With so many things from our youth terribly rehashed these days, you gotta celebrate something when it works, and the new Karate Kid did. They did a good job of helping you relate to Dre as bullied. His size, and being so far away in a new home helped considerably, but so did his acting. Moving around so much as a kid, it got me a bit. Really enjoyed it.
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Karl Martino, Philadelphia, PA, USA
It stand up to me only because I like Jackie Chan.
If you re-watch the original I think that the original had more depth to the characters. I could also relate a bit to the bulling, but unlike where the old Karate Kid barely gets through the competition Will Smith’s son is doing summersaulting back kicks. Introducing the character as a ‘gymnast’ may explain that but what about the Buddhist mind control at the end?
That is like writing a virus on a mac to infect an alien mainframe just because your character was introduced as smart.
Finally Jackie fixes his own car where Pat gets the kids to refinish his entire yard and wax a dozen cars!
Today’s kids just don’t earn their abilities, even in movies.
Haha! I think the new movie doesn’t make clear how long he trains for the competition. He could have been there for 6 months or more. He doesn’t exactly mind control the other kid either, more like gets him second guessing what the hell he is up to – which works for me đŸ™‚
The car in the living room bit was probably the worst part of the movie. I’m fine with adding depth and real regret to the character, but the car in the living room? That was just silly.
I’m just so surprised I didn’t feel like the thing was a waste of time or that it didn’t capture the spirit of the original. I came away thinking it matched it.
That said, Mr. Miyagi as a character left an impression on me as a kid. Stuck with me to today. No way the new movie could ever do that.