The Karate Kid franchise continues its legacy with Karate Kid Legends, a film that attempts to blend elements from the original 1980s trilogy, the 2010 reboot, and the Cobra Kai TV series. However, it left me feeling that this ambition might be its downfall.
Karate Kid Legends follows the typical Karate Kid plot: the protagonist goes to another country, gets beaten up, levels up, and then beats the villain. There’s totally nothing wrong with this formula, but the film doesn’t really flesh out this basic structure beyond that, which leaves the audience unable to fully resonate with what the characters are fighting for.
I grew up watching the 2010 Karate Kid, and looking back, I’ve found a new appreciation for how good of a character Jackie Chan’s Mr Han was in that movie. We root for him because we see everything, from his backstory, to how he became disillusioned towards martial arts, and how Jaden Smith’s Dre Parker was the one who brought him back up from the ground.
In contrast, we don’t see as much significant character development with this movie. As a result, the main character would sometimes make decisions that felt illogical as they weren’t fully explained. The film also didn’t seem to bother building up its side characters, such as the main character’s mom and a returning Daniel LaRusso from the 1980s films.
All that said, the biggest issue I had with the film was the incredibly disorienting camerawork. It was all over the place with a severe lack of wide-angle shots, cuts every 2 seconds, and unnecessary camera movements during fights. Don’t get me wrong, I could see that the actors put effort into the choreography, but I couldn’t fully enjoy it because the camerawork rendered everything into blurry movements.
Still, it isn’t all bad. Though it may not drastically reinvent the wheel, the film still manages to offer the familiar elements of martial arts, mentorship, and personal growth that audiences have come to expect from the Karate Kid universe, and that might be enough to provide a satisfying experience for newer, younger fans. Ultimately, I would rate this movie a 6/10.
