Director: Jonathan Entwistle
Starring: Jackie Chan, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Wyatt Oleff, Aramis Knight, and Ralph Macchio
Movie Length: 1 hour 34 minutes
What is it: The latest film in the Karate Kid franchise, it serves as a sequel to 2010’s The Karate Kid and also ties in (albeit very minor tie-in) to the Cobra Kai series.
What Dan thought: The movie did a good job following the same format as the previous movies, and tied into the previous ones nicely. The new cast to the franchise including lead actor Ben Wang (who is proficient in quite a few martial art styles as Li Fong), the always wonderful Ming-Na Wen (as Li’s mother), Sadie Stanley (as Li’s love interest, Mia), and Joshua Jackson (as Mia’s father) joined the returning Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio.
If you’ve seen the other movies in the franchise, this movie follows the same general format. New kid to the area gets bullied, gets trained in karate, and enters a tournament. Where this movie differs a bit is with the introduction of his love interest’s father who he helps train for a boxing match (a storyline which I felt wasn’t needed except to extend the movie a bit).
Having a lead who is proficient in a few styles of martial arts along with Jackie Chan helped the fight scenes immensely. Except for the boxing match storyline I mentioned above, the movie flows pretty well from opening credits to the end scene (which is where the Cobra Kai tie in comes into play).
Dan’s grade: B. If you’re a fan of the Karate Kid movies, no reason for you not to see this one.
Karate Kid: Legends is now in theaters.
Are you going to see the movie? Have you already? Feel free to leave a comment below or chat with us on Threads at @theconventioncollective, or Bluesky at @theconcollective.bsky.social
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