Karate Kid: Legends
Review: Alright this movie was so bad. But I loved it so much. I’m about to hit you with a lot of lows and negatives, but still give a modest score because I truly did enjoy my viewing experience. This film definitely had some redeeming qualities. Ben Wang’s lead performance was commendable. Sadie Stanley’s performance wasn’t awesome, but worked well in the film. Other supporting cast members like Joshua Jackson, Aramis Knight, & Wyatt Oleff did a decent job, but I should say that I feel as though Ming-Na Wen was severely under utilized. Speaking of under utilized, Ralph Macchio was barely in this film. The marketing & trailers did a major misdirect with this one. I wouldn’t consider this a spoiler, more of setting your expectations, but Daniel LaRusso doesn’t appear until about an half into the movie (besides a quick opening flashback), and keep in mind the runtime is only 94 minutes. The actual karate (& even kung fu) portion of this movie was pretty minimal, especially when compared to the fact that the beginning of the film prominently features a random boxing storyline? I think the boxing storyline is one that could have been scrapped, but the characters should’ve been kept. I don’t know much about boxing, but a washed up boxer having a teenager with ZERO boxing experience become his coach seems like a bad plan. Another redeeming part of the film was the stylistic captioning at the beginning, which I’m always a fan of. I also thought the video game-esque presentation of the tournament fights worked well. Also, I can’t tell if the opening scene of Daniel & Mr. Miyagi was archival footage or a deepfake? If it was a deepfake it was very good & if it was old footage something looked a little off, but they restored it well. There’s one spoiler thought down at the very bottom that was the best part of the film in my opinion.
High: Jackie Chan was very fun and lit up the screen every time he was on it. I really wish they would’ve leaned more into the Jackie Chan style of fight choreography, because they really only did that in one scene (the alley fight) and then never did it again. I think it would’ve benefitted from some more of that.
Low: I mean there were just so many face-palming, head-shaking moments that made me literally go ‘what the heck is this movie?’ My brother & I kept exchanging looks and chuckles as more cringe things happened. I will say that cringe & goofiness is what made ‘Cobra Kai’ so great and one of my all-time favorite TV shows, but there were only hints of that specific type of silliness in this.
Rating: 7.5/10
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-SPOILERS BELOW
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SPOILERS: William Zabka’s appearance as Johnny Lawrence was so brief, but exactly what this film needed. It was honestly the highlight of the movie for me, bringing it back into the world of ‘Cobra Kai.’ Also I feel as though I should say that Li Fong is a very impressive fighter (way more impressive than the other two film Karate Kids), but would get smoked by Cobra Kai’s Karate Kid, Miguel Diaz.
