Karate Kid: Legends Review: SOOOOO Many Cliches

Yahoo

2 days ago

HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – Karate Kid: Legends is the sixth Karate Kid film, not counting the spinoff series Cobra Kai, and it is so riddled with cliches that there is almost nothing new, special, or interesting about this rehashed, remixed, clone-of-a-clone-of-a-clone-of-a-clone of a movie.
Jonathan Entwistle directs Karate Kid: Legends, which stars Ben Wang as Li Fong, this film's titular Karate Kid – who actually practices Kung Fu. Jackie Chan returns from the remake made in 2010, Ralph Macchio returns from the original three films from the 1980s, and Ming-Na Wen plays Wang's character's mother, who initially disapproves of Li fighting. The story is familiar to anyone who has seen a Karate Kid movie: Li must fight in a city karate tournament to save his girlfriend's father's pizzeria from loan sharks.
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Karate Kid: Legends is entirely composed of cliches. It is easy to know exactly what fights he's going to win, what fights he's going to lose, and where these characters are going to go at every single turn. If the mother character begins by disapproving her son's karate, what do you think is going to happen by the end? If there is a fight at the midpoint that would solve all of the characters' problems, do you think the protagonists are going to win? If Li needs to train to be successful, do you think there's going to be a montage? That question I can answer without fearing spoilers: yes, in fact, there are going to be several montages.
Even if you're going to Karate Kid: Legends for the martial arts action, you will be disappointed. The martial arts action is cut to ribbons; the editing makes it almost impossible to figure out what is going on in these fights. Like most modern action films, the frenetic cutting makes it feel like stuff is going on, but any clarity of motion or geography gets lost in all the cuts.
Most deceptive is the film's use of the two great stars of the franchise, Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio. These two actors are given almost nothing to do in Karate Kid: Legends. The plot bends itself into a pretzel to include them, and yet it still gives them nothing to do. Neither character has an arc, and both characters don't show up on screen for any extended amount of time until the film is half-over. Heavily featured in the training montages, they exist to spout cliché dialogue and block a few punches in sparring sequences. For fans of the franchise or Cobra Kai, Karate Kid: Legends wastes the franchise's main draws.
Most of the film's heavy lifting relies on Ben Wang, and he is the one good thing about Karate Kid: Legends. He is almost charming enough to save it, and it is through sheer force of will that he is able to make the movie halfway watchable.
But with hackneyed 80s villains, bad action sequences, and a plot that regurgitates cliches, not even Wang's strong performance can save Karate Kid: Legends.
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