Karate Kid: Legends is the first theatrical entry in the franchise in 15 years, since the 2010 reboot starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. Sure, Karate Kid has thrived in the streaming corner with legacy-sequel-series Cobra Kai, but Legends relishes in the spectacle of the big screen – a peppy reminder of the popcorn fun this series has brought for over three decades.
Hot on the heels of Cobra Kai's sixth and final season, which deftly put a bow on the Miyagi-universe's 7-year TV run, Legends is a Karate Kid film of old; replaying the beats of the 1984 original and 2010 remake, and melding the two worlds with the new, the film follows Li Fong (Ben Wang) whose life is uprooted from Beijing to New York when his mother (Ming-Na Wen) is offered a job there. He meets a girl (Sadie Stanley), stumbles into trouble, and has to fortify his fighting skills with the combined training techniques of Mr Han (Chan) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to beat the local bully (Aramis Knight) and win a karate tournament.
All of which is to say: this is identifiably, traditionally a Karate Kid film. It doesn't reinvent the franchise's recipe, nor does it mix up the classic underdog story structure either. There isn't inherently an issue with this; Wang imbues his karate prodige with a real pathos and his relationship with Mia (Stanley) and her dad Victor (Joshua Jackson), as he trains the latter in the art of kung fu, is a real highlight of the film. It's also refreshing to see a slight switch-up to the mentoring part, with the titular Kid doing the teaching for a bit. The fight choreography is slickly helmed too with impressive, taut fisticuffs that are easily amongst the franchise's best thanks to the involvement of Chan's own stunt team. On this front, it all excels. The whole thing is just haphazardly cobbled together.
The film's issues lie in the editing. Without credits, the runtime comes in at a brisk 89 minutes, and it's cramming a lot in – setup, backstory, a love story, training montages, all whilst organically bringing legacy characters into the fold too. As a result, it breezes through scenes at a lightning pace and leaves a lot of the emotional depth on the cutting room floor. It's not that scenes themselves don't work; the script still hits the expected beats, but certain scenes can feel incomplete because it cuts out before anything has settled. The audience is given no time to process character development and emotional beats as the story flits between its various threads and themes without much cohesion. Even just an extra half hour added to the film as it already is, to expand upon scenes and let moments breathe a little longer, would help to ground this film with a nuance and depth that's otherwise lacking.
Still, the archetypal script works within its confines well enough thanks to the charm of its leading man. Wang does good work here and his chemistry with his scene partners, most notably Chan, Macchio, and Stanley, is impeccable and his physicality is impressive as he dispatches the muscular stunt work with relative ease. The ties to both The Karate Kid (2010) and Cobra Kai are sketchy at best, with disappointingly no connection to Cobra Kai whatsoever (other than a fun end credits button), but Chan and Macchio's dynamic is fizzy and fun nonetheless, even if the latter's presence is shoehorned in and not until at least an hour in. It may not be as tight as its predecessors, but audiences love Karate Kid for its distinguishable story, action, and heart; it's in those pockets in which Legends thrives. It brings fun and energy in spades. Like Fong himself, Karate Kid: Legends has the rugged spirit of a champion. It's scrappy, rough around the edges, but it fights like hell and makes its punches count. And in karate, that's what matters most.
Karate Kid: Legends is in cinemas from May 28th
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