Karate Kid: Legends aims to unite all the various branches of the franchise in a single, central narrative. Photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The Karate Kid franchise is a very, very strange one.
What started as a simple film made in 1984 about a kid looking to overcome his bullies by learning karate from a Japanese WWII vet with severe PTSD has since gone on to become a huge multi-media juggernaut of Hollywood.
Since the ’84 original, there have been three sequels, including one starring Hilary Swank, as well as five seasons of a sequel series where the villain from the original film is now the lead, and a spin-off also called The Karate Kid, where the protagonist actually learns kung-fu.
Most recently, the newest film in the franchise, Karate Kid: Legends, aims to bridge the gap between the various spin-offs and create a unified narrative.
Unfortunately, while watching this film, I couldn’t help but feel like Jaden Smith in the 2010 remake (it should have been called ‘The Kung-Fu Kid’ but that’s a different debate) because I hated it there and I wanted to go home.
The biggest issue with Karate Kid: Legends is that nothing in it is new. It’s a watered-down version of the 2010 film, which is a watered-down version of the 1984 original.
It employs cheap nostalgic ploys, such as bringing back Jackie Chan, who is used sparingly, and Ralph Macchio, who is used even less.
They marketed the premise of the two separate films coming together in one story, and it does, for like 5 minutes.
It’s kind of false advertising, and from the get-go, it put me and most of the people I went to see it with offside.
It doesn’t help that the plot descends into the same trope of a kid versus a bully in a martial arts tournament. We’ve seen it countless times in this franchise alone: first in the original, then in the sequel, then the threquel, the spin-off, the other spin-off and then about 50 times in the TV show.
The plot has run out of legs.
There are some positives if you like karate, tho.
The choreography is as good as it’s ever been, and if there was wirework, it’s barely noticeable. There was some exploration outside of bullying with the main protagonist and his girlfriend’s brother, as well as learning to become a boxer, but unfortunately, it dropped around the halfway mark.
It was cool to see Kung-Fu legend Jackie Chan and OG Ralph Macchio share screen time, albeit briefly.
The film’s greatest strengths contribute to its most significant weaknesses. It dangles the carrot in front of you and goes, ‘You want this? You like this, huh?’ before throwing the carrot away and forcing you to eat a recycled, not-so-fresh carrot.
Because of this, the entire thing feels like a parody of itself, something that the aforementioned sequel TV show, Cobra Kai, has already mastered.
This just wasn’t the movie this franchise needed. It should have focused on the two branches, namely the original film and the 2010 remake, coming together; instead, it felt like a cameo fest with little to no substance.
Karate Kid: Legends is currently showing in cinemas across the country.
Original Article published by Jarryd Rowley on Region Canberra.
