Over the last few months, my journey through the Karate Kid franchise has taken to some far stranger places than Encino or Bejing. I am if course talking about my mental state as I tried to objectively assess films as an adult that I wasn’t particularly interested in when I was the correct age and I’ve gone from being mildly impressed by entries that some hail as fun, old school classic, to rating some less loved installments oddly high. The reason I started was, unsurprisingly, due to the throwback, tongue in cheek, out and out fun of spin off show, Cobra Kai, but then out of nowhere, a new opponent entered the arena in the unforseen form of Karate Kid: Legends, a movie intended to not only bring the world of Miyagi-Do back to the big screen, but rope in the Jackie Chan remake too in order to upgrade it from over long remake to official franchise entry.
However, in a post Cobra-Kai world, do we still need any more Karate Kid movies – especially when it doesn’t feature the kids we’ve been following since 2018?
Like many Karate Kids before him, Li Fong finds himself facing a major life upheaval when his mother has them move from Bejing to New York in order to further her career as a doctor. This means that not only does Li have to leave behind everything he knows, but he also has to abandon his Kung Fu training and his shifu, Mr. Han, a teacher of great reknown who really seems to have picked himself up after the events of the 2010 Karate Kid as he has his own school. The move is traumatic enough, but due to the murder of his brother after a martial arts tournament, Li’s mother has also forbade him to engaging in fighting of any kind – which proves to be especially problematic when the local martial arts champ at his new school targets him for a classic Karate Kid bout of bullying. Why has this arrogant punk targeted Li? Simple, because the only friend he’s managed to make is Mia Lipani, the daughter of former boxer turned pizza shop owner, Victor Lipani, and she just so happens to be the bully’s ex-girlfriend. Of course, matters get even worse when Victor, who wants to get back in the ring to pay off a loan shark, gets Li to help train him when disaster strikes.
However, when things look their grimmest, Mr. Han arrives to offer advice and talks Li into entering the Five Burroughs Tournament which, if he wins, will not only nab enough prize money to help everyone out, but will also help him face his bully in the ring (that’s convenient). However, Han realises that Li’s fighting prowess could use an extra special something and summons some help over from California in the form of Daniel LaRusso, the student of his friend, Mr. Miyagi.
As the two collaborate and bicker about the best way for Li to emerge victorious, time gradually ticks down; can the sensei and the shifu hone the latest “Karate Kid” into a lean, mean, bully smiting machine?
Going into Karate Kid: Legends, there’s already a fair few issues this movie has to try and overcome and the main one is the sizable shadow cast by the six seasons of Cobra-Kai and the fact that it’s already managed to make the original franchise relevant to a modern audience thanks to a winning mixture of teen drama, kickass action and winning sense of self awareness. The problem is, with Cobra-Kai around, there’s actually no real need for Legends to exist other than someone somewhere desperately wanted to make the 2010 remake cannon, so a lot of this new movie feels in danger of being immediately redundant. While Cobra-Kai played up to how ridiculous it was by expertly manipulating 80s nostalgia, Legends attempts to snare a younger crowd primarily by having director Jonathan Entwistle have the whole film shot and edited like an extra peppy episode of Ms. Marvel. Title cards take the form of graffiti style graphics that pop up on the screen and the pace of the film feels like a cinematic sugar rush, but while I get that the movie is trying something new to appeal to a new audience, it doesn’t exactly fit well with the 80s vibes of the originals, the somber feel of the remake, or even the throwback stylings of Cobra-Kai. Worse yet, some of those zippy graphics actually start to frustratingly hinder your enjoyment of the action, especially when some bright spark thought it was a good idea to overlay the scoreboard over the final fight, thus obscuring the view of the actual punches we’re watching getting scored.
However, Karate Kid: Legends is responsible for an even greater sin when you realise that despite the word “legends” featuring predominantly in the title and the twin visages of Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio looming large on the poster, neither of these guys have actually much to do until the film is halfway over. In fact Macchio’s Daniel-San isn’t even introduced until about forty minutes in and you get the very real impression that the film has set its sights way too small, especially since Cobra-Kai has already been playing the call-back game like a pro for about 7 years.
All this would be pretty disastrous if not for a couple of fact that salvage the film somewhat. Even though naming the film Karate Kid: Unrelated Joshua Jackson Boxing Subplot would have presumably been too on the nose, the early stuff involving Ben Wang’s Li befriending Jackson’s pizza twirling pugilist and Sadie Stanley love intrest is actually kind of sweet and watching the young martial artist train Pacey Witter from Dawson’s Creek to once again be a good fighter might have been a fun film on its own – but when you’ve been promised Karate Kid royalty, it does feel like a bit of a con.
Still, as a Jackie Chan fan from back in the day, it is still genuinely sweet to see him firmly in teacher mode again after starting his career back in the 70s as the bumbling student in acres of Hong Kong Kung Fu movies – but it’s even more gratifying to see that he still has those fast hands and even quicker wit as his comic timing remains untarnished. It’s a warm film and it still proves that I’m a sucker for a good montage and a high-stakes final face-off and despite some iffy editing here and there, Jackie Chan’s stunt team ensures that the movie’s brawls carry a slight, old school, Kung Fu vibe. However, you can also feel a modern influence of Anime and video games seeping into some of the action which gives things a nice, stylish edge.
However, as much as the film is a warm experience, and Ben Wang is a worthy addition to the young legacy that the franchise has, I just in good conscience can’t elevate my rating to three stars because I refuse to shake my opinion that Karate Kid: Legends just doesn’t take advantage of it’s premise and build upon what other branches of its franchise have managed to achieve. Also, I don’t particularly appreciate the ad campaign blatently lying to my face either and if you really wanted to push the Legends moniker, maybe don’t give said Legends mere extended cameos.
Some Karate, plenty of Kid, skimps on the legend.
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We Have Issues 
Looks ihe most disturbing horror film to come down the pike in a long time.
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