You kinda have to hand it to Karate Kid: Legends for deploying a tremendous generational bait-and-switch. Anyone catching this multi-purpose sequel out of nostalgic desire to see original Karate Kid Ralph Macchio on the big screen again, now teamed up with Jackie Chan’s character from the 2010 Karate Kid remake, may be surprised to find a different former teen idol taking center stage, at least at first. Instead of 1984’s Macchio, 1998’s Joshua Jackson – Pacey from Dawson’s Creek – is the movie’s resident Italian-American guy for the first 45 minutes or so. Given that the original film series ran for 10 years, the remake became a smash in 2010, and the TV show spinoff Cobra Kai recently finished a six-season run, it’s remarkable that the filmmakers managed to center Jackson, an actor whose dead-center target demo of millennials may be the only group without fond memories of the aforementioned Karate Kid properties. (Maybe some late adopters got into it through The Next Karate Kid, starring future Oscar winner Hilary Swank.)
Of course, The Karate Kid, the original 1984 film, has endured beyond lol-so-’80s appreciation. It doesn’t just share director John G. Avildsen and composer Bill Conti with the 1976 underdog boxing story Rocky; it’s basically a kid-movie version of that Best Picture winner, with more charm than any of the official Rocky sequels that also might have attracted kids back in their day. Rocky had a stirring revival in 2015 with the kickoff of the Creed series; Karate Kid: Legends is not that. It’s not even the Fast Five-style all-star affair that seems intended via its belatedly yoking together of previously separate continuities. But it is a solidly sweet and corny live-action children’s film at a time when kids are mostly being sold live-action remakes of perennial streaming-service rewatch faves.
That’s not to say that Legends lacks nostalgic regurgitations of its own. But it does find a novel way into essentially remaking the old movie with less grit. The first movie sent New Jersey’s own Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) into a new life in Los Angeles, where he learned to defend himself from bullies through the teachings of Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita). The remake sent the younger Dre (Jaden Smith) from Detroit to Beijing, where he underwent similar tutelage from Mr. Han (Chan), only with kung fu instead of karate. The newest film finally focuses on an Asian lead, with teenage Li Fong (Ben Wang) moving from Beijing to New York with his mother (Ming-Na Wen) following a family tragedy.
That tragic backstory eventually explains why his mother forbids Li from continuing his study of kung fu, which he began at Han’s school back in Beijing. But Li finds a way around it when he offers to train Victor (Jackson), a past-his-prime boxer who wants to get out of debt by getting in the ring one more time (or maybe twice). This worries Mia (Sadie Stanley), Victor’s daughter and a new schoolmate of Li, but she likes the new kid and seems ready to move on from her hot-tempered ex Connor (Aramis Knight, of Into the Badlands), yet another young fighter who studies exclusively at one of those evil dojos.
There’s more to Karate Kid: Legends that eventually brings Han and Daniel back into the picture, and Li into more traditional Karate Kidding. Kids gotta learn about training montages sometime, and this movie has plenty of them. (Yes, there is a ridiculous city-wide fighting tournament that is somehow insanely overpromoted and weirdly underattended.) Before the enjoyably formulaic stuff takes hold, though, the movie does tinker with its classic recipe; if it’s a little far-fetched that a teenager well-versed in kung-fu could train a fortysomething boxer, well, the movie seems to ultimately understand this, too, and there’s an odd freshness to this reconfigured relationship, even it does eventually shove Mia off to the side. Before she recedes from the film, Stanley has an expressiveness reminiscent of one of Jackson’s late-’90s-teen peers: Julia Stiles. Though older Macchio devotees may feel as if the movie has screwed up their order by serving them this much Joshua Jackson, he’s relaxed and charming in a very Sylvester Stallone role. (Victor even owns a restaurant, like Rocky does in Creed.)
In fact, everyone in the movie is pretty charming. Young Ben Wang is so capable that the movie almost forgets to make him an actual underdog; Macchio and Chan conduct themselves with elder-statesman dignity; even the seething rival who somehow gets away not just with sucker-punching opponents but seemingly assaulting referees (who wave it off like a judge breaking out the “highly irregular, but I’ll allow it” in an overheated courtroom drama) is sort of likable in his sheer commitment to cartoonish evil. What this movie shares with the original Karate Kid is attention to its characters, which it prioritizes over fight scenes. That said, director Jonathan Entwistle does unleash a couple of Jackie Chan-style frenzies of prop-fighting (though only one features Chan himself); they’re drastically overcut, but still fun to watch. He also gives the movie a pleasing magic-hour glow, almost making up for the fact that this self-consciously New York-y movie was shot mainly in Montreal and Georgia. (Based on the surroundings and some confusing subway directions, Li and his mom apparently live in the nonexistent Chinatown section of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.)
As far as Karate Kid movies go, this one can’t match the surprisingly elegant characterization of the first movie, but at 94 crisply paced minutes, it’s less distended than the shockingly overlong 2010 remake, and feels less obligatory than the old Macchio sequels. (I can’t speak on Cobra Kai, which I have not seen and is apparently only really referenced in a tag affixed just before the end credits. Sadly, Swank does not clock in for a mid-credits scene.) Even its dorkier affectations – a record-scratch-style interrupting of the movie’s many soundtrack tunes is practically its own musical motif – are endearing. Whatever its flaws, the movie ultimately chooses to work for its young audience more than its potentially nostalgic (or puzzled) parents. How wholly appropriate it is for 8-to-12-year-olds provides its own form of nostalgia.
Director: Jonathan Entwistle Writer: Rob Lieber Starring: Ben Wang, Ming-Na Wen, Sadie Stanley, Joshua Jackson, Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio Release Date: May 30, 2025
Jesse Hassenger is associate movies editor at Paste. He also writes about movies and other pop-culture stuff for a bunch of outlets including A.V. Club, GQ, Decider, the Daily Beast, and SportsAlcohol.com, where offerings include an informal podcast. He also co-hosts the New Flesh, a podcast about horror movies, and wastes time on social media under the handle @rockmarooned.
