Title: The Karate Kid (2010)
Actors/Director/Anything Worth Mentioning Right Away: Jackie Chan is the true star of this. He is the only reason why I watched it.
Introduction: I got this DVD off the shelf at the library for free. I went out of my way a total of 0% to watch this movie, the way it should be.
Location: China, duh.
Plot: A young street thug from somewhere in America moves to China with his mom (for career reasons) and then he finds himself in some trouble with the local kids. It has the typical sort of “overcoming a bully” problems and message, but what amazes me about this movie is two simple things. First off, every Chinese person in this movie knows kung fu and attends some sort of classes, trying to improve and please their master. While I thought that was just a myth perpetuated by gwylo, I guess it is in fact true. In some ways, it seemed like some sort of martial arts was being taught even in school as a requirement. It’s almost like China is being portrayed in this movie as a country that said: “You know what? America thinks we all know martial arts, so damnit, we’re going to teach everyone martial arts!” Why not, right? While subject may have been a little bit more lighthearted in nature (At one point, Dre tells his mom he’s learning kung fu from the maintenance man. When she seems shocked, he says something like “It’s China, everyone knows kung fu!”), the one thing that really bothers me most about this movie, as a stereotype, is the way Dre is treated and that we’re supposed to feel sorry for him. It’s a typical American thought that we are the best country in the world (Hey, we are) and so everyone needs to be like us (Maybe so). But do we really need to go so far as to make it seem like Dre was being bullied because he was different and that’s his fault? Let’s pretend for a minute that the roles were reversed and a young Chinese boy came to America, called everything old and took no time to learn or prepare anything in advance about the language or culture. How many times have people in America (Especially directed toward the Hispanic crowd) said something like “Learn the language of the country you’re in!” But I guess that only applies if you’re in America. Look, I get the point of this movie and how it’s just a movie and all, and I’m reading too much into it, blah blah blah… But I find it very hard to feel badly for the character of Dre. He’s being bullied by kids that he took the time to learn absolutely nothing about. Maybe had he learned even just a little bit of Chinese and he could’ve spoken to them in their native tongue then he wouldn’t have been picked on so much. The outsider is always going to be picked on. Maybe it’s for the music you listen to or the clothes you wear, but when you’re in a completely different country and culture...? Duh, what did you expect? A welcome with open arms?
Acting: I should note it’s kind of funny (but not really) that Jaden Smith was recently involved in a death scandal. Apparently there are more than one kids named Jaden Smith in this world. Well, maybe not anymore.
Production: It looked big budget and it was.
Sex/Nudity: It’d be funny, but no. It’s still a kids movie.
Special Effects: So when Dre and his mom first move to China, he is immediately greeted by this kid who I swear is an albino. They sort of become friends for the first twenty minutes or so of the movie—they even play basketball together. Then Jaden Smith gets beat up by a gang of kids who are better at kung fu than I will, sadly, ever be. Albino boy disappears at this point to never appear again in the movie and without mention, as if he never existed. That is, perhaps, the greatest effect of all.
Overall Verdict: It kind of annoys me that they kept this title as “The Karate Kid” because now you basically have to always add the “2010” at the end so it’s not to be confused with the original. It’s like Piranha 3D, Sublime with Rome and so many other things in that way. While this movie was much better than I expected it to ever be, I still wish it would have done the little thing of changing its name (See: Mirrors) to avoid confusion. I guess “The Kung Fu Kid” just didn’t sound appealing.
