Why Karate Kid: Legends Is Family-Friendly Fun

There’s a certain joy in a connect-the-dot puzzle. When you adhere to the puzzle’s simple instructions it should end in a relaxing, enjoyable experience that was worth your time. A movie can be like that too. Karate Kid: Legends is like that too, the plot is nothing revolutionary, it’s slightly surprising at times and at just over 90 minutes long it’s too short to really care about it, yet you’ll most likely be entertained.

In our simple mind, it resembled a connect-the-dot puzzle that has the same number of dots as the one you enjoyed a while ago. However, the end shape is slightly different, it’s still the same species, but is put together in a way that was just new enough not to be boring.

The boring element is the 2010 dreck that was nothing more than a vanity project to try and establish Jaden Smith as anything other than a nepo baby. In addition to its casting problems, the film played things too close to the original Karate Kid plot. There’s an outsider kid who meets a sensei who trains him in karate so that he can defeat the bully and win some credibility with his crush.

Karate Kid: Legends has elements of that story, but it deviates just enough to where its tempo is shaken up, for better or worse. It starts with Jackie Chan as his character from that film. He’s operating his kung-fu dojo in Beijing and we’re introduced to a talented, yet, sullen student. This kid is hiding from his mother.

It’s a cute sequence, but don’t consider it too much. Does this student live at the dojo? Couldn’t the mother have just spoken to him at home? The kung-fu dojo sequence exists and to reiterate that Karate Kid: Legends is canon within this universe. This kid and his mother are moving to New York City where he’s quick to acclimate himself to the local customs. His mother does make him promise her that he’d leave the old ways behind and to never fight using kung-fu again.

But this is the Karate Kid universe and that faux-promise has no chance of being honored. And before you can say “how can I raise $50,000 for a person I just met”, we meet the karate bully, the teen crush, see the new crane kick and have a couple of genuine laughs along the way. Chan keeps in contact with the student, realizes he’s not in a good place emotionally and pays him a surprise visit. He realizes that to help the student he needs to pay Ralph Machio a visit in California. The “two branches, one tree” mantra is born and before you can say “how did that person get out of the hospital so quickly” the two legends from the Karate Kid movies and Cobra Kai show are training this kid like it’s 1986.

The interactions between Machio and Chan are quick, breezy, very entertaining and don’t happen until the final 25% of the movie. They don’t share much screen time together, and for a film that’s only about 90 minutes long it seems like their onscreen time was too short. It’s not that the supporting characters don’t carry their weight. The bad guy is instantly dis-likeable, in a good way, even though his character isn’t really flushed out. The love interest has some nice, quippy lines, and her father’s story arc provides a nice, although improbable, twist entry into the story.

That’s the aspect of the connect the numbers that seems out of sequence. It’s not bad, it’s just different and for a formulaic movie anything that’s not too traditional seems odd. Karate Kid: Legends is not meant to be taken as martial arts or cinematic gospel. The fight sequences are good and represent a slight level-up from previous entries. It’s obvious, especially from the fight scene that happens behind the pizzeria, that Jackie Chan’s stunt team had input in creating choreography that’s more creative than the average bear. It’s also worth noting that the film is edited in a quick, unique manner that evokes rolling panels audiences might experience in anime or while reading a comic book.

Having said that all of that, I can’t see that extending the Karate Kid world beyond this movie. They’ve said that Smith’s character from the shall-not-be-mentioned film from 2010 is part of the canon. However, I have faith that humanity in Hollywood script rooms and squash that idea. They could make a new Karate Kid with a gender switch, but they’ve tried that before. Because Legends does not factor in the Cobra Kai cast they could bring them in, but that seems too tenuous a leap for even studio executives who have a winning IP on their hands. Take the win Sony Pictures and accept that this is a good, entertaining film that can stand on its own.

Karate Kid: Legends is rated PG-13 for mildly bad language, action sequences and karate mayhem.