Even though I am a big fan of the original Karate Kid movies, I still haven’t gotten around to watching the Cobra Kai TV show. I mean, I love Karate Kid and all, but I can’t see myself devoting tens of hours to a TV show about it, even if they did bring my boy Terry Silver back. There are just so many hours in a day. On the other hand, a ninety-minute team-up movie between the original star Ralph Macchio and the remake’s Jackie Chan? Well, that I can do.
Li (Ben Wang) is a kid who moves from China to New York and almost immediately starts getting hassled by a karate champion classmate named Conor (Aramis Knight). You see, he’s just jealous because his ex-girlfriend Mia (Sadie Stanley) has befriended Li and he wants to show him up in front of his girl. Meanwhile, Mia’s father (Joshua Jackson) owes money to the shady characters to own the karate dojo where Conor trains. Since Li promised his mom (Ming-Na Wen) not to fight, he agrees to train Mia’s dad for an upcoming boxing match. After her dad is brutally beaten, Li vows to get payback by entering the “Five Boroughs Karate Tournament”. In order to win, he’ll have to be trained by his Uncle Han (Chan) and his friend Mr. Miyagi’s prized student, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio).
In most of these “legacy” sequels, the stuff with the new characters tends to be the weakest part. The surprising thing about Karate Kid Legends is that the new characters are all appealing and the new storyline (which is basically an inverse of the original) is engaging. Wang makes for a likable lead and he’s quite good in his mentoring scenes with Jackson. In fact, the shakiest aspect of the movie is the last act, which is what you’d expect to be the strongest.
Many will be bummed that Macchio doesn’t show up until the last forty minutes, but honestly the narrative holds up pretty well without him. Once he’s there, it’s really little more than fan service anyway. That said, it’s still a kick (no pun intended) to see him and Chan sharing the screen together. The tournament finale has some problems too, mostly because it feels rushed and the editing gets a little ADD (the video game-inspired graphics for the fights are cheesy too). However, it’s nothing that derails the fun. Besides, Wang gives the movie plenty of heart, and that’s really what counts in a Karate Kid film.
No comments:
Post a Comment