Karate Kid: Legends

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 since it very effectively portrayed the simple yet relatable story of a teen defeating a violent bully with the help of a wise old master, but despite forming a pretty big franchise, it was never able to recapture the spark. While some have a soft spot for the sequels despite offering diminishing returns, and 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 more renditions, but this didn’t stop Sony from greenlighting another movie in 2025, this time starring both Macchio and Chan, hoping to capitalize on nostalgia-hungry fans in order to illicit the most profitable result.

After moving to New York from Beijing, Li Fong (played by Ben Wang) tries to adjust to the new environment, but this proves difficult, especially since his mother (played by Ming-Na Weng) forbids him from practicing martial arts, spurned from the recent passing of his exceptionally gifted martial artist older brother. Having plenty of potential but no outlet to use it on, Li finds a roundabout way to fight when his new friend, Mia (played by Sadie Stanley) introduces him to her former boxer father, Alan (played by Joshua Jackson) who plans to enter an upcoming tournament to pay off a group of loan sharks attacking his pizza business. With Li agreeing to help train him, Mia’s former boyfriend, Conor (played by Aramis Knight), a highly volatile karate prodigy, is expected to win the upcoming Five Boroughs Tournament, prompting Li to enter in order to help with Alan’s money trouble. This leads Li’s Uncle and former Kung Fu master, Mr. Han (played again by Jackie Chan) to travel to the big apple to train his old pupil, and even manages to recruit former karate prodigy, Daniel LaRusso (played again by Ralph Macchio) to help perfect Li’s blended form of martial arts. 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 probably won’t be the highest grossing film of the year like the previous Karate Kid films managed to achieve for their respective years, but for such a low bar, it does manage to at least meet expectations. While lacking in authenticity and suffering from a sloppy third act, the fast pacing, tolerable characters and really good acting keeps it from feeling like just another lousy retread.

While The Karate Kid was a big hit, it 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 characters feel 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, there is a formula to this premise that can work even in modern day. This film certainly studied that formula pretty thoroughly, practically following it beat-for-beat (possibly highlighting how there really isn’t much new that can be done with this idea), but while it follows the basics well enough, copying makes it easier to notice flaws. The script by Rob Lieber has way too much stuff going on for such a short, small movie, meaning the old stuff feels very by-the-numbers and lacking any fresh perspective, and the new stuff (however sporadically it’s included) doesn’t get enough time to get developed.

While trailers presented a team up film with the two returning faces training new blood, that plot point 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. Considering fans didn’t approve of this premise when it original leaked, it’s entirely possible that the marketing hid the actual narrative and solely hype 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 disadvantage because of the aforementioned tone and very bare bones script, which is a shame as they could’ve been really great if given good material. The characters and their relationships were crucial to the success of the previous films (it even got Pat Morita an Oscar nomination), whereas in this film, every actor doesn’t feel supported by the script and are instead left out to dry with very basic roles. In returning to the Nickelodeon 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 a neat idea (although not really strong enough to base an entire film around), even how they are utilized isn’t entirely seamless. Because they aren’t in the film that much, it prevents them time to form any meaningful connections with any character, actively removing one of the strongest aspects of this premise and making all their scenes feel very one note and shallow. There’s a hint of an idea with them butting heads over how to train Li, but it comes way too late to lead to anything meaningful. Also, while Macchio portrays Daniel in 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 with this tone, but considering his portrayal of Mr. Han felt very different from how Chan usually performed, to see it absent makes his return feel less special.

Even if they aren’t the most important component, the fighting still needs to be handled in an effective sense 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 how an old Jackie Chan film would be presented), 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 match 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 compared to the other first Karate Kid films, it is the weakest of the three,  as even with their own faults, the former two 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 a bad film as it’s harmlessly inoffensive, goes at a quick pace, and has actors who are all trying, but they also have to battle with 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.