The Karate Kid (2010)
The original The Karate Kid should be a title well known title to anyone born before the 90's. It's the story of a young lad trying to adjust to life in another city when his mother gets a new job forcing them to relocate. It's not long before the title character of the story meets a girl and runs into trouble while trying to protect her from a gang of local thugs. While our hero tries his best to defend the honour of the object of his affection he quickly faces a sound beating as his antagonists are highly skilled in Karate leaving him with no chance of victory.
This leads to the main character facing constant bullying from the gang while trying to develop his relationship. In one instance he decides to get revenge by pulling a prank resulting in the gang chasing and then attacking him to the point where he faces serious injury. It's at this point that the friendly caretaker of his building steps in and easily defeats the gang. The young boy goes with the caretaker to the dojo where the gang are being taught to make their sensei aware of how his students are abusing their skills. They find him to be less than sympathetic and realise that it's not the students who are bad but the teacher. However, they get him to agree to let the main character fight the leader of the gang one on one in a local Karate tournament. In preparation for this the caretaker takes the boy under his wing, training him in the art of Karate using his own unique methods before the final showdown at the tournament and they develop a close friendship in the process.
The 2010 version of The Karate Kid is neither a follow on from the original series or a reboot. It's basically a retelling of the 1984 version where the story is almost identical and even parts of the dialogue are exactly the same. The main differences are that instead of being sixteen the lead character is twelve. Instead of moving city, the lead character and his mother move from The United States to China and instead of Karate the martial art the movie centres around is Kung Fu.
The title role is played by Jaden Smith, son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith who were both producers on the movie. Smith fills the role of twelve year old Dre Parker well and while he doesn't quite have as much personality as Ralph Macchio had playing a seventeen year old Daniel Larusso in the original, he makes up for it in attitude. The thing that makes his performance stand out is that Smith was only eleven years old while making the movie (Macchio was twenty-three). This is not Smith's debut role but it's definitely the one that will cause movie fans to keep an eye on him in future.
The role of the caretaker, in this case named Mr Han, is filled by Jackie Chan. While Dre's character tries to retain the charm and cockyness of Daniel in the original, Jackie Chan makes this role his own. In 1984 the late Pat Morita played Mr Miyagi and captured our hearts with his laid-back attitude, unique sense of humour and wise-ways. While Mr Miyagi seemed to have a sunny outlook on life despite his tragic past, Mr Han seems tortured and melancholy throughout the whole movie. The light-hearted and playful way in which Miyagi delivered key lines are re-created by Han in a dry, abrupt and almost sarcastic way. At first you may think is solely down to Chan not being as good an actor but it's something you may reconsider when Han's character is further developed later on.
The supporting cast don't seem quite as charasmatic as in the original however this is over-shadowed by the brutalness of the fight scenes and makes the choreography from the first version look very basic by comparison. The combat between Dre and his bullies can be quite harsh at times. It's broken up in the scene where Han comes to Dre's rescue and Chan utilises his typically slapstick style of Kung Fu but the harshness soon resumes and, as you cringe at every blow during the tournament scenes, you may find yourself surprised that the movie is rated PG considering the level of violence.
While the basic storyline is pretty much the same, the journey from point A to B is filled with some nice additions including some very impressive set pieces taking place on the Great Wall and a fantastic scene in a Kung Fu temple. As Han and Dre's relationship evolves from tutalage to friendship, we're shown some very touching scenes and are given the impression that Han starts to view Dre as a substitute for his own deceased son instead of just a pupil and a friend. There are of course some key moments which have been given a fresh lick of paint as well. While the way Dre subconsciously learns moves through repeating menial tasks doesn't seem to work as well, the climactic scene where he overcomes his broken leg definitely has a lot more impact. There's also an amusing twist on the chopsticks scene as well.
