Stream It Or Skip It?

The primary catchphrase from Karate Kid: Legends (now streaming on VOD platforms like Amazon Prime Video) is “Two branches, one tree,” but it might as well be “Two branches, one plot.” But maybe that’s not such a bad thing? The new film takes the O.G. Ralph Macchio story that began with 1984 pop classic The Karate Kid and spun off into a hit streaming series in Cobra Kai, and merges it with the Jackie Chan-led thread from the hit 2010 remake – and proceeds to give us yet another story of the new kid in town who’s bullied by martial arts jerks and fights back via a karate tournament. And so the new kid bears the burden here: American Born Chinese star Ben Wang, who’s the best thing about a movie that might be a little too familiar for its own good. 

The Gist: STANDBY FOR RETROFITTING: Way back when, Mr. Han (Chan) and Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita, shown in old Karate Kid footage and thankfully not via CGI doppelganger) were pals! Turns out the Miyagi family’s karate style spawned from the Han family’s kung fu teachings. How about that! And here is where we sigh in grateful relief that this isn’t another wearisome multiverse movie. Now we jump to present-day Beijing, where Li Fong (Wang) is the student of Mr. Han, his great uncle. This, much to the chagrin of Li’s mother (Ming-na Wen), who doesn’t seem to have a name but is a doctor, so we’ll call her Dr. Mom. Dr. Mom forbids Li to fight, no questions, no explanations. Just don’t do it. Ever. Then she drops the news that she’s been transferred to a hospital in New York City and blammo, there they are, leaving China behind and moving into their new NYC digs. Please note, many plot developments in this movie go blammo, likely in the interest of keeping things moving along lickety lickety quick quick split, for better or worse.

And so in the interest of not wasting any time whatsoever, the movie makes sure the first person Li meets in New York becomes his friend: Mia (Sadie Stanley), the smiley pizza slinger at the shop around the corner. Her dad is Victor (Dawson’s Creek vet Joshua Jackson), and whaddaya know, he’s an aging ex-boxer who’s in debt to a cretin (Tim Rozon) who runs an MMA dojo for a-holes and whose star student, Conor (Aramis Knight), is Mia’s ex and now also Li’s bully. Whew. That’s a lotta coincidence but we’ll just keep moving. Conor suckerpunches Li, who comes home with a black eye and instead of a broken bicycle it’s Mia’s moped that needs repair. At about this point, my 10-year-old blurted, “Not this again!” in a tone that hit like a well-placed crane kick, in reference to all the plot points he remembered from the ’84 KK, like the true son of a movie cricket. 

It’s not all quite the same, though. Victor wants to unretire from fighting to win some dough to pay back the money he owes, and Li is pretty damn good at kung fu, so the kid teaches the adult this time. But we don’t wander too far off track before Victor’s return to the ring makes him a resident of Palookaville, prompting Li to defy Dr. Mom’s wishes – something bad happened not too long ago to make her vehemently anti-kung fu, teased out in a series of cheezy flashbacks – and enter a kah-rah-tey tournament to teach Conor a little sumpin-sumpin and win a tidy pile of cash. Uncle Mr. Han flies in to inspire him, and then whammo Uncle Mr. Han flies to California to recruit Daniel LaRusso’s (Ralph Macchio) help, and whammo Daniel drops everything and flies to New York. Together, they get to whipping Li into shape with a week to go before the tournament starts, and we can only hope it sets up Li to whammo Conor right in the puss.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I think I’ve already detailed how it reminds us a bit too much of The Karate Kid, the 1984 and 2010 versions. In terms of continuing a franchise legacy, it’s more of a Force Awakens than a Creed.

Performance Worth Watching: Wang has considerable star power, and fuels Legends with uptempo energy and a noteworthy ability to deliver light comedy and light drama with ease.

Memorable Dialogue: Victor advises Li to put a teabag on his shiner:

Li: Green? Black?

Victor: Lipton.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: To answer the burning question you likely already know the answer to, yes, Li has to learn a special move in order to have a chance against Conor. It’s as if screenwriter Rob Lieber and director Jonathan Entwistle worried that audiences might not recognize Legends as the latest piece of the KK franchise if it didn’t ape all the key moves of the first film. As slick, colorful and light on its feet as it can be, Legends often feels like microwaved leftovers that are a little dried-out and taste about 65 percent as good as the original meal.

What Legends doesn’t replicate is a performance on par with Morita’s Oscar-nominated turn as Miyagi, an all-timer of a character without whom The Karate Kid would be a middle-of-the-pack underdog flick. Legends tries to reanimate that spirit via Macchio and Chan – show me someone who doesn’t like those guys and I’ll show you someone who’s probably a jerk – but it’s ultimately too impatient to let their chemistry with each other, and with Wang, fully develop. I know all too well how Movies Are Just Too Dang Long These Days, but Legends’ brisk 94 minutes renders the story slight, essentially letting the character development we fondly remember from previous films do all the work so it can cram in all the shopworn plot points and two or three new ones.

I also question Entwistle’s apparent sense of one-upsmanship in terms of directing and choreographing action sequences. The fight moves in Legends are big, crazy, wild roundhouse kicks cribbed from video games, to the extent that they’re punctuated with on-screen graphics when a tournament fighter scores a point. Keep the moves grounded in reality, and a director might be able to let scenes play out organically instead of playing chopsocky in the editing room to make these sequences coherent. Maybe emphasizing flowing choreography over hyper-edits is more difficult, but in my experience, it always, always pays off.

Mind you, Legends isn’t necessarily a bad time in front of a screen. Wang shows significant potential as a leading man with his wholesome persona, Stanley is a likable presence (the movie could use more of her, frankly) and only a 400-lb. gorilla of a Debbie Downer would pooh-pooh the bits of verbal and physical comedic sparring between Macchio and Chan. The movie zips along like a rocket, preventing young audiences from losing interest, and its visual dynamic is vibrant. But getting invested in the same old story again is akin to watching a 40-year-old football game and cheering like it’s playing out in real time. 

Our Call: Karate Kid: Legends will be just fine for some viewers, but I’m left with the nagging feeling that, despite its undeniable energy, it offers nothing new to a franchise in desperate need of a fresh story. SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.