Of the seemingly endless problems that can be found in the newest rehashing of an older film, "The Karate Kid"'s worst flaw is that the name is deceiving. Very early on, we learn that they are not doing karate, but kung-fu. So the movie should have been called "The Kung-Fu Kid" - but maybe that just wouldn't have sold as many tickets. I was really expecting to enjoy this movie, but in turn it ended up being one of the biggest disappointments that I've seen all year. Do let me explain.The 'karate (*cough*kung-fu) kid' (KK) from the title is Jaden Smith, son of Will Smith. He's not a bad little actor, but he's stuck in a bad script. When his character is forced to move to China because his mother gets a new job, he is left feeling isolated. To make matters worse, bullies don't like him because he dances funny. The movie never truly explains anything well enough, but they were obviously aiming at ten year-old audiences that won't care. I mean, supporting characters in this movie come and go from the central figures to the point where they are left grossly underdeveloped. There is a blond kid in the beginning who looks like he'll end up being a friend to the KK, but he is not to be seen again until the end of the movie. Some of the training sequences go on so long that I felt that I could have actually learned kung-fu in the same time it took me to watch this overlong movie. To help with the bullying problem, Jackie Chan comes to the rescue as a man who is haunted with baggage all his own. Chan is really the only bright spot in the movie - but even he wears out his welcome.
From a parental standpoint, some of the bullying sequences are very intense. I mean, it's called the "Karate Kid" so some fighting is expected, but for a kids movie, it's pretty violent. The KK also swears a few times which wasn't needed and seemed out of place. I think this movie was very very close to getting a PG-13 rating.
A few weeks ago I blogged that I hadn't seen the original. Maybe I need to. But I'm in no mood right now. I hate movies more when they act like they're better than they are. This was one of those movies. Bullying is such a hot topic in schools, maybe this is connecting to middle schoolers on a level I just don't get. As a movie though, it doesn't cut it. An interesting complaint - why were there so many Americans at the school where the KK went? Ugh. I could go on, but it's just easier to give this movie a 3.5 out of 10 and enough is enough.
I agree with you about the title being deceiving; I wondered how they were going to make a karate movie in China... but I thought both Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan were great actors. Also, they did go into more detail about the bullying. They explained that the chinese kid didn't like Jaden because Jaden was putting moves on his girl. Overall, the plot was remarkably similar to the third Karate Kid movie. If you didn't like this one, you would definitely not like the originals. Considering it was aimed at a family audience, I thought it hit its mark, despite the brief inappropriate language issue. It deserved at least a seven out of ten! :) ~Kirstin
ReplyDeleteI actually didn't think they expressed enough of a storyline with that kid liking the girl other than the one line about their families being close. It seemed like a stretch at best - just something that should have been better portrayed. ***SPOILER WARNING*** And to have the "villain kid" act the way he did at the end was SOOOO out of character.
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