Review of The Karate Kid (2010) by Another V — 17 Dec 2016

My kids had differing opinions on which Karate Kid is better, the new or the old. They did like both, and watched both in the same weekend.

One thing about The Karate Kid which I disagree with is that the hero goes out and continues to fight with a potentially serious injury. Winning is not everything, and he did after all prove himself a worthy fighter and athlete, without having to become champion.

Everybody loves a champion, but there are other good reasons to engage in a sport: the love of the sport itself, to find out how good you are, to be more fit and healthy, to be challenged, to be part of something, to interact with teammates and be social, to interact with opponents in (hopefully) a respectful and positive way, and in the case of martial arts to learn to protect yourself. Winning isn't everything, and while I like the Karate Kid movies, there does seem to be a message here that winning IS everything, and I disagree with that.

When the final fight scene was happening and karate kid Dre continued to fight while injured and his mom was ok with that and wanting him to continue, my older son commented that she is a bad mother. Of course, this isn't Taraji Henson's fault. She's just following the script.

I do like Jackie Chan in a father figure role here as Mr. Han, although it's not a comedic role as we often see him play. But, I did not like watching him make Dre pick up his jacket 1000 times. That seemed excessive.