Karate Kid: Legends - Movie Review

Karate Kid: Legends is the latest film in the Karate Kid franchise, the first one in 15 years! 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 film was directed by Jonathan Entwistle and stars Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio and Ben Wang.

The Review
So when they first announced this film, it seemed like a good idea because Cobra Kai was all the hype, so it made sense to make a new Karate Kid film. This movie was originally going to be released last year but got delayed to this year, and now that Cobra Kai ended much earlier this year and the hype died off, most people (including myself) forgot that this movie was even coming out. This is a legacy sequel to both the original Karate Kid and the 2010 film starring Jaden Smith. How was this movie exactly you may ask? This was one of the most boring films I saw this year so far! This movie was only 94 minutes, and it felt like 2 and a half to 3 hours. The fight sequences were dull, the story is beyond generic, and both old and new characters are so one note and dull. You got Jackie Chan, one of the greatest action stars of all time, and reprising his role from the Jaden Smith film, the writing and directing was so bad that it managed to make him boring! He was trying his best to make the movie work but I think even he knew this movie was going to bore people to death. Ralph Macchio, the OG Karate Kid himself, is only here for nostalgia bait. His presence here is only for people who love the original films to shout "OH MY GOD, HE'S BACK, THAT MEANS I AUTOMATICALLY THINK THIS MOVIE IS GREAT!!!" There's no thrills or excitement in the fight scenes. You see the skill and effort put into them but the direction is so dull and lifeless and devoid of style that it made the fight sequences so boring to watch. The story is one of the most been there, done that thing ever too, you got the main kid, he relocates to a new area, he gets picked on, and gets trained martial arts to stand up to them in a tournament. You would think after all these years since the 2010 film and the massive success of Cobra Kai that they would have come up with something that feels fresh, but that's not the case here.

So in the end, Karate Kid: Legends was a painfully boring waste of time. I'm sure if you're the most hard-core fan of this franchise you'll like it but I couldn't find really anything to truly enjoy about this. I'll just stick to the first two original films and even the 2010 film for its actually very well done action and Jackie Chan. I'm not sure quite yet if it's quite as bad as The Next Karate Kid, I'll have to give that one a re-watch to really make sure, but this is definitely down among the worst in this franchise.

GRADE:  D

MOVIE DETAILS
Release date:  May 30th, 2025
Run time:  94 minutes 
Studio:  Columbia Pictures 
Director:  Jonathan Entwistle 
MPAA rating:  PG-13 (for martial-arts violence and some language)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning - Movie Review *Spoiler Free*

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is the direct sequel to the excellent Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One and continues the story of Ethan Hunt and his team as they must stop this powerful AI called "The Entity" before the breakout of full scale nuclear war. The film was directed by Christopher McQuarrie and stars Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Hayley Atwell. THE REVIEW If you know me it's no secret that this was my most anticipated film of 2025! I love this franchise, and every single movie since Mission: Impossible III have been consistantly fantastic. Now I will say this isn't the greatest film in the franchise, it's considerably more flawed than the past four entries in this franchise, but I still absolutely loved this film! First off, Tom Cruise and the rest of the cast bring their A game here as expected, all of them give great performances, are charismatic, and do well in the action sequences. Tom Cruise once again puts his life...
Read more

Jurassic World: Rebirth - Movie Review

Image
Jurassic World: Rebirth is the latest film in the Jurassic Park franchise and this time it's directed by Gareth Edwards, and stars Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend and many other. So in this film, a team travels to a former research facility on an island to extract samples of things vital for a treatment for heart disease and also rescue a shipwrecked family, but then they struggle to survive as they become stranded on the island and face dinosaurs. I was kind of hopeful for this movie, none of the people behind the previous 3 films were behind this one so this was pretty much like a fresh start. I love Gareth Edwards as a director, and it was back to basics, none of this boring bugs nonsense like the atrocious previous installment Jurassic World: Dominion.   This movie is a dumb, fun monster flick—nothing more, nothing less. It may not be a masterpiece, but when it comes to enjoyable summer entertainment, there are certainly worse options out there. Ga...
Read more