This will not be a popular review for 2 reasons, the first being that most people are not martial artists, and the second being that little Jaden Smith already has a ton of haters for whatever reason.

Foreword – My Feelings on The Karate Kid series (lengthy)

Before getting into the review I must explain a bit about myself. I am a martial artist, have been all my life and will continue to be until I die. I grew up watching Kung-Fu theater (hence the ongoing reviews I still do on the classics).  So when I saw the original Karate Kid I was excited at first about the movie but the excitement grew into bitter cynicism as I got older and wiser into what was martial arts versus what I saw in that movie. I strongly dislike the original Karate Kid (there I said it), I thought it was a campy mess of real philosophies being played out poorly by people that obviously had no martial training.

Going into this movie, this new “Karate Kid” starring a boy who has annoyed me in former movies (The Day The Earth Stood Still) and the setting being China with Kung-Fu not Karate, I was thinking “here we go again” with the bull. The difference however was that I knew Jackie Chan was involved and instead of the standard cast of players, this would have a different feel to it based on the setting and the actors. I avoided it for as long as I could until the blaringly good reviews kept pouring in and I became way too curious to not go give it a watch.

What Was So Good About The Karate Kid

The number one thing that I loved about The Karate Kid is the message, yes the same message that was given in the 1984 version, but a great message nonetheless. The message is that beyond all the MMA, K1, action stuntmen, Bruce Lee worship that we have of today, Kung Fu is a way of life and the real reasoning for its being is for “self-defense” and a betterment of life. While we have the fancy dojos that drain money for the purpose of seeing kids go through the motions towards promotion, this key philosophy is the Karate Kid from beginning to end.

Beautiful cinematography (the Forbidden City scene was all that), honest acting and well choreographed fight scenes made the presentation quite pretty. Jaden’s Dre Parker grows on you as the plot goes through and Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) is as tremendous as he is impressive. There are flaws yes, and it is heavily clichéd and predictable – This latter critique of course falls hollow for a summer movie, since I deem most movies predictable especially one that borrows the formula and title of an old 1984 classic. Yet it has that “it” which makes you feel it, none of us saw this coming from the weak trailers that were made for it.

Who Should See The Karate Kid

Biased, angry and closed-minded, adult nerds should sit this one out (I was one but I’m being serious, haters gtfo), especially if martial arts is foreign to you. It may seem like a kid’s movie at first but by the time it ended I thought to myself that parents need to see Karate Kid as much as their children. I thought the evil Dojo master (no it wasn’t Cobra Ki) was a great example of the wrong kind of teacher for any martial student. His calloused tutelage exemplified how a trainer can be worshipped by his students to the point where they will do morally questionable actions in order to garner favor. It isn’t a caricature so much as a reality warning for parents to sit in on classes and know who it is that teaches your child karate/kung fu.

Taraji P. Henson did a decent enough job as Dre’s loving young mother and while Jaden wasn’t terrible, he was a bit hard to believe in the scenes across from her. This is of course balanced out by his time with Jackie Chan whose master/pupil relationship with Dre takes on a patriarchal type of bond. In the end, as in the end of the movie there is the big tournament (as you already know). My theater cheered as if they were in the movie watching little Dre prove himself against the best. By the time the credits rolled, I saw one little girl bawling her eyes out from the violence and the whole theater cheering as if they were watching the Super Bowl.

Karate Kid is surprisingly a sleeper hit, and unlike its predecessor I can at least appreciate it for both the philosophy and the martial arts. The film is also a bit of an advertising brochure for the country of China since the views of the Great Wall, Forbidden City and architecture are breathtaking, in contrast to older movies which showed the country as old buildings, ruins and rice hats. Go and check out the Karate Kid, you will not be disappointed – no nerd rage here, just intrigue and then there’s Nocturne by Chopin pounding away in my skull unwilling to leave – damn you Meiying (Wenwen Han)!.

  STAR RATING: (9/10)   ★★★★★★★★★★