Karate Kid: Legends reviewed by Eric Goldman.
Coming off the triumph of its extension into TV with Cobra Kai, The Karate Kid franchise returns to theaters with Legends, a movie which is far less impactful than that show, yet still reminds us why the underlying story and themes of this series can still connect. Ben Wang is a strong new Karate Kid and it’s certainly fun to see Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan (eventually) team up and connect two parts of the franchise’s history, even as Joshua Jackson ends up as the surprise MVP. It’s also easy to give yourself over to a story of this type, because underdog stories are easy to invest in when done well – and few have ever been told as well as the original The Karate Kid. At the same time, an overly frenetic approach to the second half doesn’t let emotional moments connect in the way that they could. That’s often frustrating, since you can see how easily it could be re-edited to land better. But at the end of the day, everyone loves an underdog, and Li is another one you can root for. Given this franchise is clearly not going anywhere, maybe they can do better by him in the inevitable Karate Kid 7.
