Karate Kid: Legends Review
The Karate Kid saga continues, bringing in new blood while still managing to include original Kid Daniel LaRusso.
Ben Wang in Karate Kid: Legends. Columbia Pictures
Karate Kid: Legends is the latest film in the long-running franchise. Dormant since the 2010 Karate Kid remake starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, popular (and very good) series Cobra Kai brought back characters from the first three films and rekindled interest during its 65 episode run on YouTube Red and Netflix. Karate Kid: Legends, following the end of the Cobra Kai, sees Jackie Chan returning as Mr. Han, bringing him into the series continuity by retroactively establishing a connection to original franchise mentor Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita).
Han’s nephew, kung fu prodigy Li Fong (Ben Wang), moves to New York with his mother (Ming-Na Wen) and promises to abandon fighting. When circumstances lead to Li Fong entering a karate tournament to help new friend Mia (Sadie Stanley), Mr. Han travels to New York and enlists the help of original Karate Kid—and Miyagi-do sensei—Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to train Li Fong.
Jackie Chan, Ben Wang, and Ralph Macchio in Karate Kid: Legends. Columbia Pictures
Karate Kid: Legends continues the series tradition of merging interpersonal teenage drama with martial arts. Ben Wang and Sadie Stanley do well together as friends and love interests, though at times Stanley’s performance comes off slightly hammy. The film’s biggest issue in terms of character is that the villains are non-entities; the film gives us no insight into competitor Connor’s (Aramis Knight) anger beyond mentions of a rocky off-screen relationship with Mia, and depicts his trainer, O’Shea (Tim Rozon), as almost cartoonishly evil.
Similarly, Han and LaRusso don’t really have much to do. They exist to train Li Fong and have no character growth of their own. LaRusso could have been written out completely without any detriment to the picture, aside from losing box office dollars from Cobra Kai fans. Their presence only overcrowds the film, thanks to one of the more interesting relationships in the movie—setting up Li Fong, the “Kid,” as sifu/sensei to an older character, Mia’s father Victor (Joshua Jackson).
Li Fong first breaks his promise to refrain from fighting when Victor begs him to train him before he returns to boxing to pay off his debt. While this storyline could be seen as a distraction from Li Fong’s karate journey, it’s far more fascinating, in my opinion, as a departure from the usual Karate Kid formula. It leans more heavily into Li Fong’s internal conflict, of how fighting affects others instead of himself, from the trauma of losing his brother to a martial arts rivalry. Li Fong’s own final tournament doesn’t play into this conflict at all. Li Fong’s training for the tournament feels lower stakes than the Victor story in the middle of the film, especially since Li Fong is already established as being an experienced fighter.
Messiness aside, I still enjoyed the movie. I loved Cobra Kai, and I’d watch another dozen of these movies if they continued making them.
Karate Kid: Legends opens on May 30, 2025, in the US. It has already been released in many other countries.
