While I enjoyed the original 'The Karate Kid', I am a couple of years too young to say I hold great nostalgia for it so I was not that bothered to hear of the remake (other than wonder why Hollywood can't think up new ideas any more). Since watching this, I doubt it will be held in the same regard by children and young teens today as the original was.
The film revolved around twelve-year-old Dre whose mother's job forces them to move to China. Life is hard enough adjusting to the cultural and language changes but then finds himself the focus of a gang of Kung Fu-trained bullies after he is caught flirting with a girl in their class. Luckily, the local martial artist handyman Mr Han takes Dre under his wing and teaches him the skills to fight the bullies in an upcoming Kung Fu tournament.
The main problem with this film was the ages of the young cast. Jaden Smith, who played Dre, seems to have trained for the film but he looks no more than a tiny ten-year-old child (I think he actually was only about ten at the time of filming) and he looks far too young and soft for such active fighting. At that age, he shouldn't be expected to fend off bullies alone, and his mother and teachers should be intervening to help him. It doesn't help that Dre went from picking up his jacket to becoming a wonderful martial artist who can take on kids who have been training since infancy in a matter of weeks. We see little of his progress or anything to convince us of his newfound skills.
In the original film, it worked that Daniel was in his late teens and felt he was too old to look for parental help, and his bullies were the same age as him. Dre's 'love interest' and the bullies look a good two to four years older than him, making the whole situation even more ridiculous. Even then, the bullies are still kids too so when Mr Han, with Jackie Chan in the role, looked like an oaf beating them up when he should have dragged them all home to their parents.
Another major point is that this isn't the early Eighties any more. Hollywood remember when producing remakes that what was acceptable decades ago is not what we would put up with today. Six kids physically beating up another boy to the extent that they could have seriously injured or killed him is not something that you just shove under the rug. It is an offence and would probably be a police concern today.
In terms of the film, I think primary school children would very likely enjoy it but anyone older would find these points a bit hard to swallow. With a little thought and a young cast aged around sixteen then this film might have been of more interest. As it is, it's something I would watch as background noise.
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