Karate Kid: Legends review: "Better than Karate Kid (2010), nothing on Karate Kid (1984)"

Karate Kid: Legends plays like your TikTok feed. Every few seconds, a needle drop, a new scene, a record scratch, a second scene spliced into the middle of the current scene, an animation to make your eyes pop, a sweeping shot of New York, and onto the next scene. There's no letting up, no stopping; Legends races forward like you're about to swipe up. Yet, somehow, it works.

Ben Wang, best known for American Born Chinese, plays no small part in holding the whole thing together. His new karate kid, Li Fong, moves to New York with his mother (Ming-Na Wen) following a tragic incident and quickly goes about charming a local pizza joint worker, Mia, played by live-action Kim Possible's Sadie Stanley. She has a jocky ex-boyfriend, Connor (Ms. Marvel's Aramis Knight), who happens to know karate, while her father, Victor (Fringe's Joshua Jackson), owes Connor's sensei some money. Cue a succession of beat 'em up scenes as Li brawls with Connor, fights some thugs, and agrees to train Victor in the ways of kung fu, a reverse of the older mentor to young student trope.

So, a few things to get out of the way now. Jackie Chan may be, well, Jackie Chan, yet he only appears fleetingly during Karate Kid: Legends' opening hour. You see, since training Jaden Smith in Karate Kid (2010), Chan's Mr Han has started a successful kung fu school in Beijing and he's busy there until Li, his nephew, needs him over in New York.

Fast-forward pace

Considering the movie runs a brisk 94 minutes, that's a fair amount of Chan-less screentime. Yet, that's nothing compared to Ralph Macchio's Daniel LaRusso, the original karate kid, who does not appear until literally the hour mark. (It should be noted that the Netflix series Cobra Kai is not, by any stretch, required viewing, and you're better off seeing Karate Kid [2010].) Yes, despite these two legends being the focal point of the poster, they are used surprisingly sparingly, akin to Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Men in No Way Home.

Like with No Way Home, however, that's not a terrible thing. The propulsive plot bounces along with director Jonathan Entwistle tightening every scene to the bare minimum amount of dialogue, the emotional lifting done by a jukebox soundtrack that includes everything from LCD Soundsystem to Tupac. Another Spider-Man flick comes to mind as a good comparison, the animated Into the Spider-Verse, which was similarly made for a generation brought up in the TikTok era. It's no wonder Peter Parker's name is invoked in Legends.

There are some unfortunate consequences to the fast-forward pace. While Li and Mia's burgeoning romance has enough screentime to develop, other characters suffer from having little to do. Wen's mother is a doctor, and that's about it for her character. Mia's father is a movie-style "I'm walking here" New Yorker, and his time training with Li is fun, but there's little going on under the surface. And Connor, the jock, is no Johnny Lawrence.

But again, thanks to Legends simply not letting up, there's no time to contemplate these things as Li throws hands with Connor in his high-school playground before eventually entering a fighting tournament (of course) that will decide the fate of nearly all these characters. It's this tournament that Mr. Han and LaRusso help Li train for, teaching him the ways of both kung fu and karate, respectively – the link being that both Mr. Han and LaRusso have a connection to Mr. Miyagi and his teachings: "Two branches, one tree."

Two legends

When Chan and Macchio share the screen, it is an absolute joy. They playfully rib each other as they competitively demonstrate their respective disciplines. For anyone who's seen Cobra Kai, it will be a familiar format, echoing how LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence tried to teach their students both Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang. It's such a fun dynamic that you cannot help but partly begrudge the writers for not giving Chan and Macchio more to do.

The kinetic pace likewise leads to mixed results when it comes to the actual fighting. There's some brilliant choreography on display, especially during one back-alley brawl that sees Li take on a bunch of ruffians. Yet, other fights are cut too fast, and some fancy camera work stops certain hits from having the impact they should.

Meanwhile, the final tournament is an absolute blitz, wasting no time on semi-finals, instead focusing on the boss fight. In a way, it's a refreshing change from the other Karate Kids, as anyone who is vaguely aware of their structure will know where this is going. At the same time, it deprives us of seeing Li learning new moves from his two mentors.

Karate Kid: Legends is a movie that, for better and worse, doesn't let up, offering you no chance to catch a breath – an irony, then, that karate requires such precise breath control. Still, this is not a franchise with the greatest track record, and Legends can hold its head as one of the best installments so far, better than Karate Kid (2010), but nothing on Karate Kid (1984).

Karate Kids Legends is in UK cinemas from May 28 and US theatres from May 30.

For more, see our guide to all the upcoming movies of the year, or see Macchio on the legacy of Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid: Legends and working with Jackie Chan.