Review of The Karate Kid (2010) by Matthew D — 05 Mar 2013

Movie Matt here with The Karate Kid. I was originally planning on doing a combo review of the 1984 film in conjunction with this one but having never seen the original film, I'll just do this one. The story is actually okay after viewing the film fully (having only seen bits of pieces of it in school) & homages to the original here and there but the major problem I had with the film was the acting: Jaden Smith seemed to be forcing his emotions out at some points although he holds his own against his more experienced co-star Jackie Chan who was the only redeeming factor, actually playing the mentor character & displaying his trademark "Chan butt-kicking" prowess in some parts of the film and he did a surprisingly good job in this.

It was clear that this was a project Columbia wasn't going to let go because they've been associated with the franchise since its' inception. The reason for the 4-star rating was because while the story was good, the acting between Smith & Chan seemed stilted at times.

While I like this film, people always say "Original is better" & I'll say, if you're a Jackie Chan or a Jaden Smith fan, than this one's for you.