Even rose coloured lenses need their prescriptions updated…

In theatres tomorrow; Karate Kid: Legends is a perfectly acceptable entry into the canon of Miyagi-do Karate but it ultimately plays like a Coles Notes, segmented version that’s ready to be digested in TikToks rather than as a feature film.

After a family tragedy, kung fu prodigy Li Fong (Ben Wang) is uprooted from his home in Beijing and forced to move to New York City with his mother. 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 (Jackie Chan) enlists original Karate Kid Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) for help, and Li learns a new way to fight, merging their two styles into one for the ultimate martial arts showdown.

While Karate Kid: Legends hits the right beats to be a pleasant primer for a younger generation and brings Jackie Chan’s world into Ralph Macchio’s (via New York) it lacks character development and emotional connection to get us really invested in our new heroes story.

Director Jonathan Entwhistle makes his feature debut with an effort that quite frankly was paced like a 2-3 episode mini-series.   It’s all very truncated and segmented which doesn’t allow for a narrative flow to spend too much time on the ground.  It has the air of trying to recapture the energy of some of the more gonzo whimsy of the ‘Step Up’ sequels without having the high octane gonzo energy to it all.  It’s far too much about the quick cuts and the set pieces throughout the film to keep us engaged, but thankfully it’s got some charm in its leads to keep our collective heads in the game of it all.

While he doesn’t have a ton of previous credits to his name, Ben Wang as our new ‘Karate Kid’ steps into the shoes of the franchise with the appropriate amount of swagger and charisma to want us to root for him at the end of that, and really when you think about it it’s OK because that’s all he really needed to do.  His chemistry with Sadie Stanley (who you might know from The Goldberg’s) is more than solid for the demands of the story but that’s kind of where things drop off.

The villains are pretty non-descript, Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio as they pretend to spare with each other are quite honestly barely in the movie and they’re only purpose seems to be to keep saying “Two Branches, One Tree” which is what is the overarching theme on a variety of levels of the entire film, I’d be stunned if either man was on set for more than a week total.  Joshua Jackson and Ming Na Wen show up in the prerequisite parent roles in the film and that honestly felt more like stunt casting than anything else.

Ultimately, there’s nothing really wrong with Karate Kid: Legends but there’s nothing really right with it either.   It’s a piece of intellectual property that kept the costs low (which opens the door for potential sequels, spin-off’s and more importantly studio profit) but it serves as reminder that the rose coloured eyes that many people my age look upon the original films don’t always translate to the light of day when it comes to the original films or even the Cobra Kai TV series.   It’s a fun little timewaster of a movie (with a mid-credits cameo that’s worth waiting for) but it’s nothing that adds to the legacy or the lore of the franchise either.