poorly placed

The success of Cobra Kai on Youtube then Netflix did not fall into the ears of a deaf. More than a decade after the failure of the reboot carried by Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, Sony Pictures took interest in the new adventures of Johnny Lawrence and Daniel Larusso as the signal that he was finally the time to dust off his saga of action to offer him a new Renaissance. After all, it still works nostalgia, right?

Straddling

After a tragedy, The young Li Fong leaves Beijing To settle in New York with his mother. The latter hopes that, far from his mentor M.han, the teenager will abandon the kung-fu and focus on less dangerous leisure.

But in the city that never sleeps, he meets the boss of a pizzeria who may well need his knowledge in martial arts to get out of a bad step. With the help of M.han (Jackie Chan) and Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio), Li will learn to combine the techniques of Kung-Fu and those of Miyagi-Do karate to become unbeatable.

Jonathan Entwistle’s film has more than one mission to fulfill what could become a new saga Karate Kid. First, he must introduce a new hero camped by Ben Wang. At the same time, he needs bring together the mythologies of the original saga and the 2010 soft reboot. To do this, he relies on the scenario of Rob Lieber. Author who delivered some forgetful films, such as Rabbit or Goose flesh 2.

Forget Cobra Kai : the film distances itselfprobably not to interfere with the end of the series. She was not over at the time of filming and her creators might want to continue the trip through spin-offs if the opportunity arises. It’s a shame, all that the series succeeded, this new part of the saga misses it … miserably.

We have nothing to do without …

… And either the screenwriter. Imagine all the clichés of a martial art film that comes to mind, add a touch of unwelcome nostalgia and sprinkle with more archetypal characters than the others and you get a molasses where boredom is the main ingredient. Karate Kid Legends is not legendary, he just rehasides patterns already widely exploited by his elders.

A tournament, a love story disturbed by a conflict that will be settled with an appointment on the roofs of New York, Karate Kid Legends Check all the boxes, but tirelessly falls next to the plate. The fault of a story that never takes the time to give thickness to its issues and characters.

The film is satisfied with a few flashback scenes to explain the trauma of its hero. Pieces of life illustrated using slow motion, dramatic music and heartbeat with deafen cries. We thought that the 7th art, and more particularly the license had exceeded this course, it must be believed that Legends is not afraid to do too much.

Soft hit

The film recycles these recipes without ever assuming them fully. Love rivalry is written as a second -class soapthe tournament scene is predictable to the nearest level, and even the hero training comes down to a succession of interchangeable assemblies. The young Ben Wang does as he can to bring his hero to life, but is hampered by a indigent scenario as much as a gallery of more bland secondary characters each other.

The palm comes back Not surprisingly to Connor Dayfrelated copy of Johnny Lawrence. Former little friend of the hero’s new girlfriend, thick raw who harass her comrades at school and pupil of a violent sensei … Does that remind you of anything? Where the first film was allowed time to build Johnny Lawrence in opposition to Larusso, by immortalizing the mistreatment of Kreese as much as the difficulty for the character to find his place other than with fists, this film has nothing to do with his career.

A real rhythm problem while the footage takes almost an hour to install its fight. The first half of the film is devoted to learning the rudiments of Kung-Fu by Li to the boss of the Pizzeria and soon stepfather. The rest of the time, Legends Compiler content Musical sequences worthy of MTV clips And their aesthetic transitions certainly … but frankly sterile. A device to fill The abyssal vacuum of the plotlike waving a rattle in front of the eyes of spectators.

Even as it approaches its climax, and while all the tension should be put in favor of the championship which must built Li to the rank of legend of karate, the film continues to advance at the speed of lightning and with the subtlety of an elephant in a porcelain store.

And what about the two stars invited to take part in the story, camped by Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan? Comic cations of the story, Mr Han and Daniel Larusso are in subregime in this film which could have offered them an opportunity to register their characters a little more in legend. If Jackie Chan remains solar and endearinghe owes this sympathy more to his own personality than to writing his character. Same bell sound for Ralph Macchio, as the series Cobra YouI had served better.

Which saves (a little) the film

But once the disappointment of the story has passed, and because that is also why we are there, What are the fights of this new opus worth? Overall, Jonathan Entwhistle is not doing so badly. Well helped by welcome style and mounting effects, Karate Kid : Legends To a few exciting scenes, in an ill -lit alley as much as for its final confrontation. We also appreciate the combat choreographies, which make it possible to bring a semblance of energy to this project. And it is here that Karate Kid : Legends The most frustrated, he could have been a pleasant entertainment if he was not too busy filling out a heavy specifications to satisfy the new spectators as much as the old ones.

But who is it for?

Precisely, if the spectators have never put their eyes on Karate Kid or Cobra Kai Could they be seduced on paper, will they move in theaters to discover yet another project around a forgotten license? At a time when we write our lines, Karate Kid : Legends released in May in the United States only reported $ 106 millionincluding 52, on its original market. A sad score with regard to the recipes generated by The Karate Kid In 2010 (359 million), but which could make this new component a modest commercial success, since it only cost $ 45 million according to estimates.

There is also the Question of streaming and partnership between Sony Pictures and Netflix. In the United States, the upcoming arrival of the footage in the platform’s catalog is already announced. It must intervene in September. An opportunity for the studio to get into its costs and enjoy a little more of the success of esteem to Cobra Kai To attract looks. It is undoubtedly also in streaming that the true interest of the public for the franchise will be measured, when a viewing of the series can be accompanied by that of the film.

What do we remember?

At the time of the balance sheet, we simply say that Legends is a pretext film, intended to bring the intellectual properties so dear to the film industry to life. We will therefore be satisfied with a umpteenth Outsider adventure Intended for great things, a project that never strikes hard and never in the right place. Karate Kid first of the name was better, Cobra Kai Also and we find ourselves wanting to see both …

So, we don’t play comparison. Cobra Kai also had the annoying tendency to rush into the shot and the predictable, but the series did it with plume of panache and space. We won’t say that Karate Kid has never been as good as when it was only called Karate Kidit will simply be said that in the department recent reboots, Legends Do not win the tournament. It lacks punch and sounds like an illegal kick in worship.

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