Review of The Karate Kid (2010) by Bardhanjoy — 14 May 2016

The Karate Kid [2010] is undoubtedly has the push towards a family movie watching evening with the popcorn and the coke, if one puts his/her nostalgic feel aside. it's a brand new movie, so there is no reason to compare it with the earlier versions other than the name which is absolutely irrelevant with the film [cliche cliche cliche]. It followed the skeleton of the movie from 1984 also, but in the end it never mattered a great deal.

Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan did the full justice to the characters, so did all the other castings. The film started with a kid [Jaden] and his mother [Taraji P. Henson] moving to China to have a new life, where the kid was never satisfied and the mother was in "must be satisfied" kind of mindset. Later on same old bullies, same but not so same[my god !] Mr Miyagi kind of Mr Han saved the kid, same Dojo [Japan, I miss you !] visiting, same challenge, same climax and the story ends. Sounds really boring but it's not because in the way all those things were put together. The film came out in a new wrap.

Mr Han was not like Mr Miyagi who leaves the student polishing, painting alone.....rather This Sifu prefers to stay with his student holding an umbrella just behind him, when he was tiredly practicing the "putting on and off" the jacket in the rain. This student never did hush-hush to make his drunk mentor to sleep when he was down by the unfortunate past, rather he dragged him to practice to make him feel strong. This is the true spirit of Kung Fu. Channelize your every action into a defense or offense aka effective move....everything is Kung Fu. Chinese landscapes, Shaolin touch, smart story line helped the long old story to be uttered in a brand new way. It's like chewing a burger and the taste is different, new and good. The kid's crush Mei Ying was so so until the dancing act which displays the hidden wildness under the restricted social shell.

Beside all those new ingredients and the consciousness of the modern taste, the story became the weak part, because it had nothing new to offer. If the kid loses the tournament yet wins the hearts and defeats the bullies in the streets, leading a cool life, using Kung Fu as a self defending technique only....it would have been a revolution. It is always not important to win the competition to win the battle. In this point, it looses it's chance to be elevated to the standards like "Rocky" and "The Million Dollar Baby" but it surely had a possibility. In this point, it became just a good entertaining movie with a bunch of people complaining about the name issue, comparing with the old Karate Kid. The Karate Kid[2010] Had a chance to be one of the great films but the plot and the name selection ruined it all. so it became just another tea time movie in the holidays.