Karate Kid: Legends (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

Karate Kid: Legends

KARATE KID: LEGENDS (2025)

Starring Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Aramis Knight, Wyatt Oleff, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Jennifer-Lyn Christie, Marcus Aurelio, Caleb Baker, Katrina Batur, Emile Pazzano and William Zabka.

Screenplay by Rob Lieber.

Directed by Jonathan Entwistle.

Distributed by Columbia Pictures. 94 minutes. Rated PG-13.

The Karate Kid is in his 60s now (the character, not the film, which is only about 41). Mr. Miyagi is long gone. The 80s fan favorite movie series has been rebooted twice now – first as a just god-awful 2010 film remake with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, then as the surprisingly entertaining TV series Cobra Kai, which just finished its six-season run on Netflix earlier this year.

The popularity of Cobra Kai seems to have inspired Sony Pictures to bring the saga back to the big screen again, because you can’t just give up on a hot intellectual property like this. Unfortunately, Daniel-san has grown up and grown old and Pat Morita (who played Mr. Miyagi in the original film series) has been dead for 20 years.

Of course, the passage of time and the absence of Mr. Miyagi have been very fully explored in Cobra Kai. So what can they do to make the story worthy of another big screen adaptation? What if they bring together Ralph Macchio’s Daniel and Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han from the remake – who was really just a very slightly disguised variation on Mr. Miyagi, anyway? And they can even give a cameo to William Zabka, from the first Karate Kid and then ostensibly the lead character of Cobra Kai.

In the immortal words of George Costanza, “Worlds are colliding!”

Which is not completely new in the Karate Kid universe either, as Cobra Kai enjoyed mixing up characters and situations from all four of the original Karate Kid movies. (Like the rest of us, Cobra Kai tried to ignore the existence of the reboot movie, though.)

Karate Kid: Legends takes place soon after the adventures of Cobra Kai, although other than the return of LaRussa, the Johnny appearance and one scene set in the Miyagi-do dojo, this story really has nothing to do with what happened in the TV series.

It doesn’t need to be said, Ralph Macchio is 63 years old, and Jackie Chan is 71, so they are not going to be the ones doing all of the fighting. In fact, despite the fact that they are so prominently featured in the poster, Chan is barely in the first half of the movie, and Macchio isn’t in it at all until the second half.

No, karate (and kung fu) is a young man’s sport, so not surprisingly the new film focuses on a young, slightly built man who uses his martial arts skills to try to stop local toughs from bullying him. This is Li Fong (Ben Wang), who has recently moved to New York from Beijing. And of course it turns out the biggest bully is the ex-boyfriend of the cute local girl (Sadie Stanley) that Li Fong has a crush on.

Eventually, to prove his worth to himself and his family, his sensei Mr. Han comes to the States and trains him to join the big 5 Boroughs karate championship. And since Mr. Han was supposed to be an old friend of Mr. Miyagi, he talks Daniel LaRussa into flying to New York to help him train the new Kid. 

Macchio and Chan are old pros at this stuff by now, and the rest of the cast is mostly very capable and enjoyable to watch. (Surprisingly, the one actor who is a bit of a disappointment here is the always reliable Ming-Na Wen, but that is more about her humorless mother character rather than a statement on Wen’s skills.

Let’s face it, if you have seen any of the Karate Kid films, nothing that happens in Legends will surprise you in even the least bit, other than perhaps the fact that this chapter takes place in New York. I wish the filmmakers had been a little more adventurous with their storylines – much like Cobra Kai – but Karate Kid: Legends slavishly follows the franchise template.

Still, there is a reason why this template has been working fairly well for 40 years. (Honestly, only the original film and some parts of Cobra Kai can be called outstanding, but even the lesser Karate Kid adventures are usually rather entertaining in their own way.)

Karate Kid: Legends comes down somewhere in the middle as far as franchise entry quality. And we all know what Mr. Miyagi said about what happens when you are in the middle: squash like grape.

Still, if you take it on its own terms, Karate Kid: Legends is pretty fun, and I guess you can’t ask for more than that.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: May 29, 2025.