Posted in: Movies, Netflix, Sony, TV | Tagged: cobra kai, Karate Kid: Legends, the karate kid

Cobra Kai/Karate Kid Franchise Has Brighter Future with TV, Not Film

With Karate Kid: Legends playing it safe (and wasting Ralph Macchio's talents), the franchise is in better hands in the "Cobra Kai" universe.

It may not necessarily be fair to compare Karate Kid Legends to Cobra Kai since the Sony Pictures film is more of a self-contained feature. In contrast, the Netflix series acts more as a true sequel, tying the who's who of the three films from 1984-1989, while ignoring 1994's The Next Karate Kid that starred Hilary Swank and marks Pat Morita's final outing as Nariyoshi Miyagi. What Karate Kid Legends does is tie the main characters with the original franchise star Ralph Macchio (who also starred in Cobra Kai) to the 2010 loose remake that bears the name The Karate Kid with Jackie Chan operating as the Sensei. Together, Macchio's Daniel LaRusso and Chan's Mr. Han help train Han's prized student Li Fong (Ben Wang) to prepare for the films' atypical tournament. Does the Jonathan Entwistle film advance the Karate Kid narrative to where we can see potential like the Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg series does? Well, the short answer is no. The following contains minor spoilers.

Karate Kid Legends: Follows All Too Familiar Formula, Doesn't Do Much for Franchise

When we meet Li, we find him to be a student of Mr. Han, who is part of a school that trains in martial arts in China. As Li's apprehensive mother, Dr Fong (Ming-Na Wen) takes a new job in New York, her son reluctantly follows, but as per the previous film entries with Daniel, Swank's Julie, and Jaden Smith's Dre Parker, there are growing pains with the new environment, trying to overcome the resident bully. The difference with Li is that he's already a martial arts prodigy, so Han conveniently seeks Daniel in Los Angeles to help Li learn Miyagi-Do karate to complement Han's kung fu. To top that off, we find that Li uses his kung fu knowledge to help his love interest, Mia's (Sadie Stanley) father, Victor (Joshua Jackson), who we discover is a boxer and runs their pizza restaurant in New York. Without going into further spoilers, they have their own share of issues, including resounding debts and a familiar love triangle like the 1984 film.

Like Miyagi, Daniel, Han, and even Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), Li's potential is only as stunted as the trauma he's trying to face. I'm okay with going to the well on this, but this feels too much like a rinse and repeat, right down to the training montage. Now the question becomes, what do Han and LaRusso add? Well, the film's driving force is Li, a reluctant martial artist and willing teacher, but something ends up getting Han over to trigger the rest of the events of the film. To be honest, Han's presence alone in this film was more than enough, given how much Chan does. The fact that Entwistle and writer Rob Lieber insisted on adding Macchio's Daniel character feels strictly like fan service. I would even argue that if it weren't the nature of films, Legends could just be Chan's film, and his third could bring in LaRusso and not try to squeeze everything at once.

There is depth to Wang's Li and Chan's Han in the film, but Macchio's LaRusso does the bare minimum here and feels like the odd man out, considering how much time is given to literally all his other co-stars. Daniel gets recruited, forgetting that he has a family, and it's not something that should be ignored, given an inevitable final scene cameo, which, like much of Macchio's time in the film, is more fanservice. That's not to say Macchio doesn't take advantage of what he works with, and he does have some comedic and physical chemistry with Chan. It just feels like when Sony was thinking about pitching Karate Kid Legends, they just wanted to strike the coals while they're hot, given Cobra Kai's popularity, so they would only greenlight this film if Chan AND Macchio agreed. Given the constraints and expectations of film, a 94-minute feature wasn't enough to give something more to work for with everything it had to build, especially when we've seen it so many times. I get it. If it's not broke, why fix it? But the status quo didn't exactly allow the demand for a sequel to the 2010 Harald Zwart film, did it?

Sony decided Cobra Kai was an excuse enough to try again. Given the current box office numbers for the opening weekend, I doubt there will be another Karate Kid anytime soon. Now, Macchio has thrown optimism with multiple Cobra Kai spinoffs in development, but Karate Kid Legends didn't exactly help make their case on a cinematic front, and that's where it should be, on TV. Showrunners like Heald, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg made sure NO ONE got left behind when it came to narratives in The Karate Kid universe. In film, sacrifices often must be made to appease studio executives, and when you leave behind the original anchor and make him look like he's showing up just for the check, then it reminds us why Macchio left the franchise initially after Part III.

As far as execution goes, Karate Kid Legends hits enough appropriate marks to become suitable popcorn fodder with Wang and Chan's charisma and presence, complacent with its status quo, but all it proves in the end is that its permanent home should remain on TV like Cobra Kai.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!