Hollywood has rarely been considered a beacon of originality, but these days the lack of creativity is getting out of control. It seems like every other movie is a remake, a sequel, or an adaptation. The results are, by and large, terrible.
When it was announced that “The Karate Kid” was being updated, fans of the quintessential ’80s classic must have been expecting the worst. But the 2010 version is passable, despite its various problems.
The original movie shows the teenage Daniel Larusso moving from New Jersey to California, but in this telling of the underdog story our hero is Dre Parker (Jaden Smith), a 12-year-old boy who has just made a much tougher move from Detroit to Beijing. Dre doesn’t know the language or the culture and to make matters worse, he’s become the target of a bully named Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), who just so happens to be a sadistic kung fu wunderkind.
Desperate to fend off Cheng and his cronies, Dre begs the reticent handyman Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) to teach him kung fu, and the old man, after some pestering, consents. Plot-wise, this “Karate Kid” is more or less the same movie as its namesake, which is refreshing, but it becomes problematic because of one major change — the characters’ ages.
Ralph Macchio’s Daniel is an angst ridden high school student in the 1984 original. His awkwardness is typical and relatable. Conversely Dre and the like haven’t even hit puberty, making their interactions feel a little silly and overly grown-up. His enchantment with a female classmate is just too romantic to be believable, Cheng’s hostility toward him is far too cruel and the hyper-stylized martial arts —over-the-top by all standards of reality — end up looking ridiculous (albeit cool).
Given a few more years, the story would have been more believable, but Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, producers on the film and parents of its young star, obviously wanted to push their baby bird out of the nest as soon as possible.
Still, the most absurd part of the producers’ adherence to the source material is undoubtedly the remake’s title, “The Karate Kid.” The film is set in Beijing, China, features Jackie Chan, who is a Chinese movie star, and details one boy’s quest to learn kung fu, which, unlike karate, is a Chinese martial art. Why not just call it “The Kung Fu Kid?” The movie-going public would have understood, and the studio could have avoided cultural insensitivity.
All that being said, the film is fun to watch: It dazzles with complex fight choreography and tugs on the ol’ heartstrings on more than one occasion. The director, Harald Zwart, a man whose most well known effort is “The Pink Panther 2,” gives a solid effort, evoking a strong response from the audience. He hangs onto the characters a little too long, and the film runs to 140 minutes because of it, but his method allows Dre to grow in a fashion that doesn’t feel forced or undercooked.
The length of the movie also gives us more time to watch Smith and Chan work off one another, which is by far the most enjoyable part of the movie. Chan’s performance is particularly moving, shifting from stolid handyman to impassioned surrogate father. It’s a treat to watch the martial arts superstar, a man known for his death-defying stunts and goofball comic timing, show off his range. Whether it’s stoicism, subtle affection or impassioned despair, Chan makes us empathize, showing the world that he’ll be a movie star even when he’s too old to physically kick ass.
“The Karate Kid” is certainly not the best martial arts movie around, but as recent remakes go it is better than most. Let’s hope the producers quit while they’re ahead; three more films would be unbearable.