The Karate Kid 4K 2010

Karate Kid' is essentially a patchwork of very formulaic tropes from teen movies. Bullying at a new school, first love thwarted by the whole world, working your way up from the very bottom... How many times in our lives have we seen all this? Probably dozens.

But what sets this film apart from the crowd is the Smith-Chan duo.

Let’s be honest: in the vast majority of his films, Jackie has absolutely nothing to do. Despite the fact that he likes to repeat, “I’m not just a fighter who acts in movies, but an actor who knows how to fight,” he hasn’t really had much of a chance to showcase his acting talent. However, age takes its toll (Jackie is 55 in this film), and the incredible fight scenes for which the whole world came to love him are now difficult for Chan to perform. And so he is increasingly taking on roles in which facial muscles are more important than the muscles of his arms and legs. It’s not that the role of Mr. Han is the pinnacle of acting, but you have to admit, a crying Jackie Chan is a very, very rare sight.

As for Smith Jr., he is simply wonderful, no qualms about it. He plays the full spectrum of emotions here—and does it brilliantly. It’s a real shame that his undeniable talent, inherited from his father, has faded over the years into whatever Jaden is doing now.

The fight scenes here are few and far between, but impressive. Of course, they can’t compare to Chan’s best films, but they hold their own. Jaden has put in tremendous work on himself and looks very confident in the fight scenes.

The supporting cast didn’t disappoint either. The Chinese actors handled their roles well, and Taraji Henson—who I hadn’t heard of before this film and who plays the main character’s mother—truly made her role a highlight of the movie.

For the reasons listed above, the film—which doesn’t abound in unexpected twists and doesn’t make any groundbreaking breakthroughs—is very easy to watch, despite its runtime of nearly two and a half hours, which is impressive for a film of this genre. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the original 1984 film (but I’ll definitely make up for that omission), so I can’t offer a comparative analysis.