Karate Kid: Legends Review: This Legacy Sequel Awkwardly Blends Two Okay Movies In One

The longevity of John G. Avildsen's 1984 sports movie "The Karate Kid" is one of the more baffling phenomenons of my generation. The original flick followed a New Jersey kid named Daniel LaRossa (Ralph Macchio) to a new home in dumpy ol' Reseda, California, where he is immediately targeted by a team of karate-enthusiast bullies. They attend a dojo called Cobra Kai, which is treated like a mythically brutal school for potential assassins, when in actuality, was an average building on Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood. To defend himself, Daniel falls in with a local karate sensei named Nariyoshi Miyagi (Pat Morita), who teaches him a more thoughtful, contemplative version of karate. The film ends with Daniel besting his bully, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). 

The film was made for only $8 million, but was an explosive hit, raking in over $130 million at the box office. Avildsen seemingly repeated the "underdog triumphs" formula from his "Rocky," eight years earlier, just with a teenager in the title role. "The Karate Kid" unexpectedly spawned two sequels with Macchio and Morita, as well as an animated series in 1988. There was a spinoff in 1994, "The Next Karate Kid," which starred Morita and Hilary Swank. In 2010, "The Karate Kid" was remade with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, even though that film was more kung-fu inflected. The original film was revived as an unexpectedly popular YouTubeRed series called "Cobra Kai" in 2018. Zabka and Macchio returned, and the show eventually moved to Netflix. 

And now we have the sixth "Karate Kid" movie, John Entwistle's "Karate Kid: Legends," and, boy howdy, it has a lot on its plate. Although only 94 minutes in length, "Karate Kid: Legends" manages to cram two separate movies into one, both of them starring a new Karate Kid, Li Fong (Ben Wang). "Legends" is like a reboot and its sequel, playing episodically. The first of those two movies is pretty good. The second ... we'll get to that.

There isn't much mythology to "The Karate Kid," but "Legends" does quickly explain in a prologue how a Japanese karate master like Mr. Miyagi should have influenced Mr. Han (Chan), a Chinese kung-fu instructor. It seems one of Miyagi's ancestors took a drunken sailing voyage to China where he and the local martial arts instructors blended their styles, creating an unbeatable form of karate-fu. Li has been learning Miyagi kung-fu from his uncle, Mr. Han, much to the chagrin of his mother, played by a sorely underutilized Ming-Na Wen. We'll eventually learn through flashbacks that Li's older brother was also a kung-fu competitor, but that he was stabbed to death by a rival after a match. This will lead Li and his mom to relocate to New York under the stipulation that he never fight again. 

Here we begin movie #1 wherein Li acclimatizes to New York. He meets a friendly teenage pizzaria clerk named Mia (Sadie Stanley), and she agrees to show him around the city in exchange for Mandarin lessons. Ben Wang is a dazzling lead, able to communicate his pain and self-effacing qualities without losing a movie star's general sense of heroism. He was previously in "American Born Chinese," and will soon appear in "The Long Walk." If there is justice in Hollywood, Wang will become enormous. 

Li meets Mia's dad, a handsome, down-to-earth, warm, patronly ex-boxer named Victor (former Mighty Duck Joshua Jackson). However kindly he is, Victor is in large with some local loan sharks, and will only be able to haul himself out of debt if he can win an upcoming boxing match. Li beats away some of the debt collectors, and Victor asks that Li become his fight instructor. What follows is a clever, script-flipped version of a traditional sports movie dynamic, wherein the older, middle-aged man is the student, and the teenager is the expert. Naturally, Li and Mia will grow closer as the instructions continue. 

The relationship between Li and Victor is interesting as well, as Victor has to treat Li as both a professor and an ersatz son. Li isn't technically fighting if he's teaching someone else how to box (kung-fu style) so he's not really breaking his mom's rules. 

Victor's big fight happens halfway through the movie. I won't reveal the outcome of the fight, but I will say that movie #1 comes to an abrupt end, and movie #2 suddenly begins. The editing and pacing of the film alters immediately, and Li is thrust into a new role. Mr. Han comes to New York, and the training can begin afresh. It seems that there is an upcoming MMA tourney called The 5 Boroughs, and Li finds that, darn it, he has to compete. Mom will learn to be okay with this, and Victor and Mia vanish from the film. Mr. Han subsequently calls in Daniel LaRusso (still teaching karate at Mr. Miyagi's dojo in the Valley), and the two older instructors unite to train Li. Oh yes, Li's rival is a vicious bully named Conor (Aramis Knight), who just happens to be the son of Victor's loan shark and Mia's ex-boyfriend. 

It's wonderfully amusing to see the poor, exhausted Li receive conflicting instructions from Daniel and Han, and "Karate Kid: Legends" makes clever use of its New York setting; there is a training moment, for instance, wherein Li has to make a dramatic move underneath a New York Metro turnstile. But where did this second movie come from? All of a sudden, there are animated captions and a whimsical music video aesthetic. It's like the screenwriters had two ideas for a story, but could pad out either into a feature, so decided to make two 47-minute movies instead. 

Both of the films embedded in "Karate Kid: Legends" are standardly satisfying. Wong capably carries the film(s), even when standing opposite a legend like Jackie Chan and a veteran like Ralph Macchio. Jackson is impressively warm as an affable near-burnout, reading like a particularly tough Kindergarten teacher. Sadie Stanley and Ming-Na Wen, sadly, aren't allowed to express a lot of personality, serving more as plot functionaries than fully realized characters. Regardless, the two "final fights" play perfectly well, and one might feel inspired and exhilarated by either of them. 

But why are there two? "Karate Kid: Legends" is both an original movie and a legacy sequel. It follows a new story, links previous chapters in a 40-year franchise, re-introduces several old characters, and presents two separate climaxes, each with its own set of personal stakes. That it functions at all is kind of a miracle, especially since we're done in 94 minutes. 

The bifurcation of "Karate Kid: Legends" has it feeling mercifully kind of insubstantial. It's a puffy, early-summer entertainment more interested in characterization and well-worn, hangdog sports movie storytelling than hefty, "important" mythmaking. One doesn't need to be a deep-cut "Karate Kid" fan to enjoy it, as Entwistle and his screenwriter, Rob Lieber, are careful to give you the functional backstory you need. There is only one brief cameo for hardcore "Karate Kid" fans, and it's clearly broadcasted, un-reliant on preexisting affection for the series. Although the structure is completely weird, this may be a better approach to legacy sequels than the more traditional form that insists on import. It's okay, Hollywood, for movies to be light and enjoyable.

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10

"Karate Kid: Legends" opens in theaters on May 30, 2025.