In The Karate Kid, 12-year-old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) could've been the most popular kid in Detroit, but his mother's (Taraji P. Henson) latest career move has landed him in China. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying—and the feeling is mutual—but cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre's feelings make an enemy of the class bully, Cheng. In the land of kung fu, Dre knows only a little karate, and Cheng puts "the karate kid" on the floor with ease. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn but maintenance man Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), who is secretly a master of kung fu. As Han teaches Dre that kung fu is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the fight of his life.This movie is exactly what you would expect it to be. Its nowhere near as good and as excitement causing as the original up until the final fights at the tournament. Even then though, it seems much more forced. Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan are both good at times and extremely forced at others. And the movie is EXTREMELY too long. There is no reason for this movie to end being 2 1/2 hours. I actually found myself sitting there thinking what scenes could have been cut as they were happening on screen. Now, that I've ranted about what was wrong with the movie - I will admit that its ultimately still watchable. There are much worse things that you could waste your time watching and no matter how forced or long it is - you will still find yourself happy/cheering at the end.
I would lukewarmly recommend people checking this out. The run time really kills the movie. Its not horrible, but its not good enough that I give it my full recommendation. Its one of those middle of the road movies.
