Karate Kids Legends is a 2025 Sony Pictures sports-action film directed by Jonathan Entwistle and starring Ben Wang, Sadie Stanley, Joshua Jackson, Aramis Knight, and Jackie Chan. This is the follow up/crossover film that blends the classic Karate Kid films with the 2010 Karate Kid film and incidentally a little bit of Cobra Kai as well. I was looking forward to this movie since the beginning of the year when I was looking at all the new releases to come, but did it live up? I’ll start off by saying if you’re worried about having to see all the previous Karate Kid films or Cobra Kai, no you don’t have to. There were quite a few teens and families with kids in the theater when I went and I’m sure that at least some or most of them didn’t watch all the movies or all of Cobra Kai. Some of the moments may hit a little bit harder in the nostalgia vein if you’ve seen the previous films, but it isn’t a must. This movie hits a lot of the same beats of the previous movies, but it also adds in its own fresh stories and settings as well. Some good and some bad, but more on that later.
I liked the setting being in the heart of NYC, very classic film setting but I feel like it isn’t used as much as it once was. Got to see a lot of the fun little intricacies of living in New York City and some of the crazy architecture that city has to offer. Our main character Li Fong played by Ben Wang is smart, respectful, and likeable as a character so that’s a plus because you don’t mind spending the extended amount of time with him and you definitely root for him and his victory. A lot of the fighting and training was cool and there were a lot of neat action shots throughout the movie, so the martial arts vibe certainly wasn’t lost throughout this movie either and that was definitely a plus. All that being said, this movie certainly came with its flaws as well and they weren’t necessarily just easy to overlook for me either. For one, you may have noticed I didn’t list Ralph Macchio in the starring credits at the beginning (maybe not), but that’s because he wasn’t one of the stars of this movie. They plant his face prominently on the poster and he was in all the trailers leading up to the film, but he didn’t come around until at least halfway through the movie and even then, his time on screen felt consistently rushed and we never got to sit and enjoy a lot of Macchio and Chan together for an extended amount of time, mainly just some funny banter in training cut scenes.
This movie had almost too much story for the runtime, it felt like an entire story played out between Ben Wang, Sadie Stanley, and Joshua Jackson’s characters before Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan even reappeared. I enjoyed Joshua Jackson’s character Victor and thought his story was decently interesting, but again since so much was shoved into this in 95 minutes it felt rushed like everything else did. Sadie Stanley’s Mia and Ben Wang’s Li Fong was your typical kind of blossoming teenage romance storyline, some cute scenes and some drama but that’s not usually what I’m there for anyways, especially in a Karate Kid film. Not saying she did a bad job with her character, that part of the story was just not for someone like me and felt overall a bit cheesy. Speaking of cheesy, man. The villains in this movie (Aramis Knight’s Conor Day and the loan sharks after Victor) were so over the top and cheesy at times it was eye rolling. It almost felt like Power Rangers villains with their level of just pure evil and hatred and the random fights that would break out in public places in the middle of the day like that wouldn’t cause major issue. Not even hating on the Power Rangers either, I grew up on them and I love the Rangers, but you come to expect a level of cheesiness when it comes to them, especially with the villains. I know Karate Kid had that 80s over the top sort of cheesiness throughout the original series as well, but that can be justified by the passing of time, and Cobra Kai did in its own way as well, but that show was fantastic (one of my faves) and went so much deeper into character development and motivations because they had the time to do so. I guess I was just hoping for a bit more from a Sony produced Karate Kid movie in the year 2025, but Sony seems to be losing faith in franchise fans lately and aside from the Ghostbusters universe (which I will always be a huge fan of) I can kind of see where they’re coming from.
Not to create too much of a dogpile here, I still had fun with it. The action sequences were well shot, there was plenty of nostalgia for original series fans, and it was a quick and easy watch (one could argue too quick for the amount they attempted to pile in there), but it certainly didn’t come without its flaws. It seemed like a movie that families and kids will probably get a kick out of, and they seemed to enjoy it in the theater I was in. The breakneck speed that the movie moves at, the video game like effects during the karate fights at the tournament, and all the trendy current pop songs sprinkled throughout the movie was specifically to keep the kid’s interest, but that stuff doesn’t do anything for someone like me. I realize I’m becoming the nitpicky critic type now that I have this blog and I’m trying to be a little more analytical, but I’d just say go in with tempered expectations to just have some fun with a shut your brain off teen/action film and you’ll probably have a decent enough time, but do not expect gold.
