Karate Kid Legends... The Most Okay Around (Spoiler Free)


                                                                   (KarateKid.Film)

I love Cobra Kai, even though I have never seen a Karate Kid movie in full, I plan to fix that someday, but it shows how great Cobra Kai is as a show because they give the watcher the information they need, showing or telling the audience who characters are and how they tie to the plot. When this movie was announced I was pretty excited because I thought that this could be the epilogue to a show that I really enjoy. Is this the epilogue, another stepping stone in this long running 80's franchise? I got back from the theater and here are my thoughts.

This is more tied to the 2010 Karate Kid with Jaiden Smith and Jackie Chan then it does to the 80's property. From the intro on it ties what many, myself thought was a reboot but is now tied into one big timeline. Using a wonderful animated intro, and footage from Karate Kid II, it ties them together.

In this movie we follow Li Fong, who is Mr. Han's nephew, who is played by Jackie Chan, as he moves from China to New York. The friends he meets, the rivals he encounters, drama, romance, all the staples of a Karate Kid movie. This film begins as one movie but then hard pivots into the troupes we know from these films. I enjoyed the first half and wish the movie settled on one plot.

The things I did like in this movie was that were some good action sequences, some really good acting, and I really liked the music of this movie. I may look up the soundtrack to this movie because the songs they picked, were great. There were tons of great moments, especially in the first two thirds of the movie because they hard pivoted to another film. 

This film really felt like two movies stapled together. The movie jumps around so much, and tried to cram so much in. The villain of this movie has like three roles, as evil sensi, loan shark, and his student has barely any time with our main character before they throw down. Some of the scenes in this movie feel like they just happen, and come out of nowhere, there is one action scene that just comes and goes and had me wondering what just happened. The editing on this movie is also super odd, it keeps trying to do comic panels, and jumping around, the editing of this movie is very confusing at times. Sometimes there are just graphics on the screen to make a scene look almost like a video game and I thought it looked cool, but also would of worked if the whole movie looked like this, not just a couple random parts. 

In terms of Ralph Macchio as Danny, he feels tacked on, and they could of made a movie without him. They have made a Karate Kid film without the original cast, and it was successful, I feel as the popularity of Cobra Kai is the reason why they tried to tie to two of them together, instead of being separate stories. There is a cameo that did make me smile ear to ear, even if it did feel just placed in there, but so much of the movie has that feeling that I just went with it.

There were moments of this movie I enjoyed, and I would watch it again with friends sometime. I did like parts of this movie, it was a mixed bag overall, enjoyable but messy. This movie is not the worst movie I have ever seen. This was not really a good follow up to the classic series and felt more tacked in, with no real ties to Cobra Kai. For what it was, I had some fun with the movie, but also felt indifferent, wishing they had truly went a different route with the first story introduced, and trimmed down the plot elements so other characters such as the new friends, rivals, and the situation could be fleshed out. Overall, just an okay time, but I hope to see more from this franchise, and even some of these characters, just in a movie with less going on. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nintendos Music App: First Impressions

 I have not talked about anything gaming-related on here for a while, and I want to change that, amidst movies, shows, music, or whatever I feel like talking about here, I want to bring video games back on the table (Which is also how this blog started). Something that came out of nowhere this past week was Nintendo dropping a music app for NSO (Nintendo Switch Online) members at no cost. There is no AD model or a premium one, it is just the music as is and it comes with your subscription, so far there is music ranging from current Switch titles to Wii Channels and even the NES. Some Mario, Animal Crossing, Kirby, Zelda, and more, so what do I think? Let's download this app and find out!  The app is modeled as a standard music app and works as such. You can mark favorites, make playlists, and extend some songs, not all but some. You can extend a song to 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour, causing one of my minor gripes I will get into later. Overall the presentation of this ap...
Read more

Knockout Tour

 The new Mario Kart game is here, Mario Kart World, and there is plenty to talk about. I want to for now focus on the part of the game that I have been spending the most amount of time on, I have done some racing, and I really enjoy relaxing with the free roam mode,but when I boot up the game there is one mode I can not stop playing. Knockout tour, a battle royale mode where 24 players race through the different tracks trying to get in a certain place or higher, get lower then what is required and that is the end of the race for you. Passing through each check point and eliminating more and more racers until only 4 are left and the exhilarating sprint for first pace is closer then ever before. Using items, drifting, shortcuts, and collecting coins to keep your chosen vehicles acceleration up, all while making sure you are in a good position to not get eliminated means there's plenty to keep in mind, adding to the enjoyable yet frantic nature of this mode.   I can not stop...
Read more

Popcorn Buckets Fascinate Me

 Summer movie season is here, though it began in May with Thunderbolts. The time of year where a new movie is coming out every weekend, from animated hits, to super hero stories, to reboots and sequels. When going to the movies aside from trailers, epic stories, and depending on where you go potentially Nicole Kidman. Of course there is always the option of candy, soda, and the staple of popcorn, but now in recent years that classic movie snack is being presented in so many different ways. The modern movie popcorn bucket, collectors items that have been taking theaters and the internet by storm. I even own a special popcorn bucket and have seen some, from the Dune Sandworm that broke the internet and even caused a SNL parody song, to a hammer from Lord Of The Rings. Whenever a movie is announced and approaches its release now every chain has a popcorn bucket to call its own that you can only find at their establishments. Meaning that with an upcoming film, you can compare buckets b...
Read more