The problem with 鈥淜arate Kid: Legends鈥� is right there in the title: 鈥渓egends,鈥� as in multiple. Many beloved 鈥淜arate Kid鈥� characters and icons of millennial sports movies enter the ring, but in the ensuing melee, no one emerges victorious.
Written by Rob Lieber and directed by Jonathan Entwistle, 鈥淜arate Kid: Legends鈥� is another revamp of the franchise, which now boasts four movies from the 1980s and '90s, an animated series, a 2010 remake starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, and a long-running Netflix spinoff series, 鈥淐obra Kai,鈥� following the original characters, now adults. This new film is a 鈥渓ega-sequel鈥� if you will, combining characters from both the original film and the recent remake, with a new setting: the Big Apple.
The saying 鈥渢wo branches, one tree鈥� is oft-repeated throughout the film to explain the two different kinds of martial arts training (karate and kung fu) that come together to shape our new young fighter Li Fong (Ben Wang). But 鈥淜arate Kid: Legends鈥� doesn鈥檛 have a strong, steady trunk to support these separate offshoots. Instead, it鈥檚 two movies, at war with each other, fists and feet flying in a whirlwind.
In one corner, and comprising the first half of the film, you have a surprisingly fun and refreshing twist on 鈥淜arate Kid,鈥� in which the martial arts student becomes the teacher. Young Li, grieving the death of his kung fu champ older brother, is yanked out of kung fu school in Beijing (where he鈥檚 trained by Chan鈥檚 Shifu) by his mother (Ming-Na Wen) and uprooted to New York City.
There, Li befriends Mia (Sadie Stanley) and her father Victor (Joshua Jackson), who run a pizza joint and have run afoul of a loan shark, O鈥橲hea (Tim Rozon) who also happens to run a mixed martial arts gym. Victor, a former boxer, has entered into a prize fight hoping to win the purse, and enlists Li as his new trainer, who agrees because he believes training Victor won鈥檛 break his 鈥渘o fighting鈥� promise to his mother.
Now, a 鈥淭he Fighter鈥�-style movie starring '90s kids sports movie icon Joshua Jackson (鈥淭he Mighty Ducks鈥�) would be a great film on its own, and the kung fu student trainer spin gives it a fun twist. Alas, this is a 鈥淜arate Kid鈥� movie that promises 鈥渓egends,鈥� so the pizza shop boxing training movie is quickly dispatched in favor of Shifu and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) descending on New York from Beijing and Los Angeles to train Li to fight in the 5 Boroughs tournament against sadistic MMA fighter Conor (Aramis Knight).
The movie is so divided in its storytelling aims that there鈥檚 a sequence where Li鈥檚 tournament rounds and training are spliced in with moments of character and story development, connected by frantically fast drone shots that zip over the city. The pacing of this film is breakneck on speed; it feels like watching a movie on fast forward at times. Much of the story work is executed during rapid-fire montages, and uses familiar archetypes and stereotypes in order to sketch out the basic narrative. The frenetic fight sequences are so fast and fluid, ramping between slow-motion and fast-motion that your eye can hardly land anywhere, or even appreciate the choreography.
Despite being two movies smashed together, torturously twisted in order to get all these legends at one tournament, 鈥淜arate Kid: Legends鈥� isn鈥檛 an unpleasant experience, largely due to the charms of star Wang, who has a bashfully appealing presence that belies his seriously lethal martial arts skills. He has a sparkling chemistry with Stanley and Jackson, further emphasizing that the filmmakers should have stuck with that one story, rather than falling back on the old karate kid tropes we know so well.
Alas, it seems originality was not the goal with 鈥淜arate Kids: Legends,鈥� even if those hints of newness are the most interesting part of the movie. Legends never die, as they say, for better or for worse, and in the case of this film, it鈥檚 for worse.