If it ain't broke...New Karate Kid is hard to dislike

The Advertiser

06-06-2025

The essential appeal of the Karate Kid franchise - across multiple movies and TV shows over 40 years - is pretty simple. It's a classic underdog story, in a martial arts setting with a little light philosophy and some life lessons added to the mix.
Karate Kid: Legends has a few tweaks to freshen things a little - including an Asian lead - and a lot of callbacks for fans, but the basics remain. There are some dubious and coincidental elements if you're picky, but this isn't that kind of movie. If it ain't broke...
At his new high school, Li becomes the target of bad-guy Conor (Aramis Knight), whose brand of martial arts is aggressive and dirty. Li's skills are rusty, so he's quickly defeated. Apparently, there are no repercussions for either boy: maybe something was lost in the edit (a thought that occurred to me more than once during the film).
More happily, Li meets Mia Lipani (Sadie Sweet from Kim Possible), whose affable father Victor (Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek), a onetime local boxing champ, runs a pizza joint. Mia starts showing Li around the city, and he teaches her Mandarin to help her bargain with Chinese shopkeepers.
Now we get into it's-a-small-world territory. See, Mia is Conor's ex (and, no surprise, he's not happy about seeing her with another guy).
And Victor is in debt to a loan shark named O'Shea (Tim Rozon), who runs the dojo at which Conor trains.
There's soon a match, but not the one you might be expecting. Despite his age, Victor decides to enter a local boxing match to try to win some cash, and guess who takes on the role of trainer? Yes, it's Li, applying what to Victor are some unorthodox methods. And yes, there's a training montage.
We know, of course, that his mother's edict, Li will eventually face off against Conor - in the 5 Boroughs Tournament, the biggest in the city, which for some reason takes place on a rooftop (isn't this meant to be a well-established, highly-publicised, lucrative, legitimate event?)
And that he will be trained by Mr Han, whose way to inform his grandnephew about his arrival is decidedly unorthodox, and the original Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio).
The former focuses on kung fu, the latter on karate, but these are, as someone sagely observes, "Two branches, one tree."
This film - set a few years after Cobra Kai's ending - can be watched on its own, but takes place in the same universe as its predecessors.
Devotees will relish references to previous instalments, including an appearance by Daniel's trainer, Mr Miyagi (the late Pat Morita).
While a lot of movies feel padded, there's a little too much content for the modest running time. I don't know if Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit) wrote it that way or if director Jonathan Entwhistle (The End of the F***ing World) just wanted to keep things moving along, and a lot was left on the now metaphorical cutting-room floor.
The combat scenes are quite exciting, but some of the reflective and nostalgic moments and secondary characters feel underserved (but there's time for Daniel to say he's not coming when we know he will). Wyatt Oleff (It) does a lot with a little as Alan, Li's nerdy maths tutor.
However, the warmth and spirit that have infused the best of the series remain, and it's hard to dislike.
The essential appeal of the Karate Kid franchise - across multiple movies and TV shows over 40 years - is pretty simple. It's a classic underdog story, in a martial arts setting with a little light philosophy and some life lessons added to the mix.
Karate Kid: Legends has a few tweaks to freshen things a little - including an Asian lead - and a lot of callbacks for fans, but the basics remain. There are some dubious and coincidental elements if you're picky, but this isn't that kind of movie. If it ain't broke...
At his new high school, Li becomes the target of bad-guy Conor (Aramis Knight), whose brand of martial arts is aggressive and dirty. Li's skills are rusty, so he's quickly defeated. Apparently, there are no repercussions for either boy: maybe something was lost in the edit (a thought that occurred to me more than once during the film).
More happily, Li meets Mia Lipani (Sadie Sweet from Kim Possible), whose affable father Victor (Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek), a onetime local boxing champ, runs a pizza joint. Mia starts showing Li around the city, and he teaches her Mandarin to help her bargain with Chinese shopkeepers.
Now we get into it's-a-small-world territory. See, Mia is Conor's ex (and, no surprise, he's not happy about seeing her with another guy).
And Victor is in debt to a loan shark named O'Shea (Tim Rozon), who runs the dojo at which Conor trains.
There's soon a match, but not the one you might be expecting. Despite his age, Victor decides to enter a local boxing match to try to win some cash, and guess who takes on the role of trainer? Yes, it's Li, applying what to Victor are some unorthodox methods. And yes, there's a training montage.
We know, of course, that his mother's edict, Li will eventually face off against Conor - in the 5 Boroughs Tournament, the biggest in the city, which for some reason takes place on a rooftop (isn't this meant to be a well-established, highly-publicised, lucrative, legitimate event?)
And that he will be trained by Mr Han, whose way to inform his grandnephew about his arrival is decidedly unorthodox, and the original Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio).
The former focuses on kung fu, the latter on karate, but these are, as someone sagely observes, "Two branches, one tree."
This film - set a few years after Cobra Kai's ending - can be watched on its own, but takes place in the same universe as its predecessors.
Devotees will relish references to previous instalments, including an appearance by Daniel's trainer, Mr Miyagi (the late Pat Morita).
While a lot of movies feel padded, there's a little too much content for the modest running time. I don't know if Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit) wrote it that way or if director Jonathan Entwhistle (The End of the F***ing World) just wanted to keep things moving along, and a lot was left on the now metaphorical cutting-room floor.
The combat scenes are quite exciting, but some of the reflective and nostalgic moments and secondary characters feel underserved (but there's time for Daniel to say he's not coming when we know he will). Wyatt Oleff (It) does a lot with a little as Alan, Li's nerdy maths tutor.
However, the warmth and spirit that have infused the best of the series remain, and it's hard to dislike.
