To quote Karate Kid sensei Mr. Miyagi: “Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home.” It’s a lesson that applies to Karate Kid: Legends, the new movie bringing together two branches into one tree: the Ralph Macchio-fronted franchise of the 1980s and the 2010 reimagining with martial arts legend Jackie Chan in the mentor role. This time, the titular Karate Kid is Li Fong (played by American Born Chinese actor Ben Wang), a Beijing transplant whose training is guided by both Kung Fu master Mr. Han (Chan) and karate sensei Daniel LaRusso (Macchio).
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Sony’s Columbia Pictures lifted the Karate Kid: Legends review embargo on Wednesday, and it sounds like Legends fails to balance its legacy characters and recycled, formulaic plot with new ideas. (One critic likened the cliche-ridden plot to a crane kick to the head.)
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Karate Kid: Legends currently sits on Rotten Tomatoes with a 55 percent “rotten” rating at the time of publishing. That’s below the last film, 2010’s The Karate Kid (67 percent fresh), but better than 1986’s Karate Kid II (48 percent rotten), 1989’s Karate Kid III (15 percent), and 1994’s The Next Karate Kid (7 percent), which saw Hilary Swank become the student of Pat Morita’s Mr. Miyagi. 1984’s The Karate Kid remains the best-received movie with 86 percent fresh, while the Netflix sequel series Cobra Kai is overall the highest-rated entry in the 40-year-old franchise with a 94 percent approval from critics on the review aggregator.
Based on the 1984 original film from Rocky director John G. Avildsen and franchise writer-creator Robert Mark Kamen, the sixth Karate Kid movie is directed by Jonathan Entwistle (Netflix’s The End of the F***ing World) and written by Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit). The first Karate Kid movie to be rated PG-13 rather than PG, Legends also marks Macchio’s return to the big screen after reprising his role opposite William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence across six seasons of Cobra Kai.
ScreenCrush: “Karate Kid: Legends [is] a legacyquel that rehashes that exact same plot for a third time. And I mean the exact same plot. This latest installment goes way beyond recycling the basic premise of a bullied teen mentored by an older martial artist … Forget about three branches from one tree; this is the first branch presented for the third time. They might as well have called it Karate Kid: Déjà Vu.”
Variety: “The film dunks us in a storyline so simple, so unironic, so cheesy-sincere, so analog that you may feel it transporting you right back to the ‘innocence’ of the ’80s. And that’s actually the best thing about Karate Kid: Legends. It’s a film that’s unapologetically basic and wholesome and, at 94 minutes, refreshingly stripped down. In its formulaic way, it works as an antidote to the bloat and clutter of your average ‘high-powered’ teenage/kiddie flick.”
The Hollywood Reporter: “Take a dose of the original Karate Kid tetralogy, add some elements from the 2010 remake, finish it off with a soupçon of the Netflix series Cobra Kai, and you have the Frankenstein’s monster of a franchise continuation that is Karate Kid: Legends. While no one could begrudge the seemingly ageless Ralph Macchio and beloved action star Jackie Chan the opportunity to reprise their roles of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han, respectively, this latest addition to an apparently unkillable franchise adds nothing original to the formula. It’s a formula that works, to be sure, making for a pleasant enough time filler. But that’s about it … The plot is just awful, crammed with so many cliches that you’re barely done chuckling at one before another kicks you in the head.”
TheWrap: “Unfortunately, while the team-up may be fun for fans of previous Karate Kid movies and Cobra Kai, it also misses the emotional core of these coming-of-age stories … Karate Kid: Legends feels like two movies set against each other. One is standard issue Karate Kid fare that would have done fine as its own story, and the other is leaning hard on nostalgia despite not giving Mr. Han or Daniel anything to do other than train Li. It still manages to arrive at a fairly charming albeit unsteady picture that should win over a new generation of younger viewers. But for older members of the audience, the second half of Karate Kid: Legends feels like an insecure fighter changing his approach halfway through a match.”
Mashable: “It’s easy to be cynical about sequels when Hollywood’s cinematic landscape is littered with bad examples. But then a sequel comes along that’s so good, it’ll knock you out. Karate Kid: Legends is a sensational sequel, building on the classic underdog framework of the original 1984 Karate Kid movie, while working in fresh fun, familiar faces, and a dazzling new talent [in Ben Wang].”
USA Today: “What old-school Karate Kid lovers and newer Cobra Kai fans probably should know is that Legends, directed by Jonathan Entwistle, is more of a quasi-sequel to Chan’s Karate Kid movie than a throwback to the franchise’s early days. It definitely carries over the ‘Everything is kung fu’ vibe, especially with Li and Han, and Daniel doesn’t even show up until well into the latter half of the movie. Macchio and Chan do have a fun rapport in the training scenes, when their characters get Li into fighting shape but also playfully knock him around a bit. Wang is an excellent straight man for those two, and the young actor exudes an electric, everyman appeal.”
The Playlist: “It isn’t that Karate Kid: Legends is bad; it’s more that it’s fine, and that’s disappointing for fans of the franchise. Given the opportunity to revive the film franchise on the big screen following the success of Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg’s Cobra Kai on the small screen, this film unfortunately lacks the conviction, drama, and heart that both enjoyed. What could have been a perfect storm is just bad weather. However, despite its flaws, Karate Kid: Legends feels like a natural conclusion to this decades-long journey. It’s acceptable.”
Here’s the logline: “Karate Kid: Legends unites the iconic martial arts masters of one of the most beloved film franchises of all time to tell a completely new story full of action and heart. When kung fu prodigy Li Fong (Wang) relocates to New York City with his mother to attend a prestigious new school, he finds solace in a new friendship with a classmate and her father. But his newfound peace is short-lived after he attracts unwanted attention from a formidable local karate champion. Driven by a desire to defend himself, Li embarks on a journey to enter the ultimate karate competition. Guided by the wisdom of his kung fu teacher, Mr. Han (Chan), and the legendary Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (Macchio), Li merges their unique styles to prepare for an epic martial arts showdown.”
Karate Kid: Legends — starring Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, and Ming-Na Wen — opens only in theaters May 30.
