Review of The Karate Kid (2010) by Pantelis A — 08 Aug 2012

To start with the obvious, the martial art form used in the movie is KungFu not Karate. It should have been named "The Kungfu Kid". There was no build up of characters or animosity to hold the audiences attention for very long. The mother though necessary was useless in any way to the plot. Ralph Macchio in the First Karate Kid was in his early 20's when he did the movie, he should have been called the Karate guy or something, anyways I feel Jaden Smith was too small for the role. Other than the frightened child expression, he couldn't manage too much. I believe in any martial art form there is a weight class while in the movie, at least one of his opponent was double his age & weight. That is totally unrealistic. After initially floundering around Jaden just picks up every move on the first try. Machhio had a learning curve which made it believable. Though there were some exaggeration there in the older Karate Kid, but the storyline kept the audience captured, every one of us wanted really bad to be the person to beat up the bad guys. Here there was no villain just a bunch of confused kids going from an illegal moves to handing the trophy to the Jaden Smith with a smile on their faces. Total hogwash. Jackie Chan was OK but I found Mr. Miyagi's character a bit more livelier. That would have suited Jackie's character as well. All in all a disappointment in spite of all the hype.

4/10.