'Karate Kid: Legends' Review

Familiar faces mix with new ones in a legacy sequel that is unnecessary but pleasant

There’s nothing like a good sports movie in the summer, and the original Karate Kid is one of the best. It is a simple movie in many ways, which may surprise someone who (like me) saw it later in life and had its reputation precede it. Such an unassuming little film about a boy searching for a purpose and the father figure who helps him find it seems unlikely to have spawned 5 sequels and counting as well as a popular TV series, but it did thanks to its charming, fun, excellent execution.

The new Karate Kid: Legends film which is now in theaters does not quite capture the magic of the original (and who could expect it to?), but it does understand the heart of it. Or at least, it has the good sense to copy it. Perhaps a little too closely.

The story follows Li Fong (Ben Wang), a Chinese boy brought to New York City by his surgeon mother (Ming Na-Wen) after the tragic death of his older brother. He leaves behind his Kung Fu master, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), and promises his mother to stop practicing martial arts. He forms a small circle of friends in New York, including his dorky calculus tutor Alan (Wyatt Oleff) and, more importantly, a girl named Mia (Sadie Stanley), who runs a pizza shop with her dad Victor (Joshua Jackson). Li quickly breaks his promise to his mother, as fights seem to follow him wherever he goes. He teaches Victor to incorporate some Kung Fu principles into his boxing style so he can win some prizefight money to keep his pizza shop from being in debt to a local gang, and he also brushes up against Mia’s ex-boyfriend, Conor (Aramis Knight), who is very aggressive and is also the reigning champion of the 5 Boroughs karate tournament. Li will have to learn karate to win the tournament, get the girl, and save the pizza shop, all while working through grief at his brother’s death and trying to pass calculus.

If this sounds like way too many characters and plotlines for what should be a simple, straightforward sports movie, it is. If this sounds like a rehash of many of the important plot beats of the original Karate Kid, it is. As Jeremy Jahns put it in his review of the film, it feels like they had two half-written Karate Kid sequel scripts and just decided to mush them together. And one of those scripts seems to have been a pretty clean reboot of the entire story, with the ex-boyfriend tournament arc running pretty much beat-for-beat the same as the original, right down to a couple of moments in the final fight. The film is split into two distinct halves: the “teach Victor how to fight better to save the pizza shop half,” and the “learn karate to fight my love interest’s ex-boyfriend in the final round of a tournament (does this sound familiar to anyone else?)” half. Although the two halves are admittedly disjointed, I found both of them charming in their own right and the character motivations that carried through the whole film tied it together pretty well.

I found Li Fong’s arc in the film to be interesting and, in a way, beautiful. Although he is an accomplished master of Kung Fu, he has a tendency to freeze and run away in situations of true danger. He is, in other words, a coward. This happens twice in pivotal moments of the film; Li freezes up and does not help his friends and family in distress. Through his relationship with Mr. Han and his new karate mentor, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Li learns self-mastery and slowly builds up a new inner fire which can withstand such moments, fighting with courage and fortitude in the climactic final round. This may seem like a common trope, with the hero failing a couple times, training really hard, and finally overcoming the antagonist in the final fight. But here, Li is already a Kung Fu master. Yes, there is some more physical training he needs to do, but the greater conflict is a moral one. Li must grow in courage before he can win his tournament, even more than growing in karate skills. It’s a small touch, but one which I appreciated and which makes this film more than simply a superfluous cameo-filled legacy sequel.

Karate Kid: Legends is not as good as the original, but it works just fine as a good sports movie with which to kick off the summer. The cast is fun, the karate is thrilling, and it’s great to see Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio goof off and mentor the next generation in a way that would have made Mr. Miyagi proud. Some of the creative choices are strange and it is a little disjointed, but it had a loose charm and heart that made up for it. If you’re looking for a fun, family-friendly sports flick to watch on a long summer’s evening, you could certainly do a lot worse than this.