Karate Kid, The | aka Kung Fu Kid (2010) Review

“The Karate Kid” (2010) US Theatrical Poster

AKA: Kung Fu Kid
Director: Harald Zwart
Cast: Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith, Taraji P. Henson, Yu Rong-Guang, Wenwen Han, Zhenwei Wang
Running Time: 139 min.

By Ningen

An updated Karate Kid which should technically be more of a remake of the second film than the first film, it’s about a kid (duh) named Dre who moves to China, runs into some punks, gets beaten down by ’em, and then, with the help of a maintenance man named Mr. Han, confronts them one-on-one in a kung fu tournament.

So, I turned in my man badge, and bought a ticket for Karate Kid 2.0, because I was told this film didn’t actually suck. Well, that’s true, if being mostly average, rather than absolutely crappy, is your measuring stick for quality. I actually don’t have a problem with Jaden, since everyone who’s saying, “OMFG! He’s a little black boy with corn rows!” lost their cred when they hypocritically over-praised a certain nameless movie with a little girl dressed like Britney Spears who uses words like “cunt” a lot. [And don’t tell me it’s not a race thing, because your asses didn’t nearly go as ape-shit with the Hillary Swank version of the Karate Kid-and that was DTV acting right there.]

So, yeah, back to Jaden. He’s fine. His one-liners are flat, and his character needs more motivation to want to be in his new locale than just “dating” that “love interest”. [And yes, I’m aware the last KK was just as “minimalist” in its approach, but the situation was more run-of-the-mill, and thus tangible, while this scenario seems a bit more of a wish fulfillment-type deal.] Personally, I think the problem is that the movie needed a Chinese equivalent to Bill Zabka. In that sense, I think CJ 7’s the better kiddie film, ‘cus it had child actors who didn’t just act like bullies, but looked like ’em as well. The supporting cast could also use some work. The actress playing Jaden’s over-bearing mom could be axed entirely, or at least put in the background. I was also hoping the teacher of the bullies would get into a fight with Jackie’s character near the end, sort of like that show-down in the parking lot in the second film.

Plus, the film tends to drag, because it goes into pointless sub-plots, like Han’s family life. I get why Jackie comes off a bit surly, especially after doing Spy Next Door, but the background info really brings the film down, when it’s supposed to be an underdog story. And it seriously needs to be tighter, even though it has the same running time as the original. Fortunately, the music isn’t as High School Musical/Glee-esque as I was afraid it’d be. In fact, they even insert some classic rock snips into later fights to appease old white “geezers” like myself. The fights themselves are sort of hard-core for their rating, but you rarely feel like they have the impact they should-probably because there are so many kids fighting in general. In fact, a scene where a martial artist stares down a (hopefully CG) cobra impresses me more than most of the other matches. [Too much “been there, done that” with the kids in Jet Li movies like Bodyguard From Beijing, I guess…] So, as a remake, Karate Kid’s ok. But it’s not really worth more than a quick Netflix rental. Though at least it’ll keep Will Smith away from Oldboy.

Ningen’s Rating: 5/10 – Story and characters. 6.5/10 – Fights. Overall – 7/10 if you haven’t seen the original films. 6/10 if you have seen the original trilogy and Sidekicks