Karate Child: Legends reviewed by Eric Goldman.
Coming off the triumph of its extension into TV with Cobra Kai, The Karate Child franchise returns to theaters with Legends, a film which is way much less impactful than that present, but nonetheless reminds us why the underlying story and themes of this sequence can nonetheless join. Ben Wang is a powerful new Karate Child and it’s definitely enjoyable to see Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan (ultimately) workforce up and join two elements of the franchise’s historical past, at the same time as Joshua Jackson finally ends up because the shock MVP. It’s additionally straightforward to provide your self over to a narrative of this kind, as a result of underdog tales are straightforward to spend money on when carried out nicely – and few have ever been instructed in addition to the unique The Karate Child. On the identical time, a very frenetic strategy to the second half doesn’t let emotional moments join in the way in which that they might. That’s usually irritating, since you possibly can see how simply it might be re-edited to land higher. However on the finish of the day, everybody loves an underdog, and Li is one other one you possibly can root for. Given this franchise is clearly not going anyplace, possibly they will do higher by him within the inevitable Karate Child 7.