Overall this remake has things that can be enjoyed by both newcomers and fans of the original alike. A lot of the best scenes are all still there right down to the Cobra Kai (now known as the Fighting Dragons) dojo and tournament dialogue which veterans will appreciate but there's enough fresh material to make it worthwhile seeing and to modernise the already well-established storyline for younger viewers too.
This leads to the main character facing constant bullying from the gang while trying to develop his relationship. In one instance he decides to get revenge by pulling a prank resulting in the gang chasing and then attacking him to the point where he faces serious injury. It's at this point that the friendly caretaker of his building steps in and easily defeats the gang. The young boy goes with the caretaker to the dojo where the gang are being taught to make their sensei aware of how his students are abusing their skills. They find him to be less than sympathetic and realise that it's not the students who are bad but the teacher. However, they get him to agree to let the main character fight the leader of the gang one on one in a local Karate tournament. In preparation for this the caretaker takes the boy under his wing, training him in the art of Karate using his own unique methods before the final showdown at the tournament and they develop a close friendship in the process.
The 2010 version of The Karate Kid is neither a follow on from the original series or a reboot. It's basically a retelling of the 1984 version where the story is almost identical and even parts of the dialogue are exactly the same. The main differences are that instead of being sixteen the lead character is twelve. Instead of moving city, the lead character and his mother move from The United States to China and instead of Karate the martial art the movie centres around is Kung Fu.
The title role is played by Jaden Smith, son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith who were both producers on the movie. Smith fills the role of twelve year old Dre Parker well and while he doesn't quite have as much personality as Ralph Macchio had playing a seventeen year old Daniel Larusso in the original, he makes up for it in attitude. The thing that makes his performance stand out is that Smith was only eleven years old while making the movie (Macchio was twenty-three). This is not Smith's debut role but it's definitely the one that will cause movie fans to keep an eye on him in future.
The role of the caretaker, in this case named Mr Han, is filled by Jackie Chan. While Dre's character tries to retain the charm and cockyness of Daniel in the original, Jackie Chan makes this role his own. In 1984 the late Pat Morita played Mr Miyagi and captured our hearts with his laid-back attitude, unique sense of humour and wise-ways. While Mr Miyagi seemed to have a sunny outlook on life despite his tragic past, Mr Han seems tortured and melancholy throughout the whole movie. The light-hearted and playful way in which Miyagi delivered key lines are re-created by Han in a dry, abrupt and almost sarcastic way. At first you may think is solely down to Chan not being as good an actor but it's something you may reconsider when Han's character is further developed later on.
The supporting cast don't seem quite as charasmatic as in the original however this is over-shadowed by the brutalness of the fight scenes and makes the choreography from the first version look very basic by comparison. The combat between Dre and his bullies can be quite harsh at times. It's broken up in the scene where Han comes to Dre's rescue and Chan utilises his typically slapstick style of Kung Fu but the harshness soon resumes and, as you cringe at every blow during the tournament scenes, you may find yourself surprised that the movie is rated PG considering the level of violence.
While the basic storyline is pretty much the same, the journey from point A to B is filled with some nice additions including some very impressive set pieces taking place on the Great Wall and a fantastic scene in a Kung Fu temple. As Han and Dre's relationship evolves from tutalage to friendship, we're shown some very touching scenes and are given the impression that Han starts to view Dre as a substitute for his own deceased son instead of just a pupil and a friend. There are of course some key moments which have been given a fresh lick of paint as well. While the way Dre subconsciously learns moves through repeating menial tasks doesn't seem to work as well, the climactic scene where he overcomes his broken leg definitely has a lot more impact. There's also an amusing twist on the chopsticks scene as well.
Overall this remake has things that can be enjoyed by both newcomers and fans of the original alike. A lot of the best scenes are all still there right down to the Cobra Kai (now known as the Fighting Dragons) dojo and tournament dialogue which veterans will appreciate but there's enough fresh material to make it worthwhile seeing and to modernise the already well-established storyline for younger viewers too.