4 outta 5

Karate Kid: Legends fits with the Karate Kid series, which is running at 6 movies, a 6 season TV series and a Saturday morning cartoon. This follows the structure of a Karate Kid story, with training by veteran masters culminating with a tournament showdown. But it doesn’t just repeat beats from the original film like the 2010 version did. And while the poster and ads are selling fan service, look at the two elder masters coming together for the next karate kid, this film focused on the new lead. Karate Kid: Legends fits nicely into the series, with some unexpected surprises and a karate kid becoming the best around. Nothing’s ever gonna keep this franchise down!

In China, Li Fong (Ben Wang) is learning the ways of Kung-Fu from his uncle, Master Han (Jackie Chan) but Li’s mother (Ming-Na Wen) reveals they are moving to New York for her new job. In a strange land, he strikes up a friendship with Mia (Sadie Stanley) and her father, pizzeria owner, Victor (Joshua Jackson). Unfortunately, Li is being bullied by Conor (Aramis Knight), a student of a nasty karate dojo. Victor, a former boxer, is asking Li to help him train for a fight so Victor can save his business. Han arrives in New York and realizes Li needs more training to fight Conor, so Han finds a student of his old friend Mr. Miyagi, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Machio) and asks him to help train Li. Now these two legendary masters use their own special skills to make Li prepared for the ultimate fight against his nemesis.

The movie does have a dark side with a tragic past involving the main character’s brother being stabbed to death in the street. Also, the friendly owner of the pizzeria is battling off loan sharks and gets beaten so badly he ends up in the hospital. This is doubly traumatic for Li as he has traumatic flashbacks to the death of his brother. But for all the cheesy Karate Kid moments, there is a dose of darkness in the series, as the movies involve the hero avoiding getting the bejesus kicked out of them by bullies. Legends even has a nasty evil dojo where nasty fighting is the norm, not as blatantly vicious as Cobra Kai was in the original, but it gets close. Appropriately, the villain who runs the dojo happens to also be the loan shark Victor is in debt to.

The complex continuity of six seasons of the Cobra Kai TV show is probably why that dojo wasn’t reused. In fact, the movie doesn’t mention anything of the TV show, which is probably the best idea. But jumping continuity from Karate Kid Part III from 1989 to Daniel in his 60s as a master really does imply that one would have watched Cobra Kai to figure out how he got there. Also, it takes the whole movie but there is a great drop in by Johnny Lawerence (Willam Zabka), it’s only a minute but it’s a really good minute, and probably the most fan-service-y moment. Also, weirdly, the villain of this movie looks like Johnny’s son from the TV show, which is kinda confusing.

The title implies that it is an epic team up of these two elder masters, as Chan’s Han was the teacher in the 2010 film and Daniel became a teacher in the TV show, but their parts are supporting. Chan’s Han has a bigger role as he is related to Li and his mother, while the way Daniel gets into the story is a bit awkward as Han mentions that Mr. Miyagi told him about how good his student Daniel was. Chan and Machio training Li has some good laughs where they mercilessly smack him around. Even with just a few scenes together, Machio and Chan have dynamic banter. Chan’s character is from the 2010 film, but there isn’t a lot mentioned from that movie but there is a reference to taking a jacket on and off as a training exercise (which is really just a riff on the original film’s “Wax on, wax off” training exercise.)

Wang as this film’s Karate Kid is a likable protagonist, and he’s a bit different from other series leads as he starts off already competent in martial arts. There are emotional rough spots he goes through that Wang sells, and he is impressively agile in the fight scenes. He has a good dynamic with Stanley as his maybe-girlfriend. Jackson is entertaining being snarky about training and pizza. The montage where Li trains Victor is fun and zippy, which makes the moment when Victor gets beat down harrowing. Wen as the mother delivers at lot of disapproving looks but Wen has a very good stern face. Knight as the bully works well in the pantheon of Karate Kid bullies, very nasty and he loves it.

The movie isn’t wall to wall karate, as Karate Kid movies are actually slow burns with lots of chat, but the fighting scenes are visceral. Some of the leaps are very spectacular and the finale tournament on a rooftop at sundown looks fantastic. It keeps with the franchise tradition of things looking bleak for our hero with some last-minute bone crunching actions. Overall, this delivers exactly what one would expect from this series for a steadfast entry with a few twists on Karate Kid formula.