The Karate Kid: Review

The Karate Kid

Directed by: Harold Zwart
Starring Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan

Should we moan so much over Hollywood’s complete lack of originality and their compulsive desire to only make movies that are based on TV shows, video games, and already successful, somewhat older movies?

Yes, we should.

But before we get smug about it (we Canadians do like to get smug) we should also remember that it is simply human nature to do remakes and that we’ve been doing it for as long as we've known. Nearly everything Shakespeare wrote was based on previous plays. The story of Jesus was told countless times in countless ways thousands of years before the year 1 A.D. Culturally, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, and sometimes we improve things, and sometimes we don’t.

After that grandiose introduction we come to the mediocre The Karate Kid, which adds little to the original and takes too long to do it.

Still, this remake is not horrible. The stars of the film do a pretty decent job. It beautifully captures some of China’s landmarks (if not its people) and the fighting sequences are if anything, better than the original. However, at a running time of 2 hours and 20 minutes, this film meanders too long to find it’s mojo; but that’s not its worst problem, the worst thing about the film is the age of its star.

In the original film, Ralph Macchio (who was actually in his twenties) played a kid in his late teens. Jaden Smith plays a 12 year old kid and he looks like a young 12 year old. How does that affect the film? It lessens the danger, it lessens the stakes. I’m not saying a 12 year old can’t feel out of place and afraid, but young adults beating and bullying each other is simply more threatening and more real than kids who haven’t got their pubes yet duking it out. As much as his age hurts the fights and lessens the tension, it’s even more uncomfortable in the romantic subplot. Here, not only did they make the absurd mistake of having a 12 year old in a romantic storyline; they also cast an actress who seems decidedly older than Smith in both looks and demeanour. So, now we have a situation where a 12 year old kid manages to pick up a girl who looks three years older than him, and oh yeah, he doesn’t speak a word of her language. This is both, a) unbelievable, and b) creepy.

While Smith’s acting is decent and he does have his charm, there’s a major problem with his character—he’s not very likable. It’s not that the kid can’t act; he’s just portraying a character that’s pretty tough to root for. He’s known for the summer that he’s moving to China but has made zero effort to learn the language. He’s completely disrespectful to his mother (repeatedly) and does little but gripe and complain to the person who helps him the most (Chan). I’m supposed to be cheering for this kid who has been thrown into a foreign land, who’s being bullied and picked on and instead I’m hoping some Asian kid teaches him some manners.

But the film has one very strong saving grace: Jackie Chan. Not very well known for dramatic turns, especially in English language films, Jackie Chan delivers a performance that is every bit as good as Pat Morita’s in the original if not better. Pat Morita received an Oscar nod; Chan deserves one more. The film comes alive when Chan’s on the screen. It has more meaning, it has more depth, it has more comedy, and it becomes more realistic and engaging.

As mentioned earlier, the fighting sequences are quite well done, especially the one and only scene where Chan jumps into the fray, but here again, the star’s age lessens the impact of the fights. Smith just appears so young, small, and slight that he looks like he could Hong Kong Phooey on someone’s butt for 20 minutes and still wouldn’t be able to knock them down without a ladder and a baseball bat. That being said, the final kung fu move is a pleasure to watch.

If you decide to go see The Karate Kid at the Bloor, you’ll see some pretty cool fights and a nice performance from Jackie Chan … or you could rent the original and fall in love with Elisabeth Shue all over again.

Point of Interest: Jaden Smith’s parents (Will and Jada Pinkett Smith) are the producers of The Karate Kid. While despotism is nothing new to the entertainment industry, the kid’s parents did him a disservice by making this film when he was so young. If they had waited four or five more years they could have produced a film with a much bigger physical and emotional wallop.