Karate Kid Legends is the legacy sequel to Karate Kid; but also operating in a post Cobra Kai world where a once one-note 80s villain Johnny Lawrence has had six series of development. Who’d have thought that this would happen from a series that started of all places; on YouTube Red (remember that?) before turning into the phenomenon that it is today and reigniting the interest in the Karate Kid franchise that kind of stonewalled after the failed Jaden Smith/Jackie Chan reboot. Here it’s kept to a tight ninety minutes – and loops back in legendary protagonist and mentor Daniel La Russo, played by Ralph Macchio, and Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han – starting with a flashback to Karate Kid II and never letting up the nostalgia.
That’s all this movie is – much of the first act revolves around Ben Wang’s Li Fong; a Bejing native trained in Kung Fu who moves to New York and learns Karate to save the restaurant of his love interest’s father Victor, played by Joshua Jackson – when a cash prize is introduced at the end of a prestigious karate tournament. Li attempts to learn New York culture and finds himself out of his depth – but finds salvage in a potential new partner; Mia, played by Sadie Stanley. Wang and Stanely have next to zero romantic chemistry and the problem is that their arc is problematic at best and creepy; major incel-vibe inducing at worst – Li’s scheme to get her back when she wasn’t even with him in the first place is cringe-worthy and misguided; and set off major red flags. Both Li and Mia are teenagers and believable – they’re not perfect – they make mistakes; but a lot of their fallout could’ve been fixed by better communication that this movie doesn’t allow them to have even after they work out their differences. It’s built around a weak foundation that never really feels as authentic as it does to blossom.
Two Karate Kid legacy characters in a 95 minute movie that aren’t the protagonists just means that Karate Kid: Legends feels rushed, spending much of that time on getting Macchio and Chan to New York and in Li’s corner rushing the development and the stakes that Li has in the build-up to the fight. He gets a tragic backstory, but nothing quite worth commenting on – it’s fairly generic as things go and the plot never feels real. Even the flashbacks when the present mirrors the past is so heavily telegraphed it’s hard not to see coming a mile away; and the fun factor is robbed by just how serious Legends treats itself. I like the premise shifting a bit; where the kid teaches the adult rather than the adult teaching the kid; but that is undone by the third act – Ben Wang is much more likeable when he is interacting with Joshua Jackson than Sadie Stanley and the martial arts montages are never dull no matter how many times they show up.
His dynamic with Jackie Chan is fun too, a welcome addition to the cast in a redemption arc from the 2010 film; but adding Ralph Macchio just feels like a half-hearted nostalgia-bait that never really feels necessary. They get in on an awkward, ham-fisted brief fight scene but bringing Macchio back and barely giving anything for him to do feels pointless – Chan feels more involved in the storyline and ideally; if you are having both characters there, give it twenty minutes for more depth. The film’s decision to shift the narrative focus to the two legacy characters moves the focus away from Victor and Mia; who we actively grow to care about at the start – but Legends ignores them for the third act and suffers because of it.
There’s a brief scene in here that will please the Cobra Kai fans but this is decidedly more a Karate Kid sequel than a Cobra Kai one which is probably a good thing given how recently the series ended. The comedy has touches of Cobra Kai at times from Li’s calculus tutor, and the fight sequences are well choreographed but not without their issues – too many cuts; and too much emphasis on having people fly across the screen cartoonishly like it’s an anime. The predictable set-up for the final act means every beat is telegraphed and never have I laughed this much at a movie that wants to take itself at least semi-seriously; but as an entertaining crowd-pleaser it isn’t *awful*; even if it hits beat for beat the same notes as Ryan Coogler’s Creed.
