Movie Review: The Karate Kid (2010) Review :)

Hi there! :) As you know, or may not know, yesterday I watched The Karate Kid on DVD...and here is my review of it. :D

First of all, let's look at the poster:
 
I don't really like this poster, because I think it's too...simple. It's just a red background and an outline of Jaden Smith kicking...and the title. Here is the DVD poster.
 
...which is pretty much the same. If you look closely, you can actually see Jaden Smith's face on the poster, but not on the other one. My other problem was...WHY DIDN'T THEY SHOW JACKIE CHAN ON THE POSTER? :( I was actually really disappointed when I saw the poster...at least it has his name on it.
Overall, I didn't like the movie poster at all. :P

Here is some information about the movie:
The Karate Kid is a 2010 film starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, and it is also a remake of a 1984 film of the same name.

The director is Harald Zwart, who also directed Agent Cody Banks  and The Pink Panther 2 .
There are a total of 5 producers, and 2 of them include Will Smith, and his wife, Jada Smith. It was released June 11, 2010 in the United States, it has a running time of 140 minutes (2 hours and 20 minutes), and the movie is mainly in English, but there are some parts that are Mandarin.

           The Karate Kid is about a 12-year old boy named Dre Parker, (who is played by Jaden Smith) who moves from Detroit to China with his mother, because she got transferred. Dre doesn't like it at all in China, and he is also bullied by Cheng. (who is played by Zhenwei Wang) Cheng bullies Dre at first because he doesn't want  him close to Mei Ying, which is Dre's crush. Eventually, Mr Han, (who is played by Jackie Chan) helps Dre by telling Cheng's Kung Fu Teacher, and Cheng's friends to back off. But there is one condition. Dre must participate in a Kung Fu tournament. Mr. Han then teaches Dre "Real Kung Fu" to prepare him for the tournament.

Let me show you the main cast of The Karate Kid:



Jaden Smith as Dre Parker. Dre Parker is an immigrant from Detroit to Beijing.



Jackie Chan as Mr. Han, the maintenance man who knows kung fu, and teaches it to Dre.



Taraji Henson as Sherry Parker, Dre's mother.




Zhenwei Wang as Cheng, the bully.

And...last, but not least,
 

Yu Rongguang as Master Li, the evil kung fu teacher.


My Opinion:

    I really liked this movie, I watched the movie with high expectations because I heard many good comments. I think the storyline is really predictable, even though I never watched the old version of this. I thought the movie was very well shot beautifully, they showed many scenes of mountains, The Forbidden City, and The Great Wall, which I thought was nice. I thought the acting was surprisingly well done, I wasn't expecting much from Jaden Smith, but I guess he proved me wrong. I thought Jaden did a great job for acting. Another good actor in this movie is Jackie Chan as Mr. Han. It's nice to see him away from his usual "Slapstick Comedy Fighting" roles, and be in a Hollywood movie with a serious role. His latest films have been more dramatic, but I guess this and Shinjuku Incident are his most serious roles yet. I actually thought everyone in general did a good job for acting in this movie.

     One thing I did not like is that there wasn't much music during the movie, there was mostly silence. I think there might have been some sound during the Training and the Tournament, but that's about it. And, of course, the official theme song for the movie is "Never Say Never" which is preformed by Justin Bieber and Jaden Smith.

    Another thing I did not like was that they did not keep the Alternate Ending, where you can view below.




I think they should have kept this ending in because I think it is one of the best scenes in the movie. I would have liked to see Jackie Chan having a fight scene (other than the one with the bullies) in this movie, but I understand why they didn't put it in though, because it would have created a different mood in the end.

A lot of people complain that this film should be called "Kung Fu Kid" instead of "Karate Kid" because there's no Karate in the film. However, I disagree.

1. I think if you are doing a remake of a film, you should have the same name, for respect.
2. If they did call it "Kung Fu Kid" it would kinda sound like it would be a ripoff.
3. The title, "The Karate Kid" might actually be referring to Jaden Smith, because it is mentioned in the film that he knows a "little bit of Karate", and in the first encounter with Dre and the bully, Cheng, they call Dre "The Karate Kid"

So, that was just my opinion, because I actually see people arguing over the internet about this.

I also thought that the film itself was a little bit too long, 2 hours and 20 minutes seems a long time for a film like this. They had a lot of unnecessary scenes. They could have shortened the beginning and they could have shortened some of the training scenes like the mountain scene.

I also thought the tournament wasn't very realistic, because I don't think there are any legal tournaments that would allow two children to fight without ANY protection gear. 

I have to admit the last kick was really cool, but it was obviously fake, either done with computers or wires.

But I still liked it.

I know I've said a lot of negative things about this film, but I really did enjoy it.

Overall, I think The Karate Kid is a really good film, I learned (from the tournament) that if you try your hardest, it doesn't matter if you win or not. I would recommend everyone to watch it, because the acting is great, it is shot beautifully, especially the mountain and training scenes, and almost everything about the film is good. :)

8/10