Karate Kid: Legends (2025) Review
Main Character
Newcomer Ben Wang plays Li Fong and he is an okay main character. He is pretty charming and a likeable enough character that you do want to root for him. But we just don't spend enough quality time with his character to really get enough development. It isn't like the characters from Cobra Kai where we get loads of time with them and Li needed more care put into his character.
Supporting Characters
Jackie Chan reprises his role as Mr. Han from The Karate Kid Reboot and he is fun to watch here and you can tell that he is having a great time in this film. I wish we got more of him here and more character development but it doesn't take away my joy of seeing Jackie Chan in action.
Joshua Jackson plays Victor Lipani and he is fun here and actually out of all of the adults I liked his dynamic with Li more then the others. Jackson is really likeable and you want to see him succeed, but the film just forgets about him about half way through which is a shame.
I love Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso in the original films and Cobra Kai but he phones in his performance here and he really doesn't need to be here. He is nothing but a glorified cameo and it just feels like he is here so they can justify calling it a Karate Kid film.
The rest of the cast is just forgotten about and not given time to shine. Ming-Na Wen plays Li's mother and she is just unlikeable and given no time to develop. Both Li's enemy and love interest are generic and they just couldn't be bothered to really right them.
Story
The story has some interesting ideas in it and I liked how Li trains Victor for his fight, also some of the interactions between Chan & Macchio are fun. But this films plot is all over the place, the first act feels like a film that doesn't need The Karate Kid licence, then a rushed training montage leading to an incredibly rushed tournament that doesn't really have any stakes. The story is incredibly predictable and if the rest of the film was good then that would be fine but it just encapsulates the problems that are going on here.
Script
The script has some chuckle worthy moments and some okay drama/emotional moments. But overall, it just falls really flat. It feels like the screenwriters wrote way too many subplots and had no idea how to put them together and that led to this messy script.
Style
There are some decent action scenes and in terms of action I thought the final fight did a pretty decent job of upping the intensity. But the film doesn't have enough fights here and the pacing is a disaster. This film has way too much going on in it and it barely has a 90 minute runtime meaning everything is just rushed and half baked.
Overall
Overall, Karate Kid: Legends is the definition of average. It exists and will be forgotten incredibly quickly, it feels like an elongated episode of Cobra Kai that wasn't written or directed to the same level. It has some moments but you will have seen them all before so it is probably not worth the time.
Rating - 5/10
