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Karate Kid: Legends (2025)

Karate Kid: Legends continues the ongoing trend of bringing established movie IP’s and bringing old characters whilst introducing new ones. In this case, we get Ralph Macchio from the first three films (and Cobra Kai TV series which I haven't seen) and Jackie Chan from the 2010 terrible reboot. The story is that Li Fong (Ben Wang) and his mom move from Beijing to New York so that she can take a job at a hospital and ends up at odds with Conor Day who is the guy who wins the Five Boroughs tournament and acts like the school bully. The plot does follow the plot of the first film but there is enough to make the film feel fresh enough. Li is asked by Victor to help him train for a fight but when that goes wrong Li enters the Five Borough Tournament with help from his Uncle and Daniel. 

Ben Wang is surprisingly good as Li. He isn't cocky or low on confidence but someone who is trying to start a new life in a city he doesn't want to be in. This is the first film I have seen Wang in and to be honest I think he’s got the chance to be a big star. Jackie Chan is the main reason why I went to see this at the cinema. I was worried that he was going to be more of a cameo than anything else but thankfully he’s in it quite a lot. It's Ralph Macchio who feels like a cameo. He is in for about 40 minutes and doesn't really feel like he was adding anything vital. Don't get me wrong it was great that he was in it and he does have some good scenes with Jackie Chan but I do think that he could have gotten a bit more involved in the story. Sadie Stanley does very well as Mia in a role which is your typical love interest. The relationship between Mia and Li was quite nice to see throughout the film and felt like a big reason why the film worked as well as it did. Joshua Jackson was fine as Victor who is Mia’s father and an ex-boxer who owes money and gets hurt in a boxing match which gives Li the motivation to enter the contest. 

The fight scenes are well done but the earlier fights are ruined by constant editing. It felt like there would be multiple cuts in just one move and it was quite difficult to really appreciate things because it was difficult to see what was happening. This did remind me of ‘Monkey Man’ the Dev Patel film which has some not great editing during the film sequences. I don't mean to be too critical of editors because they are trying to make the best of what they have so it would be better to put the blame at the director’s door but this worked against the film. By the time we get to the final fight, it was better and easier to follow so it suggest to me that the editor did the best 

My main issue with the film is that it's too short. I reckon that it’s about 85 minutes without the end credits which means that it moves at an insanely quick pace and as such there doesn't feel like there is a moment where Li gets to be at his lowest moment before winning the big fight. I honestly believe that if this film were 15-20 minutes longer then it would have helped a great deal. That is about the worst thing of all because at the end of the day, this is a lot better than it had any right to be. The central performances are great and whilst the editing wasn't the best especially with the fight scenes, this still remains a million times better than the snoozefest that was the 2010 Karate Kid. Not sure if this will lead to more but if not then this is a perfectly serviceable movie.

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