Karate Kid: Legends, 2025.
Directed by Jonathan Entwistle.
Starring Ben Wang, Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Aramis Knight, Wyatt Oleff, Shaunette Renée Wilson, David Robitaille, Tim Rozon, William Zabka, and Pat Morita.
SYNOPSIS:
After kung fu prodigy Li Fong relocates to New York City, he attracts unwanted attention from a local karate champion and embarks on a journey to enter the ultimate karate competition with the help of Mr. Han and Daniel LaRusso.
The first sign that director Jonathan Entwistle’s Karate Kid: Legends (from a screenplay by Rob Lieber, based on characters created by Robert Mark Kamen) is a narratively clunky mess comes relatively early on, during the meet cute between Beijing transplant Li Fong (Ben Wang) and New Yorker Mia (Sadie Stanley) inside of her former boxer father Victor’s (Joshua Jackson) financially struggling pizza joint.
There is fish-out-of-water humor and clear mutual attraction between the teenagers (with Mia settling down her father following some exaggerated offense at the request of deep dish pizza), only for the scene to abruptly end and cut to the next morning before the kid even gets his order. It’s disorienting, shaky editing (courtesy of Dana E. Glauberman and Colby Parker Jr.) that never ceases being an obstacle regarding investing in the film, whether it be a hacked up story or sloppy, frantic cuts mid-tournament fights that are already less scenes and more montage on top of the already existing numerous training montages.
The blunt truth is that this is a legacy sequel that doesn’t care about its characters, which is a shame since they would be likable and worth cheering on if the filmmakers afforded them that opportunity (the young stars are not to blame here and are the only reason this is watchable). There is also the sense that this wasn’t even meant to be a legacy sequel, considering how drastic the plot shifts from one key element to another that suddenly involves Jackie Chan (returning as Mr. Han from the Jaden Smith starring sequel) and original karate kid Daniel LaRusso in what amounts to a glorified 10-minute cameo from Ralph Macchio training Li, bridging and blending karate and kung fu. Both men carried great importance to the deceased Mr. Miyagi, as iconically played by Pat Morita and briefly seen in an archival scene meant to set in motion the car crash that connects these films.
What starts as Li disobeying his mother’s (a nameless character played by Ming-Na Wen, which says everything one needs to know about how much thought went into writing her) wishes of staying away from all-things fighting upon their move to New York, by using his kung fu training from his uncle Mr. Han to train Victor for a boxing match with a significant enough cash prize to save his pizza place, which admittedly is a refreshing role reversal on how these films typically go, rushes through those character dynamics and paces to get to the fan service material. That’s without getting into Li’s trauma of having tragically lost his brother in such ridiculous fashion that it’s astonishing it made it into the screenplay. Perhaps even more shocking is the expectation that anyone will care.
As expected, Mia also has a bad-boy ex that may or may not get in the way of the flimsy relationship developed between her and Li. Her ex-boyfriend, Conor (Aramis Knight), is also a karate expert and has entered a tournament called “The Five Burroughs,” which also conveniently offers a reward that could save the pizza place if Li is courageous enough to sign up. Victor also took out a loan from Conor’s father to open the pizza place, which he hasn’t been able to repay, meaning that his goons are always ready to attack him.
The running time of Karate Kid: Legends is about 82 minutes without ending credits and the epilogue sequence interrupting them. Each act could have been fleshed out into its own movie. Instead, we have this unwieldy disaster that can’t even provide thrilling battles. Here, punches and kicks are interrupted by video game-like flourishes, such as +1 graphics for points, and often last about 20 seconds, carrying no urgency or emotion whatsoever. More time is spent on the training montages. However, there is some amusement in the cruel irony that a film with sage-like mentorship dialogue, such as “don’t be like a rock, be more like flowing water,” flows about as smoothly as face-planting while attempting a dragon kick.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
