“Doesn’t want to tell its own story” – Review: Karate Kid: Legends

Karate Kid: Legends is the first film in the franchise in 15 years. The 2010 reboot of the franchise with Jackie Chan was successful enough that development began on a sequel, but the momentum faded and eventually sputtered out. The IP went into hiatus before the mostly-acclaimed Cobra Kai show debuted and revitalized interest in the property. Attempts at a new film were reborn, but with the intent of remaining within the original canon.

Legends is the first notable franchise film to retroactively turn a reboot into part of the main series canon, as the trailers teased Jackie Chan returning as Mr. Han and uniting with Ralph Macchio‘s Daniel LaRusso. The feature film is set three years after Cobra Kai and brings together two icons of the series, but could it really unite both a TV show and two (formerly) different film canons?

Unfortunately, Legends seems to have little interest in any of the material the trailers were built around, and it simply uses its predecessors as window dressing for a new story. It seems like a movie at war with itself, stuffing 2-4 storylines into a mashed mess that is both overstuffed and too fast all at once.

The film’s strongest aspect is the new protagonist. Played by Ben Wang, Li Fong is training in kung fu under the tutelage of Mr. Han in Beijing. The story kicks off with he and his mother (Ming-Na Wen) move to New York City following his older brother’s tragic death. Li Fong’s mother bans him from continuing to do martial arts. Li Fong soon makes friends with a peer, Mia (Sadie Stanley), and her father (Joshua Jackson) who run a local pizza shop.

The first half of the film largely focuses on Li adjusting to life in New York while transitioning into a reverse of the typical Karate Kid setup. Li offers to teach his friend’s father kung fu to help prepare for a boxing match and pay off his debt to a local shark, who also happens to be the sensei of Connor (Aramis Knight), a local martial arts fighter and bully. Whether or not kung fu actually translates to boxing is a question best left ignored, but this section of the film proves an amicable showcase for the charisma of Wang as an actor, and that he’d be an admirable choice to lead a new version of this franchise.

The second half abruptly shifts to a more traditional Karate Kid story, with Li Fong now deciding to fight in a martial arts tournament after Jackson’s character fails in his boxing match. With barely any connective tissue, Chan arrives in America to help train Li, and then calls in Ralph Macchio to help train him as well.

In sum, the film essentially tries to pack two different films’ worth of story into one, and suffers for it. Perhaps this was a different script that was retooled in the wake of Cobra Kai‘s popularity in order to arbitrarily plug in LaRusso. However it happened, the film rushes through its scenes with haphazard and odd editing, seemingly in a hurry to pack in as much in as possible in the short 94-minute runtime.

There is no room for any of the characters to breathe, and little to no reference to whatever Mr. Han or LaRusso have been doing since prior entries. Calling this film Legends seems utterly wasted, as the movie has no desire to have said legends actually exhibit character traits or anything of substance. While seeing Chan and Macchio banter with each other is vaguely amusing, they lack even one true character moment with each other or even with the protagonist, making their inclusion needless.

It is not only the script that seems all over the place, as the directing style dramatically shifts from moment to moment. Chunks of the film are edited and shot in zippy manner with lots of visual graphics that feel out of place with the more contemplative parts of the movie. The soundtrack is also a grab-bag of discordant songs that don’t always seem to match the tone of the scenes.

There are rewarding aspects of Legends. It leans into the same underdog storytelling that made prior films work. But the all-over-the-place storytelling and editing limit this film’s potential. The lack of meaningful character moments, sloppy cuts that make the fights difficult to follow, and highly cheesy dialogue make Legends a mediocre movie. Like so many modern franchise films, it seems in a hurry to be over, as if it doesn’t really want to tell its own story.

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