Viewed in
2012
Formats
HDTV
Premise
A remake of the classic, with Jackie Chan as master, and Will Smith's son as the kid.
Loved
James Horner's score.
Hated
The title.
Thoughts
All I got to say is: damn you James Horner. Once the music started to soar, I got caught up in the training montage and final fight. At first, the decision to use him was odd, but as soon as the epic-ness kicked in, it all made sense.
Other decent things about this movie: Jackie Chan's dramatic chops, the twist of an American in China, the colorful cinematography, and some of the shout outs to the original. It actually one-upped the unintentional comedy of "wax off" with "jacket off" (say it fast).
Jaden Smith was decent as the lead, though inconsistent. Some of the bigger flaws was that neither the love interest nor the bully had a shred of personality, and that it lazily recycled the plot points of the original. But the biggest offense was calling it The Karate Kid, when they're doing kung fu. I know it's common these days for studios to green-light movies just based on title name recognition, but at least try to pretend you aren't.
As a fan of the original, I expected to hate this remake. Turns out it was alright, even if there was no point in remaking a classic.
