Review of The Karate Kid (2010) by Jason J — 03 Mar 2012

As one that loved the original Karate kid movie I was interested to see how the remake would turn out. It's not too bad but I still prefer the 80's version with Ralph Macchio better. Anyway, it more or less follows the plot of the original except the location moves to Beijing as 12 year old Dre Parker relocates to China with his mother. He runs foul of the school bullies and is beaten up by them. Enter Mr Han, the maintenance man who looks after the building where Dre lives who starts to teach Dre the art of Kung Fu (yes Kung Fu not Karate). The bullies are all part of a kung fu school whose master drills into his pupils that they should have no mercy to their enemies. Mr Han persuades the master of the school that the bullies should not touch his pupil until a kung fu tournament which Dre has been entered into. Following a gruelling training regime by Mr Han - Dre is ready to take part in the tournament. It all boils down to a grand finale in which Dre and the chief bully square off.

I did have a preconception of this movie before even watching it but I was pleasantly surprised. Both Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan do well in their roles essentially capturing the spirit of the 80's version and the cinematography showing the beauty of China is amazing especially during the training montage on the Great Wall and the fight sequences are also rather good. However it does drag a bit too long. As a remake it stands up pretty well I reckon and it's sure to inspire a new generation of kids to take up martial arts as the original did.