The Karate Kid The Karate kid is a remake of the 1978 film of the same name. Now if you've seen the original, which was good enough to produce 2 sequels, you're going to get disappointed with this particular remake.
Dre Parker(Jaden Smith) is a 12 year old boy who lives with her mother in Detroit. But when his mother's job has been transferred to China, his life, it seems, has come to an abrupt halt. On reaching China he almost immediately falls in love with the cute Meiying(Wenwen Han). But with that comes trouble as Cheng(Zhenwei Wang) is Meiying's family friend and probably likes her as well, so he starts bullying little Dre and shows his Kung Fu skills in the process. This leads to a lot of trouble and then enters Mr. Han(Jackie Chan), the maintenance man of the apartment where Dre resides with his mother Sherry Parker(Taraji P. Henson). Dre finds out that Mr. Han is a Kung Fu master and convinces him to teach him some of his moves so that he can kick some ass too. So begins the story of our little Dre who goes on to learn Kung Fu from old Mr. Han, and take part in a grand tournament where he has to face his fear as well as his nemesis. Its completely like the original version but what it lacks is the innocence and the small-time charm of the original.
This film is about Kung Fu, its about fights, its about bullying, its about blood, its about survival. Now considering all that, casting a 12 year old boy to deal with all of that is probably the biggest drawback of the film. You don't really expect a kid so young to get into fights where he could really hurt himself serious. So this takes away the authenticity of the injuries and the intensity of the fights. Although the moves shown are pretty awesome but they too are not clear and that should be blamed to the modern cinematography these days which have special effects and quick cuts. Old school style of showing fight scenes is probably still the best, as they look more believable and the moves are readable to the viewer. Jaden Smith starts off pretty dull, he even looks stoned in some scenes in the beginning, he's that slow and expressionless. But as the film progresses so does his acting. You can clearly see glimpses of Will Smith in him, but feel that he's trying a little too hard. He should create his own style rather than copy his dad's which doesn't suit his age. Comparing him to other young actors of today, he is lagging behind a little. Although he did a decent job in The Pursuit of Happiness, his performance in this movie is just about average. He still has a long way to go. But credit has to be given to the fact that he has prepared well for this movie but at times it looks like he has been overworked. I mean a 12 year old boy with a six pack? This is the age when he should be enjoying life, playing games, studying, rather than spending time in the gym.
Jackie Chan plays an old, defeated man in the movie who gets a new motive when he meets Dre. He has played his part in the movie. There is nothing too great or too good about it. He has simply done his job. Although Miyagi in the original version was much better than Han in this one. Taraji P. Henson as Sherry Parker is totally ignorable. The humour of the film is below standard and hardly makes you laugh except for an odd fluke here and there. The shooting locations used by the director are pretty nice at times like when he shows Dre and Han practising on The Great Wall of China. The music is alright in bits, nothing to talk about really.
A very average film at best. You won;t miss too much if you miss this one!
5/10
Sir Rachit Varma
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