Karate Kid 'Remake'

In the end, we didn’t have much choice. The Scott Pilgrim premiere actually blocked us from the only cinema in the entire West End actually showing The Last Airbender, so we went to see the new The Karate Kid, which I’ve been wanting to go to for a while. Good decision, most likely, for I’m already almost sure it was the much better film.

Yes, the film should have been called The Kung-Fu Kid, as it was during production, but I do understand the decision, as it will undoubtedly make more money with the erroneous title than it would with the accurate one – pandering to the lowest common denominators while that may be, is that not what Hollywood does?

The story was very typical, but it after all needed to retain its 80s heart. The humour was good, thankfully not relying for more than a few moments on references to the original. What made the film very enjoyable was its characters, and it was carried by a superb performance from the utterly adorable Riley Freeman...no, Chibi Will Smith...no, Jaden Smith, who looks even more like Dad than in The Pursuit of Happyness and as expected from that early promise, has become an extremely capable young actor – as well as impressively accomplished in showing his martial arts. He’s incredibly cute and also not afraid to make a fool out of himself onscreen. I hope he has great success.

(And looking like Riley for the film and Huey in the credits didn’t hurt at all, either).

I have to say, though, it is a sweet companion piece to the original, rather than a remake, and nothing like as sincere or powerful. It’s lighter, and cuter, but not nearly so moving. And there are three major changes made that really bring problems with them. Firstly, Shao Dre is so much younger than Daniel-san: unlike some critics I have no problem with his hormones or his desire to compete, both of which are strong at 12, but it does make the tournament unbelievable. Someone would get up there and go ‘This is a tournament for 12-year-olds. They are trying to break limbs. This has to stop.’ Then there’s the fact it’s set in China. Two corollaries here: first, this makes Han’s anonymity bizarre. Sure, a Japanese immigrant can be a hidden karate master, but Han trained and must have made a name for himself, yet nobody knows him. It also, despite a non-white lead, makes for a typical Mighty Whitey story, where the outsider goes into a foreign country and within a short while is better at things they have done their whole lives.

Despite that, though, strong performances, neatly-sketched characters and sheer cuteness made this a winner.

Chicken, home, and proved I’m a nutter by starting work on my X-blade already! This mostly involved sawing…ick!