Poor Remake Ruins Classic
Diamond Flowers
February 26, 2011
Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Movies
The Karate Kid (2010)
Characters: Dre’ Parker (Jaden Smith)
Mr. Han (Jackie Chan)
Sherry Parker (Taraji P. Henson)
Cheng (Zhenwei Wang)
Mei Ying (Wen Wen Han)
Setting: Beijing, China (present day)
The Karate Kid (2010) is a nice, lighthearted film for young kids and pre-teens, but for regular teenagers through adults everywhere, this film seemed to be a failed attempt at the remake of a classic. Since young children might not have been exposed to the earlier series of The Karate Kid movies, they wouldn’t be able to make a comparison, but most teenagers and adults will. This modern film did not impress or live up to the original Karate Kid success.
First, the original Karate Kid (1984) actually depicted the teachings of karate, but in the newest sequel, there is nothing but kung fu being practiced throughout the movie. Why not just name it The Kung Fu Kid so it won’t be connected to a classic like The Karate Kid?
Of course, we have to consider the storyline, all sequels have followed the same story line: kid moves to new area, is the new kid at school, is bullied, learns karate from the maintenance man, fights their bully and wins in the end. The previous Karate Kids were filmed in America, but was it really that necessary for the main character (Dre’ Parker) to move all the way to China just to learn kung fu? I think that aspect was a little too exaggerated. He could have moved to another state like the other films and still learned a high form of self defense.
What really made me upset with this movie was that there was no Mr. Miyagi! Sure, Jackie Chan portrayed a character like Mr. Miyagi, since his character is a maintenance man who helps Dre’ out, but his name was Mr. Han. I understand it wouldn’t have been possible to bring back Pat Morita to reprise the role of Mr. Miyagi because he passed away in 2005, but I feel the only reason they used Jackie Chan is because he is famous for his fighting movies in his earlier days.
No offense, but Jackie Chan could never be a Mr. Miyagi. His character lacked humor, personality, and only showed any form of character development when his sad story was revealed. I won’t give it away. Although he did do what he was supposed to do, which was teach Dre’ self defense, his character was just a sorry excuse for not being able to cast the real Mr. Miyagi or someone of his talent.
The Karate Kid (2010) is a nice family film to see, but when it’s over and the kids have left, the parents have every right to complain and compare this epic failure to the classic greatness it tried to copy.
Poor Remake Ruins Classic,
