Admittedly, I have become a pretty big fan of the Karate Kid franchise over the past few years. I pretty much grew up with the 2010 Karate Kid film starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, and the Cobra Kai show on Netflix was so action-packed and compelling that it motivated me to go back and watch the original films. With all of this being said, you could probably imagine my excitement when this film was first announced. Having the original Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso, team up with Jackie Chan’s character, Mr. Han, from the 2010 Karate Kid to train the next generation was something I thought I’d never see and seemed like a recipe for success. However, this film unfortunately ended up being plagued with a criminally short runtime and a jarringly unnecessary subplot that took up half of it, delaying the tournament story arc that most moviegoers probably went to the theater for entirely until the third act. In terms of pros, the performances from the cast were excellent, with the standouts being our new Karate Kid, Ben Wang as Li Fong, and the fun chemistry between Ralph Macchio’s Daniel and Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han. The fight scenes throughout, as short lived as they were, were intense and very well choreographed. Also, while the story isn’t necessarily something that we haven’t seen before from the Karate Kid franchise, I respect the endearing and uplifting tone it was going for. I just wish there was more of it. Score: 6/10
