Karate Kid: Legends Review

 

Karate Kid: Legends is a martial arts drama movie and the sixth film in the franchise. It's produced by Columbia Pictures and Sunswept Entertainment with Sony Pictures Releasing distributing. Rob Lieber wrote and Jonathan Entwistle directed.

The story is, after his mom accepted a job in New York Li Fong has no choice but to move there. But his biggest problem is keeping his promise to give up martial arts after the death of his brother. But when events force him back in, Li will not only fight again to help those in need but learn from the great fighters of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han.

Initial Reaction

The reason for why I wanted to see this is because I like the Karate Kid movies...well, the first two and the remake. Three and Next Karate Kid were terrible. And yes I did what Cobra Kai as well. So I was excited for what Legends had in store.

Cons

My only real complaint is the villains of Conor Day and O'Shea. They were very one dimensional. And I found it worse with O'Shea. People can call Conor a Johnny Lawrence knockoff all day, but at least his rivalry with Li gives him some sort of character. With O'Shea I kept forgetting about him. So much so that when writing this review I had to do a quick Google search to know what his name was.

Middle Ground

The mix bag stems from the story. Now yes it's predictable, but for the most part I was entertained. But what I found to be the true gray area is the balance of the plot. At one point Li is helping Victor (a pizza shop owner he befriends) get back into the boxing ring, but when something bad happens to Victor we're all of a sudden getting prepared for a tournament. Now the two stories did have some sort of connection, mainly O'Shea being both Conor's sensei and Victor's loan shark, but this abrupt change does make the narrative uneven.

Pros

One pro is the humor. There was a lot of times when I found myself laughing. I think my favorite gag is when Daniel & Mr. Han were showing their different styles and poor Li was being used as the test dummy back to back to back. Then there was the action. I was not only interested in both the training and fighting styles of both karate and kung fu, but also impressed with how the choreography was very well executed, probably helped that Jackie Chan's stunt team lend a helping hand. My last praise is the performances. Now Ben Wang is pretty good as Li. He did good in the fight scenes, and could also provide some good vulnerability to his character. But let's be honest and I hope this doesn't come off as me downplaying Ben, but we all wanted to know how Ralph Macchio & Jackie Chan would do together. And guys they are awesome. Not only will nostalgia hit you but you'll love seeing these two together. Their chemistry together was awesome to see and it was fun to these two interact whether it'd be teaching scenes or a brief action scene.

Now Karate Kid: Legends isn't flawless. But I roll my eyes listening and reading reviews of people calling this bad or (and this is a hot take) call this the worst of the franchise. Really people? Are some of you not aware of The Next Karate Kid? But I digress, the point I want to get to is if you are planning to see this, fine. But just don't rush yourself. This is a movie you can watch but I don't think you need to feel the pressure of needing to see it.

My final rating is, Okay.

That's going to do it for me. Due come back on Monday, Jun 2nd, for yet another comic book review. This time I'll yet again be about the Fantastic Four but, it's about the Ultimate Fantastic Four and the story arc of The Fantastic. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.