I took my daughter this week to see a new version of The Karate Kid starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith serve as producers of this film. If you haven't seen this, the original was done in the 80s by Ralph Macchio (mostly recently seen on Ugly Betty dating Betty's sister) and the late Pat Morita (Arnold from Happy Days fame).
This is a good movie for today's generation to see by it lost smoothing in translation. I had a few issues with it. My first complaint is they probably shouldn't have cast Smith in the title role for two reasons. One: he's too young for the title role. Part of the charm of the original film was it told the story of a cute, but awkward teen from New Jersey trying to fit in in California. The original character is like 14/15, but people could relate to the feeling of fitting in. In this version, Dre (Smith's character) and his mom (Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson) move from Detroit to China and they don't fit in for a lot of reasons: language, race, no common history. The factors are too wide. My second complaint: Smith's acting. It seems like he's walking through this film and overutilizes his cutesy factor. At times, it's appropriate; other times, it's just plain annoying.
The fight scenes are good. Jackie Chan is amazing...as always. He doesn't work as Mister Miagaya for me. He is too young, but he has his own demons(that I liked) and Dre ends up helping him. Nice new twist. I enjoyed the panoramic shots of China: The Great Wall, the parks and gardens, and chi scene (don't want to give this a way)...you catch the beauty and history of the country.
There are a few more surprises. I wondered how they would change the classic final match fight scene at the tournament because they couldn't duplicate the last scene in the original. The new ending is good and the last fight scene is unforgettable.
Don't get me wrong this is a good movie to see and I'm glad I took my daughter to see it. However, if you are a fan of the original (like I am), you may just want to see the original again, and rent this.
Posted By: Marsha Jones
Friday, July 2nd 2010 at 12:26PM
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