The Karate Kid
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
It’s been a couple weeks now since the trailer surfaced for the new “The Karate Kid” movie starring Will Smith’s son Jaden, and Jackie Chan. What are your opinions on it? The poster and trailer are inside, just keep reading!
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So I’m curious what others thought of this trailer. I was a little worried going into it. Too many remakes are never a good thing, and I was actually a big fan of the original.
I was pleased after watching the trailer, though. Everything seems fresh enough with the Kung-Fu take on the movie, and the setting being China. There is enough to set it apart from the original, while still maintaining a good feeling of familiarity with some of the homages that we see.
I think it looks better than The New Karate Kid, at the very least. Jaden is as charismatic as his father, it seems. I think I was surprised the most by how much I enjoyed Jackie Chan in what little of his role we get to see. He does a good job of pulling it off. He looks sufficiently old and “mentorish”.
I’m also curious what people think of the slight “Karate Kid” vs “Kung-fu Kid” debate. I was pretty sure that this had finally been determined to be “Kung-fu Kid”, but here is the trailer and the poster, and that’s obviously not it. I think that in the end, familiarity beat out correctness. It doesn’t really bother me, but I understand why it bothers some people.
Also, I found this article on Sony’s screen test of the movie very interesting. Apparently the movie is doing really well in their test screenings:
http://screenrant.com/karate-kid-remake-scores-high-test-audiences-pauly-42111/
Looks pretty good!
Only concern I saw was the scene where he is dodging/deflecting the tennis balls. It might just be that I saw it online but it looked a little fake, like they made him act it and then put the tennis balls in after, as opposed to making him actually move.
I will say Geek’n. I enjoyed the original many times and I think Smith can out act Machio( and isn’t 15 years older than the character he’s playing) which was my biggest problems with the original. Chan is always fun to watch.
I have fond memories of the original Karate Kid, so when I heard they were doing a remake/reimagining of it, I wasn’t really all that excited. However, after seeing this trailer I really want to see this movie now. I think it could sell a lot of people who are on the fence about the movie.
Watched the trailer.. not really sure.. if it was called something else i could get behind it, but the name really just kinda irks me. Loved the originals.. (even watched the original after watching the trailer). We’ll see.. I do love me some Jackie Chan, and if Jaden has the acting chops of his dad we’ll get a good movie.
It’s been 26 years since the first Karate Kid, and 21 years since the last real one. So as long as they treat the franchise with respect, I’m completely fine with a remake. It didn’t even bother me that they were going to try me. It would have bother me if it had ended up badly. At that point, you would have to wonder why they even bothered.
I think it could have been neat to have been called The Kung-Fun Kid, but I happen to like the Karate Kid heritage, so I’m sort of glad that they stuck with that name. And with the early test results, I think this could end up being one of my favorite movies of the year.
I also think this could end up being one of the biggest movies of the year, given the family-centric tone of it. I was too young to remember the reaction to the originals when they came out. But I can imagine it’s the type of movie that kids, at least now, would want to see over and over. Because it’s sort of like a realistic superhero movie. It makes them feel like they could be something special too.
One thing I will say is that I like how they moved the location to China. It allows me to feel Jaden’s isolation.
I only wish they’d change the title, The Kung Fu Kid?
Doesn’t look bad and I’m glad it’s not a close remake.
I think it looks pretty good. Worth at least checking it out to see what it has to offer afresh. I agree that Jackie Chan looks good in the role from what we can see briefly here in the trailer. Not sure about Jaden but would need to see more to make a more solid assessment. Yet another one for my ‘Movies I Want to See” list. Sigh
The trailer just knocked all chance of me watching this film right out of me. The lines they showed of Jaden talking were incredibly cheesy (e.g. Jaden’s Mum – “You always said you wanted to live in Beverly Hills” Jaden – “I meant the other one”)
If i do go see this it’ll be to see Chan beat up 10 year olds. He is the only glimmer of hope for me in this film. Oh one last thing I too would like the title to have been changed to “Kung-Fu Kid”