PLOT: Li Fong (Ben Wang) – a Beijing-based kung fu student, is forced to leave his beloved shifu and Uncle, Han (Jackie Chan) behind when his mother accepts a job in New York City. Banned from fighting, he finds himself compelled into action once he falls for a classmate, Mia (Sadie Stanley), whose father, Victor (Joshua Jackson), is in trouble with a loan shark who owns a martial arts club.
REVIEW: Karate Kid: Legends is a textbook example of what happens when a movie is made for no reason but to exploit a familiar IP in hopes of making a nice profit at the box office. It offers nothing new to the franchise beyond connecting the Jaden Smith-led spin-off, The Karate Kid (which should have been called The Kung Fu Kid), to the original franchise now that it’s hot again with Cobra Kai.
While prominently featured on the posters, Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso is ludicrously shoe-horned into the film, with him only making his first appearance more than 2/3rd of the way into the scant ninety-minute running time. There’s no reason for him to be in this movie, which would have fared better as a standalone movie, with only Jackie Chan filling the mentor role.
The only original thing about Karate Kid: Legends is that Ben Wang’s Li Fong is already more than proficient in martial arts as the movie begins. His problem is more psychological, with him reeling from watching his brother get murdered after a match gone wrong, leading to his mother (Ming-Na Wen in a throwaway role) banning him from fighting. The movie is ludicrously overstuffed with plot points, with about half devoted to Li Fong training Joshua Jackson’s character, Victor, to become a better fighter so he can compete in a boxing match to pay off some debt to mobsters. The plot is convoluted, with the same bad guy also owning a Cobra Kai-style gym, whose best fighter, Aramis Knight’s Connor Day, is the karate champ of the five boroughs, and has his eyes on Li Fong’s love interest, who also happens to be Victor’s daughter. See what I mean by convoluted?
So, where does Ralph Macchio come in? In about the last thirty minutes or so, the movie becomes an abbreviated remake of the first film, with Chan’s Han, for some reason or other, deciding that the only way Fong has a chance of winning is to take instruction from his old pal Mr. Miyagi’s favourite student. Guess who. Macchio looks like he only worked on the film for a few days, and Chan, who’s good already in the mentor role, takes a back seat to LaRusso, who, in the fantasy world established by the movie, is supposed to be a martial artist on par with JACKIE CHAN.
This wouldn’t be a big deal if the movie were compelling, but Karate Kid: Legends lacks the energy of Netflix’s Cobra Kai, any episode of which has better action than the over-the-top, superhero-style fights from this one. The movie also seems cheaply done, with Montreal an unconvincing substitute for NYC (I say that as a proud Montrealer), with Wang walking around empty streets – something NYC ain’t exactly known for. Worse yet, the movie concludes on the most groan-inducing nod to Cobra Kai you can imagine, which looks like it was shoehorned in on a break from that show’s press junket.
All of this is too bad because Wang is a likeable lead, and his chemistry with Chan is terrific. This is cookie-cutter stuff, and it’s a major disappointment because—as much as people slam it now—the Jaden Smith-led Karate Kid had some heft and heart. This has none, with it just another throwaway movie destined for a quick turnaround to streaming. The franchise deserves a lot better.
