The Karate Kid, 2010

The Karate Kid, 2010
Director: Harald Zwart
Cast: Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, Taraji P. Henson




The Karate Kid in short: Work causes a single mother to move to China with her young son; in his new home, the boy embraces kung fu, taught to him by a master.

Stage: Home theatre

Preps: I have seen the trailer and I wasn't so thrilled about the idea of having a second attempt for the movie we all remember by "wax on, wax off" and has made martial arts so popular back in the 80's. Nevertheless, there are new techniques used in directing a movie and new approaches also in terms of scenography, photography.. anyhow, I figured it could be an upgrade to the existing firm ground of a martial -art - driven - european movie. So I gave it a shot.


Reality: The Karate kid in 2010 follows the older brother right from the beginning to the very end. It shows appreciation for the things we remember from the original (however you trade "wax on, wax off" with "jacket on, jacket off"). And also the application of this wax on (jacket on) when fighting with the sensei.

Although it's a good copy, unfortunately it only remains a copy. It has a good flow and a good scenery, however it lacks genuine art and smoothness from the director. Like a modern story is supposed to show, the problem with implementing two american citizen into chinese environment (or getting your kid to a new school) is pretty clear and genuine - I buy it. Jaden Smith plays a cute and uncertain kid that in time gains strength and will. By the way, he's Will Smith's true son, with funky dance moves, also showing some good martial arts knowledge. Some romance also involved in the movie, just enough to disturb your attention from the philosophy the movie's selling - making your way through life means sacrifice and hard work, above all, patience and waiting.

The movie in my opinion, isn't worth a theatre visit - however you might enjoy it as a decent afternoon entertainment in the company of some good food or drinks. A good way for the viewer to become hot on the idea to see China or to take some martial arts lesson.


I absolutely adore the "respect the parents" lesson - I will definitely try it out when the time comes :) It also gave me some new ideas about this - how to make the kid listen.


Mr Han has some good stuff to tell - Chan made a good impression, although I was a bit skeptical about his cast in the movie - like the managers would love to have some more money on this account. Some quotes are in the movie you should remember for everyday use, like this one:

Mr. Han: Sometimes the most important fights are the ones you avoid.



My personal rating: 5,0 (I gave it a few levels because of the new usage of photo effects and camera effects. The fights at the end and somewhere in the middle seem genuine enough, also the learning / teaching part.)


Kid on IMDB

Kid's official site

More about Jaden here