Karate Kid Legends
review by Bobby Blakey
When the Karate Kid hit theaters in 1984 who would have thought that it would not only become a cult classic for marital arts fans but spawn an entire franchise. After the 4th film it seemed the franchise was dead until a remake in 2010 featuring martial arts icon Jackie Chan looked to revitalize the series. It did well, but then no sequel came until the unexpected return to the story that started it all came to TV with the series Cobra Kai that ran six fun seasons with the return of both original stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka among other veterans to the film series.
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With the series now over, it felt like we were finally bringing the franchise to a close once again until it was announced a new film was being made that brought both versions of the franchise together and making the remake now cannon to the original story with Karate Kid: Legends bringing Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio together finally along with co-stars Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-NA Wen and introducing Ben Wang.
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Karate Kid: Legends follows kung fu prodigy Li Fong who is uprooted from his home in Beijing and forced to move to New York City with his mother after a family tragedy. Li struggles to let go of his past as he tries to fit in with his new classmates, and although he doesn't want to fight, trouble seems to find him everywhere. When a new friend needs his help, Li enters a karate competition – but his skills alone aren't enough. Li's kung fu teacher Mr. Han enlists original Karate Kid Daniel LaRusso for help, and Li learns a new way to fight, merging their two styles into one for the ultimate martial arts showdown.
As a martial artist myself and fan of the genre I have a love hate relationship with Karate Kid. I loved it when I saw it back in 1984 and still do to this day as a fan, but
as a martial artist there are so many frustrating elements that have extended to every aspect of the franchise. This is a personal issue but doesn’t make me love the series any less. Heading into this film one of my biggest issues is could they somehow not only make the story make sense to bring them together, but more importantly how are you going to convince the audience that Chan and Macchio were on the same level as martial artists.
The film features all the usual silliness of any film in this franchise but uses a single moment from The Karate Kid part II as the connection between Miyagi and Han makes total sense for the history of the families. This is more of a sequel to the Chan film than the original series, but it is all part of one big universe now and I am here for it. Like every film in the franchise the story is focused on the kid this time played great by Ben Wang. The story is essentially the same as every other film with the bullied kid that must rise up against the strong karate bully, so you just must accept it and move forward.
Yang brings the innocence and likability to the role along with the most martial arts talent to date of any of the young people in the role to date. This is his journey as it should be so don’t expect Chan and Macchio to be headlining the film because they don’t. Chan is here in the beginning and then about halfway through into the finale while Macchio shows up much later and less screen time. Have no fear they both have plenty of screen time for the film and watching them work together is a lot of fun. The focus on the different styles of martial arts really makes chemistry and believability in their respective abilities make sense. Story wise it isn’t overly necessary for the two to team up for this, but it’s a fan thing and was fine by me.
There is some inconsistency here with Fong taking a beating early on but then able to smack around three people that had me baffled in why. You just must let it go and just assume it’s because the new bully is just that good, which isn’t necessarily the case, but at the same time Pat Morita was a martial arts master either so whatever. The fighting in this film is some of the best of the franchise in my opinion feeling more like a classic Chan film at some moments in its execution. The tournament, although also silly, is more of an underground thing with the rules being made way clearer and followed more than the other sanctioned ones in the series, so was way less frustrating to me.
There is a sub story of training that is fun to watch, but kind of pointless outside of growth to Fong but again it’s a Karate Kid movie so little makes that much sense nor needs to. I loved the flick and think it is one of the better entries to the franchise, but will no doubt be another divided in opinions.
Decide for yourself and check out Karate Kid Legends in theaters now from Sony.
