The Karate Kid fails to pack an emotional punch

10 April 2012

This week’s second updating of Eighties cultural tat pairs martial-arts legend Jackie Chan with 12-year-old Hollywood princeling Jaden Smith — the son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith — to no great effect. Smith is Dre, a fatherless poppet transplanted to Beijing, where his Detroit moves are no match for the local bullies and their fiendish kung-fu fighting. Cue lessons in self-defence, respect and a sort of paternal love from Chan’s wise old janitor.

Smith is tiny and slight with a mournful little face: he has presence but no great range. As for Chan, this is his most dignified Hollywood role yet, but one that barely showcases his balletic prowess. The script is a lumbering, ponderous thing. It takes ages for anything to happen, much less the training montages and fight scenes that are the raison d’être of this sort of flick. The emotional payoff, involving Chan’s Mr Han, Dre’s mom, and the prettily tittering girl with whom Dre kindles a pre-pubescent affair, feels unearned.

The film has a washed-out look: bar a couple of shots of Beijing’s Olympic stadium and one mountaintop scene, director Harald Zwart doesn’t even exploit the Chinese settings. And despite the ostensibly pacifist, Zen values, the unsavoury finale naturally features lots of adolescents beating the clap out of each other.

The Karate Kid
Cert: PG

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in