Unreal Movie Review: The Karate Kid

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When it was announced that The Karate Kid was being remade, everyone moaned. “Unnecessary!”

When it was announced that Jackie Chan would be the new Mr. Miyagi, everyone rolled their eyes. “Too obvious!”

When it was announced that Will and Jada Pinkett Smith had signed on to produce and their son Jaden was set to star, everyone groaned. “Nepotism!”

Now at the time, all of these were perfectly legitimate complaints in their own right, but though this had all the makings of a complete disaster that would sum up everything wrong with Hollywood’s “reboot” culture today, in fact, it did quite the opposite.

The Karate Kid is good, and not just good, really good. It’s one of the more powerful films I’ve seen this year in fact, and I have to say it, actually surpasses the original it set out to emulate in a lot of ways.

Look, the original Karate Kid is a cult classic, with its memorable lines and scenes, but the fact is, this remake is just a flat out better film, as it’s gorgeously shot, extremely well written, and takes its time to tell a story.

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It’s interesting to note this is an entirely non-white cast in a mainstream movie. How often does that happen?

Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) and his mother (Taraji P. Henson) are moving to China after all the life opportunities back in Detroit have dried up. As a current resident, I can hardly blame them. Dre doesn’t speak a word of Chinese, and though he makes a few friends initially, finds himself picking a fight with the wrong bully soon enough (Zhenwei Wang) who doesn’t like his intentions toward a pretty young Chinese girl (Wenwen Han).

Dre gets his ass handed to him courtesy of the bully Cheng’s elaborate mastery of kung fu. The harassment continues and escalates until Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), Dre’s apartment maintenance man is forced to intervene with some kung fu of his own. Yes, all the fighting in the film is firmly rooted in the Chinese art of kung fu, as Japanese karate is a completely different style entirely. But the studio didn’t want to confuse idiotic American audiences, so they thought upsetting a few martial artists by keeping the title the same as the original was the right call.

Han and Dre approach the dojo where the bullies train, but they’re greeted with hostility by the master there, a brutal man who teaches his students to show now mercy in the face of battle. The two come to an agreement that Dre will face off against his squad in an upcoming martial arts tournament, and Han realizes that he must train Dre so he stands a chance.

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Not quite as memorable as Johnny Lawrence, but a good villain in his own right. 

It sounds quite similar to the plot of the original film, but outside of the underlying architecture, everything else is an entirely new movie.
We all loved Ralph Macchio in the first film, but Jaden Smith brings a heaping helping of charisma to proceedings, something he surely inherited from his father. It’s clear the Smiths wanted this to be a breakout vehicle for their son, and boy, is it ever.

I’ve never been so impressed by a young actor so quickly. Smith is funny, witty and can effectively cry a river as well. But his acting abilities are just as impressive as his physical feats, and I cannot imagine the amount of training this kid went through to give the kind of performance we see here. The choreographed action scenes in this movie are more intense and impressive than most R-rated blockbusters I’ve seen in recent years, and Jaden’s athleticism is simply astonishing in many of the scenes. And by the end when you hear him rapping over the credits with Justin Bieber? It’s clear this kid is going to be a massive star soon enough.

Jackie Chan is far more reserved than we usually see him, though he shows flashes of humor from time to time. He has an equally sad story to Mr. Miyagi in the original film, and for all this film’s strengths, I don’t think Pat Morita is quite beaten out by Chan here.

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No 12 year-old boy should be able to bend like that. Err, that sounds weird.

The film benefits from the move to China, which in addition to making far more sense for the plot (how many roving karate gangs have you seen in New Jersey?), the filmmakers worked with the Chinese government who allowed them to shoot in an unprecedented amount of gorgeous locations around the country. And for good reason too. With a film this good combined with a beautiful landscape, parts of the movie are literally almost a tourism commercial for the country we usually think of as communists intent on poisoning our toys.

The film is simply well made. Much of this rests on Jaden Smith’s shoulders, and his relationship with Chan’s Han. Their trip to the ancient mountains of China is breathtaking, and their training sessions are often hilarious, but also range from heartstopping to heartbreaking.

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Box office success is genetic it seems. 

If the film has flaws, they’re few and far between. I thought Taraji P. Henson was a bit too over the top as Dre’s mother, who alternates between being obsessively overprotective to being alright with sending her son to some strange janitor’s house every day for hours.

Also, the film is massively long, nearly two and a half hours in fact, and it could have lost a little bit of fat near the beginning to move things along, but the stretched out pace works wonders for character development, and the emotional payoff of the long, arduous journey of Dre’s transformation is one of the best I’ve experienced in recent memory. It’s the only time in a movie recently where I actually applauded during a particularly epic part of the film.

It’s a solid family adventure, and it’s nice to see that that a film can be remade without it being a complete affront to the original. What started as a questionable idea transformed into something great, and I only hope that other inevitable future remakes might learn from the Karate Kid’s example.

4.5 out of 5 stars

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11 Comments

  1. Yeah sorry, had to say something. Burnt out from E3?

    All that aside I was gonna avoid this movie like the plague but this review just convinced me to go see it in the theater.

  2. beautifully written review- it has persuaded me to see a movie that i thought would be horrible.

    i havent seen the film yet, but the main problem i have is the short amount of time to learn kung fu. karate is one thing, you can get a working idea in a few months. however, kung fu takes years to be at the beginner level…so i am still on the fence about the believability.

  3. i had my suspicions that this was going to be good from seeing the trailer, good to know its good, will definitely see it.

    my only problem is the name of the movie, damn Hollywood execs they should have called it “Kung-fu kid”.

    LOL i just realized KUNGFUKID doesnt sound very good.

  4. I have not seen this movie so I will have to take your word for it on how great it is. As someone who has spent time in China I have to say the whole idea of a young black American moving to China and attending school sounded incredibly ridiculous to me. The only school he would be attending would be an English speaking ex-pat school with mostly other non-Chinese. I hate to say it but I believe the majority of Chinese people in China are very racist especially to dark skinned people. There is simply no way this movie could be made at all close to reality without offending most American audiences.

    Honestly I’m not sure why they chose to remake the Karate kid (with no karate). And even more why they decided to take it to China. This really seems to have very little to do with the original movie at this point. The similarities are simply that he gets bullied and fights back. It’s not like this is a terribly original idea anyway, so I don’t see the need to borrow a title from the previous film. Couldn’t this film have been made without any connection to the original?

    “But the studio didn’t want to confuse idiotic American audiences, so they thought upsetting a few martial artists by keeping the title the same as the original was the right call.” I mean really… Film audiences these days are more sophisticated than ever. The first reaction I have heard from every single person when discussing this film is “why would they be doing karate in China?”. Oh they are not doing Karate? Then why is it called Karate Kid?? I think the studio did an excellent job of confusing intelligent American audiences.

    Yes I Know maybe this is just a silly movie, not grounded in reality or facts. But for me I need some footing in reality to draw me into the movie. From what I have seen so far this movie is about as realistic as Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift. You say it’s very good so I will probably check it out when I get the opportunity to see it for free. If my pre conceived bias is unfounded I’ll happily eat my words.

  5. See the movie and then have an opinion. The movie is gorgeous and both the kid and Chan are great. The only disappointment for me is Jaden saying in an interview that he’s a Twilight fan, but he’s just eleven after all

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