Film review
Karate Kid: Legends 2025
Directed by Jonathan Entwistle94 minAction · Adventure · Drama
After a family tragedy, kung fu prodigy Li Fong is uprooted from his home in Beijing and forced to move to New York City with his mother. When a new friend needs his help, Li enters a karate competition – but his skills alone aren't enough. Li's kung fu teacher Mr. Han enlists original Karate Kid Daniel LaRusso for help, and Li learns a new way to fight, merging their two styles into one for the ultimate martial arts showdown.
½Watched 27 July 2025
A really likeable film in the same way a Nickelodeon film is likeable. Doesn’t come close to the quality of the original karate kid and has the same kinda cheesiness as cobra Kai, with a soundtrack that sounds like it was taken straight from YouTube’s copyright free library and editing that makes you feel like you’re watching High School Musical.
Likeable characters though, the writing isn’t great but I did really like them all and there were some really great fight scenes, specifically the alley way scene that is shown in the trailer and made me wanna watch the film in the first place. Jackie chan is great and Ralph Macchio is too but he isn’t in it as much as I expected which was weird as the marketing made me think that he was gonna be a main character. He felt like he was forced into it a little and the film would have felt the exact same without him, it kind of felt like he was there with the sole purpose of luring in karate kid fans by forcing a legacy sequel.
The film had a really powerful emotional plot that I really don’t feel like it utilised well, it felt like it wasted time in some areas where it would have been nice if it focused more on his character. Though overall the film is a lot of fun and I did enjoy watching.
I’ve only seen 3 seasons of cobra Kai but Seeing William Zabka at the end was one of the coolest parts.
7.0/10
