The Karate Kid Movie Review

Some many remakes saw their transitory glory destroyed by criticisms and the nostalgic film enthusiasts, so much of adaptations knew the failure through modernity, so much as works from the past were described as fallacious ones (we only have to think about Disturbia from D.J. Caruso or King Kong from Peter Jackson), that to produce new a Karate Kid could very well have depreciated the traditional one and the victorious memory which resulted from this. But extremely fortunately, this risk was worth the sorrow to be taken. Even if Jackie Chan hardly manages to make forget the imposing presence and the myth behind Pat Morita, Jaden Smith makes much better a Karate Kid than Ralph Macchio would never have been able the being.
Because of the work of his mother, Dre Parker is forced to move in China. The young 12 year old boy is sad to have to leave all his friends, all his reference marks, for a country which he hardly knows. Whereas he tries to be integrated into his new environment, he meets Meiying, a young Chinese person who dreams to become a large musician. But, although their friendship seems easy and natural, other young people of the school, specialists in Kung fu, refuse that they are attended and do not hesitate to use violence to make themselves comprehensible to him. Dre will thus try to learn this martial art with the assistance of Mr. Han, the caretaker of his building.
The son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jaden Smith, is really qualified. Whereas Ralph Macchio in the original version made only some martial figures and more gained the final combat thanks to the chance that by talent, Smith does not cease impressing by his lifting performances like by his authentic play. Jackie Chan, on the contrary, seems distant, less committed; his tricks are limited and his interpretation, rather banal.
Although we are all conscious that China undergoes important conflicts at the moment and that the climate which reigns there in is more one of uncertainty that of prosperity, nobody can deny his spiritual beauty and the richness of his history. The film reveals us a chimerical place, utopian perhaps (only one negative word on China, and the Americans would have been banished, without image nor possibility of return), but indisputably splendid, idyllic. The images in mountain, on the great wall, in the moved back suburbs, agree perfectly with the creed of Karate Kid (we even wonder a certain moment how the story could function in Los Angeles).
The starting elements of the new story and from the old movie are appreciably the same ones: young American wants to learn martial arts to be able to defend themselves and turns to the Chinese caretaker of his building, which seems to know the kung fu, to help him. Several modifications were made all the same to the tale; some were worth the effort of it – migration of the history in China, the more rigorous training of the teenager -, then of others do nothing but harm the adaptation. The development of the character of Meiying, too many stages in Dre’s formation -, unnecessarily lengthening the account (a film of 2:20 which is for all the family, it is generally too long).
The new version of Karate Kid will, in a general way, fill waitings, inter alia by the quality of its plans and its performances. A new generation of young people will want surely to learn martial arts and to perhaps even visit China, to know its culture. Remain to see on the other hand if the nostalgic ones will be able to pass beyond the absence of Mr. Miyagi.

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Posted by Kevin Huffman on Jun 17 2010. Filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.