The movie wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. In simplest terms, this movie felt forced and formulaic. I can picture the writers sitting in a room and reverse engineering what they wanted to do to tell the story they wanted to tell.
Step 1: We want to combine Karate Kid (1984) with Karate Kid (2010). We got it! Establish the connection of Miyagi's sensei / great grandfather and his connection to China so we can connect what we established in Karate Kid II to Jackie Chan's Han character. Perfect! Fits nice! Now that we've done that we can bring together Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han!
NOPE! Not yet!
Step 2: Now that we established that, we need to focus on the new character- the titular Karate Kid: Li Fong. What's his story?
Well first, he wears headphones while training when no one else is? Why? Never explained.
His mom moves him from China to New York. Why? Because that's Karate Kid 101 - it's a fish out of water story - check.
Next, we need him to meet a girl that has been in a prior relationship and that prior relationship cause problems - check.
Step 3: Now for the curve ball - the girl has a DAD and he's got problems. So let's focus on him, and boxing, and bookies, and have Li save him from the bookies Miyagi style but with a little Jackie Chan flair. Then let's focus on the boxing match and get some flashbacks regarding Li's dead brother. Oh and Li needs a dorky best friend for no reason.
Step 4 - Time to address step 1 and complete the film: Now that Li is at his lowest, it's time to bring in Jackie Chan. How does he know he needs to visit? Who is running his giant dojo while he's gone? Unknown.
But wait, now that Jackie/Mr. Han is in New York, he needs to visit someone first. He travels to California and we finally get Daniel LaRusso in the movie.
Mr. Han: I need your help.
Daniel: I can't.
Mr. Han: K bye.
Back in New York - Mr. Han trains Li for the upcoming "All Valley" I mean "5 Boroughs Tournament". How do we make it more exciting? Add some Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat-eque type of animation before each fight. Also, we won't explain it, but you can get more than 1 point per bout and to win you can knock out or get 8 points. Is the tournament televised? Who is choosing the random fighting places? Where are these random fighting places? Unknown.
Oh, also, Daniel shows up just as Mr. Han had predicted in the next scene. He magically knows where to show up to help train Li.
Li is trained. Li wins. All conflicts are resolved. Happy ending. Don't forget William Zabka cameo and out.
With that said, I thought Ben Wang did a great job as Li Fong. I don't think any of the other side characters were needed. It would have been nice if we got more development of the Conor character. I'd give it a 4/10.