The essential appeal of the Karate Kid franchise - across multiple movies and TV shows over 40 years - is pretty simple. It's a classic underdog story, in a martial arts setting with a little light philosophy and some life lessons added to the mix.
Karate Kid: Legends has a few tweaks to freshen things a little - including an Asian lead - and a lot of callbacks for fans, but the basics remain. There are some dubious and coincidental elements if you're picky, but this isn't that kind of movie. If it ain't broke...
At his new high school, Li becomes the target of bad-guy Conor (Aramis Knight), whose brand of martial arts is aggressive and dirty. Li's skills are rusty, so he's quickly defeated. Apparently, there are no repercussions for either boy: maybe something was lost in the edit (a thought that occurred to me more than once during the film).
More happily, Li meets Mia Lipani (Sadie Sweet from Kim Possible), whose affable father Victor (Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek), a onetime local boxing champ, runs a pizza joint. Mia starts showing Li around the city, and he teaches her Mandarin to help her bargain with Chinese shopkeepers.
Now we get into it's-a-small-world territory. See, Mia is Conor's ex (and, no surprise, he's not happy about seeing her with another guy).
And Victor is in debt to a loan shark named O'Shea (Tim Rozon), who runs the dojo at which Conor trains.
There's soon a match, but not the one you might be expecting. Despite his age, Victor decides to enter a local boxing match to try to win some cash, and guess who takes on the role of trainer? Yes, it's Li, applying what to Victor are some unorthodox methods. And yes, there's a training montage.
We know, of course, that his mother's edict, Li will eventually face off against Conor - in the 5 Boroughs Tournament, the biggest in the city, which for some reason takes place on a rooftop (isn't this meant to be a well-established, highly-publicised, lucrative, legitimate event?)
And that he will be trained by Mr Han, whose way to inform his grandnephew about his arrival is decidedly unorthodox, and the original Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio).
The former focuses on kung fu, the latter on karate, but these are, as someone sagely observes, "Two branches, one tree."
This film - set a few years after Cobra Kai's ending - can be watched on its own, but takes place in the same universe as its predecessors.
Devotees will relish references to previous instalments, including an appearance by Daniel's trainer, Mr Miyagi (the late Pat Morita).
While a lot of movies feel padded, there's a little too much content for the modest running time. I don't know if Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit) wrote it that way or if director Jonathan Entwhistle (The End of the F***ing World) just wanted to keep things moving along, and a lot was left on the now metaphorical cutting-room floor.
The combat scenes are quite exciting, but some of the reflective and nostalgic moments and secondary characters feel underserved (but there's time for Daniel to say he's not coming when we know he will). Wyatt Oleff (It) does a lot with a little as Alan, Li's nerdy maths tutor.
However, the warmth and spirit that have infused the best of the series remain, and it's hard to dislike.
The essential appeal of the Karate Kid franchise - across multiple movies and TV shows over 40 years - is pretty simple. It's a classic underdog story, in a martial arts setting with a little light philosophy and some life lessons added to the mix.
Karate Kid: Legends has a few tweaks to freshen things a little - including an Asian lead - and a lot of callbacks for fans, but the basics remain. There are some dubious and coincidental elements if you're picky, but this isn't that kind of movie. If it ain't broke...
At his new high school, Li becomes the target of bad-guy Conor (Aramis Knight), whose brand of martial arts is aggressive and dirty. Li's skills are rusty, so he's quickly defeated. Apparently, there are no repercussions for either boy: maybe something was lost in the edit (a thought that occurred to me more than once during the film).
More happily, Li meets Mia Lipani (Sadie Sweet from Kim Possible), whose affable father Victor (Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek), a onetime local boxing champ, runs a pizza joint. Mia starts showing Li around the city, and he teaches her Mandarin to help her bargain with Chinese shopkeepers.
Now we get into it's-a-small-world territory. See, Mia is Conor's ex (and, no surprise, he's not happy about seeing her with another guy).
And Victor is in debt to a loan shark named O'Shea (Tim Rozon), who runs the dojo at which Conor trains.
There's soon a match, but not the one you might be expecting. Despite his age, Victor decides to enter a local boxing match to try to win some cash, and guess who takes on the role of trainer? Yes, it's Li, applying what to Victor are some unorthodox methods. And yes, there's a training montage.
We know, of course, that his mother's edict, Li will eventually face off against Conor - in the 5 Boroughs Tournament, the biggest in the city, which for some reason takes place on a rooftop (isn't this meant to be a well-established, highly-publicised, lucrative, legitimate event?)
And that he will be trained by Mr Han, whose way to inform his grandnephew about his arrival is decidedly unorthodox, and the original Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio).
The former focuses on kung fu, the latter on karate, but these are, as someone sagely observes, "Two branches, one tree."
This film - set a few years after Cobra Kai's ending - can be watched on its own, but takes place in the same universe as its predecessors.
Devotees will relish references to previous instalments, including an appearance by Daniel's trainer, Mr Miyagi (the late Pat Morita).
While a lot of movies feel padded, there's a little too much content for the modest running time. I don't know if Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit) wrote it that way or if director Jonathan Entwhistle (The End of the F***ing World) just wanted to keep things moving along, and a lot was left on the now metaphorical cutting-room floor.
The combat scenes are quite exciting, but some of the reflective and nostalgic moments and secondary characters feel underserved (but there's time for Daniel to say he's not coming when we know he will). Wyatt Oleff (It) does a lot with a little as Alan, Li's nerdy maths tutor.
However, the warmth and spirit that have infused the best of the series remain, and it's hard to dislike.