Super late Karate Kid review
Admin-Rock here. As one of my hobbies is endlessly fiddling with plastic bricks, I tend to spend a lot of time sitting and building. As a result, I watch a LOT of TV and film. I mean a LOT. Seriously, hours and hours of it. Have a guess in your head as to how much… I’ll wait…. NO, WAY MORE then that.
It gets to the point where sometimes I’ll watch things that even remotely catch my fancy. I decided to watch the recent Karate Kid remake with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. And though this ground has been well covered, I feel compelled to speak out, to warn others before it’s too late for them.
The original Karate Kid came out in 1984, when Admin_Rock was a happy little grade 9 student. It was directed by John G. Alivdsen, and starred… wait, I don’t even have to tell you, because you’ve seen this movie at least a dozen times. Why? Because it was great. It was well paced, interesting, and contained great training sequences and some wonderful cinematography. (Proof: I say, “the crane”, you’re already picturing Daniel standing on a post on the beach, or in a tournament ring. Or maybe standing on the front of a boat at sunset. It’s great stuff, engrained in the memory.)
The remake, released in 2010 was directed by Harald Zwart, famous for such masterpieces as ‘Agent Cody Banks’ and ‘Pink Panther 2’. It’s umm…. it has…. Oh, there was one really nice shot with a woman balancing on a ledge while moving in time with a cobra.
Listen, there’s a thousand things to hate about this remake, but the vast majority of the issues lie with the fact that they took a very well known script, altered it slightly, usually to its detriment, and wrapped it all up with really young kids.
Jaden Smith is fine in the role. He works hard, and apart from 1) noting how much he reminds you of his dad, and 2) being creeped out by bodybuilding shots of a 12yr old, I have no issues with him.
Jackie Chan is one of my favorite action stars. He does things that are boggling to the mind, and makes it look effortless. He’s okay in this movie. Not awesome, just ok.
The “fish out of water”-ness is moved to China, which I’m not sure helps the plot at all. On one hand, we have our main character “Dre” who has no friends or support at all, which is good. On the other hand, most viewers will also be new to all this, which makes it trickier to explain everything and have comfortable with the setup. It also takes away the mystique of the ‘Miyagi’ character (here Mr Han). We have no problem believing Jackie Chan is a badass Kung Fu guy. When Pat Morita took down the Cobra Kai skeletons that dark night, it was much more of a surprise.
The age of the characters is a BIG problem. While we were able to get involved with Daniel and his high school problems (dating, being an outsider, etc), these characters are too young for us to have any spark with a romance, and the ‘evil kid’ (while excellent at looking evil) seems a bit farcical. Though it is fun to watch Jackie Chan do Jackie Chan type fighting using 12 year olds to club other 12 year olds.
The Cobra-Kais are all 12, and thus, the fact that they follow their cold, dark leader is not as interesting either. The scene in the dojo is flat and lifeless, and seems to be there simply because the original guys did it first. At the end, there is a change of heart, based on exactly nothing other than that it has to happen. (It doesn’t really, the film ends moments after the tournament, it’s not needed.)
The plot beats are exactly the same as the original, except that none of them have any emotional weight. We know that Mr. Han’s family died, yadda yadda, it’s his fault, etc. But we just shrug our shoulders and move on. Because this version doesn’t really give a crap about that character, except as a foil for Dre. Jackie does the best he can, but he doesn’t have much to work with. We just don’t have any reason to care about these characters. We don’t have the deep bonding that Daniel and Miyagi had. This is a strictly business relationship.
Again, I’m not a script writer, but I’ve seen enough to know how to structure a story, and what works.In a lot of ways, this movie can be held up as a prime example of what happens when Hollywood tries to remake a popular movie without bothering to understand why it was popular. Neither Ralph Macchio nor Pat Morita were big stars, nor were they the kids of big stars (oh, and reallllly looks like Daddy bought a film for his kid here folks). Hell, there isn’t even any Karate in the movie. They practice Kung Fu. Why not call it “The Kung Fu Kid”? We all know why. Because they’d lose the name recognition that Karate Kid has. So it’s a pretty cynical move going in, and rarely raises above that.
I’m thinking of showing both versions to my 7 yr old to see what he thinks. I suspect he’ll like the 2010 better, as the hero is closer to his age. But I secretly hope he’s caught some film critic genes from his dad and will opt for Daniel and Miyagi.
