Sherry (Taraji P. Hensen) and Dre (Jaden Smith) have to move to Beijing, China after Sherry was transferred to the Chinese division of the can company she works for.  There Dre meets Meiying (Wenwen Han) and immediately falls in love, but Cheng (Zhenwei Wang) doesn’t like Dre and begins to bully him to stay away from Meiying.  Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) finds out about this and decides to teach Dre Kung-fu so that he can defend himself and participate in an open tournament.

It’s a remake of a classic 80s film.  Somehow the Hollywood machine has found it time to reboot this franchise that I personally think went off the deep end with its last instalment.  It has all the same plot points and character developments that you remember from the original.  It even has its very own version of the very popular ‘wax on, wax off’ that children of the 2000s will be able to quote and will eventually write screenplays and make their characters quote.  However, I believe that this movie requires one thing from you (the audience) in order for you to enjoy it, and that is to forget that the first film existed.

I still find it baffling that the studio decided to refresh the film by setting it in China and having the content be about Kung-Fu as opposed to Karate, and still name it The Karate Kid.  Actually that’s a lie; I know why they kept the name.  It’s so that all the parents get nostalgic and take all their children to watch it, rather than confuse them by the title The Kung-Fu Kid which sounds like some STV spin off from Kung-Fu Panda or something.

Anyways, throwing out all the usual remake quibbles this movie actually stands on its own and shows itself to be a good movie.  It definitely pales in comparison to my romanticised memories of staying up late nights watching the original.

Jackie Chan definitely shines in the film.  I think what makes him work so well as the Chinese version of Mr. Miyagi is that after more than two decades of watching Chan be the martial arts star out of Hong Kong, from Drunken Master all the way to now, it almost feels like the kind of character he would be now.  Chan has reached the age where it isn’t feasible for him to be doing the level of stunt work that he used to do in the 80s and early 90s, so he has to rely on his screen presence to see him through.  And it’s more than enough here.  He’s able to be the inspirational teacher that we need to make this movie work.  Literally anytime he was on screen the film was better for it.

On the other hand, Jaden Smith reminded me completely why I hate him.  Even a couple years ago (has it been that long) when I saw The Day The Earth Stood Still I saw that Jaden is a whiny little ten-year-old that I don’t want to be spending time with.  Here he rehashes that same attitude.  The writers try their best to embed it in the story itself but he just comes off as unlikeable every time he opens his mouth.  I imagine that someone, like a grandmother, told him that he was cute and that’s what the movie is going for with his relationship with Meiying, but I just can’t abide by having Jaden be this character.  I felt the film would’ve been a lot better if a different actor was cast in the role.

The question I find myself asking myself as I left the theatre was: would it be better for them to rerelease the original 1984 The Karate Kid or did this reboot actually hold its own in a franchise that has been long forgotten? The answer I eventually came to is: yes, the film was good enough to merit the reboot.  I just pray that the successful US Box Office returns don’t give the studio the grand idea of making this a full blown franchise again, but rather leave it at this one only.

IMDB says 5.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 69%

I say 7.0/10