossing film of the year like the previous Karate Kid films did for their respective years, but for such a low bar, it does manage to at least meet that expectation. While lacking in authenticity and suffering from a really sloppy third act, the fast pacing, tolerable characters and really good acting keeps it from feeling like just another lousy IP-driven retread.

While The Karate Kid was a big hit, it really wasn’t that crazy new a creation even when it came out. The story was very basic, the characters were quick to grasp, and the writing didn’t break any new records, but what made it work was how relatable the story felt and the very believable, charming cast which made a lot of the main characters feel very real. The Jackie Chan remake also carried over this attachment while still being its own thing, and while Cobra Kai went more for soap opera theatrics, it still knew to make the characters relatable, so however simple it looks on the surface, there is a formula to making this premise work even in modern day.

This film certainly studied that formula pretty thoroughly as it practically follows the outline beat-for-beat, including a youth transferring homes, meeting a young love interest, facing off against a psycho bully, improving his martial arts skills with the help of a master, etc. It does highlight how there isn’t much new stuff that can be done with this idea, but also that while this movie follows the basics well enough, copying it makes it easier to notice what it does wrong. The script written by Rob Lieber has way too much stuff going on for such a small, short movie, meaning that the old stuff feels very by-the-numbers and lacking any fresh perspective, and the new stuff (however sporadically it might be included) doesn’t get enough time to get fleshed out.

While trailers presented a team up film with the two returning faces training the new Karate Kid, that really only takes up the final portion of the film in a very awkwardly delivered third act that feels way too chopped up and rushed, with a majority of the film actually centring around Li training Mia’s father to prepare for his own tournament, which is barely mentioned in any trailers. Considering fans did not approve of this premise when it original leaked during production, it’s entirely possible that the marketing hid the actual narrative and focused solely on hyping up Chan and Macchio in order to soften the blowback, which is sadly a very common trend with most trailers nowadays.

The film’s atmosphere also feels a little too polished, with the directing by Jonathan Entwistle giving everything a breezy, quippy and overly modern presence that somewhat hinders the emotional investment that should be felt for these characters and this story. It doesn’t entirely fail as the scenes on their own are fine and the actors do sell it well enough, but while the other films had a rawness about their delivery, this feels more like a Nickelodeon film with a similar level of gravitas.

The actors are at a bit of a disadvantage because of the aforementioned tone and very bare bones script not allowing them to act to their fullest, which is a shame as if given good material, they could’ve been really great. While you’d imagine the fighting would be the most important aspect, the relationships between the characters were also crucial for making people connect with these stories, and both original films did that very well with their younger and older leads (it even got Pat Morita an Oscar nomination). By comparison, every actor in this movie doesn’t feel supported by the script and are instead left out to dry with very basic characters. In returning to the Nickelodeon vibe comparison, it seems those making the film had this mentality even when casting, as the main lead, Ben Wang, had previously acted in movies like the 2023 Disney+ sports film, Chang Can Dunk, and the 2023 Disney+ action-comedy series, American Born Chinese, alongside other teen-based films and shows. This isn’t to discredit his abilities as he does a perfectly nice job, but because he isn’t positioned as a fish-out-of-water or given a really engaging personality, that mixed with the cheesier direction just makes him feel like any regular kid, nothing really that special.

This can also be said for Sadie Stanley (who previously worked with Disney as the lead in the 2019 live-action adaptation of Kim Possible) who despite also acting well, is stuck with an annoyingly one-note role, and the rest of the supporting cast don’t fare much better. Joshua Jackson comes across as pretty likeable but feels a bit too cartoony thanks to the overly quippy tone and dialogue, Ming-Na Wen is such a great actress that she can make even a very bland character somehow more tolerable (although making her anti violence just feels wrong), and Aramis Knight and any other antagonistic force are too obviously cliched and evil even within a sillier reality.

Clearly the big headliner was that both iterations of The Karate Kid were going to be connected with Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio appearing as their characters on screen together, and while that is at least a neat idea (although not really one strong enough to base an entire film around), even how they are utilized isn’t entirely seamless. Because they really aren’t in the film that much (pretty much all their scenes are in the trailer), it prevents them time to form any meaningful connections with any character, actively removing one of the strongest aspects of this premise (the bond between a student and his mentor) and making all their scenes feel very one note and shallow. There’s a hint of an idea with them somewhat butting heads over how to train Li, but It comes way too late to lead to anything meaningful.

Also, while Macchio portrays Daniel the way you’d expect the character to act, Jackie Chan doesn’t feel like he’s playing Mr. Han anymore (which he did surprisingly well in the 2010 film) and is now just doing his regular skitch. It’s not too distracting as that delivery fits in fine with this tone, but considering his portrayal of Mr. Han felt very different from how Chan usually performed, to see gone makes his return feel a little less special.

Even if they aren’t the most important factor, the fighting should still be handled nicely in order to really bank on their title, and sadly this movie doesn’t really do it service. They aren’t horribly done and occasionally have some nice shot compositions and a fun stunt, but the editing by Dana E. Glauberman is too quick and doesn’t allow time to digest any of the moves, most of the cinematography by Justin Brown is too claustrophobic and prevents the audience from fully seeing what’s going on, and while there is a sense of active fun in some of the moves and how they incorporate the environment (like an old Jackie Chan film), it’s not creative enough to leave a lasting impression.

One of the benefits of this more modern presentation is that New York looks very nice and high definition, with the shots looking better in a  more causal setting than in a fast-paced one, but even that is mixed with occasional gimmicks like cartoony graphics, cross-cutting transition and stylish text bubbles that don’t really provide a lot, but at least matches the more fiery street level personality the film is trying to emulate.

Karate Kid: Legends hasn’t learnt any new techniques but is at least able to emulate the basics enough that it can be marked as a competent performance, albeit one that probably can’t do so in another tournament. When comparing it to the other movies in this franchise, it is the weakest of the three (excluding the sequels), as even with their own faults, they knew how to make their characters feel genuine, the drama feel believable and the combat feel like it related to and greatly impacted the story, whereas this film is mainly just coasting on the success of other projects to distract people from a pretty watered down script and slightly shallow direction. It’s not really a bad film as it’s harmlessly inoffensive, goes by at a quick pace, and has actors who are all trying, but they also have to battle against a sloppy script, sappy direction, basic characters and a really aimless third act. A movie that gets right to the punch yet strangely doesn’t leave much of an indent.

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