"a fine film, not the worst of the franchise but not the best either. At times it felt like two films crushed into one"

Karate Kid: Legends is the latest entry in the ever expanding Karate Kid franchise, and it’s a really good entry in my opinion. It’s not the best of the franchise, that’ll always be the first film released in 1984 and it isn’t the worst either, that’s sadly The Karate Kid Part III in my opinion, released in 1989. It’s a solid entry, with excellent performances and is a really fun watch.

So, the first part of Karate Kid: Legends is kind of a retread of the fish out of water story, that the 1984 classic followed, where we see Li Fong (Ben Wang) training with Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) and is made to relocate to New York from China with his mother Dr. Fong (Ming-Na Wen), where he befriends a local girl Mia Lipani (Sadie Stanley) and her father, Victor (Joshua Jackson). By befriending her, he garners negative attention from Conor (Aramis Knight), who is a local Karate champion and all round bad boy in the vein of Johnny Lawrence from the original Karate Kid film, but not as memorable.

After her father is attacked by loan sharks, he is trained by Li blending his Kung Fu with the boxing, Victor is known for. I found this plot point interesting, and seeing the student train the former boxer would’ve been an interesting exploration, but alas, there isn’t enough of it, as it ends abruptly following Victor’s hospitalisation following the boxing match he was being trained for.

What follows is Mr. Han appearing in New York and recruiting Ralph Macchio’s original Karate Kid; Daniel LaRusso to train Li for the Five Boroughs competition, blending the two branches of the same tree, uniting the forms of Han Kung Fu and Miagi Do Karate.

So the action scenes are wonderful but Macchio, Chan and Wen are underused, Wang’s Li is entertaining and endearing enough to carry the film, but as a fan of Sadie Stanley, I would’ve liked to have seen more with her in the film, but after her character’s father is hospitalised, we see her a handful of times leading to the Five Boroughs where the two plots merge.

All in all, Karate Kid: Legends is a fine film, not the worst of the franchise but not the best either. At times it felt like two films crushed into one, a favourite part of mine was the use of animation early in the film, dipicting the Han and Miagi story.