The Karate Kid

My daughters and I went to see this movie yesterday at our local discount theater.  I  was alittle surprised that it was there already. 

I didn't think that I would like it because I liked the original so much.  But I did like it. 


Spoiler Alert!!!






It was very similar to the original.  They moved (instead of from New Jersey to California, from Detroit to China)  There was a bully guy from the local dojo who liked the girl in the movie.  The teacher from the dojo taught no mercy.  Dre discovers that the building super knows Kung Fu (yeah it was Kung Fu In  the movie but I guess that they wanted the name recognition instead of calling it Kung Fu Kid).   He learns the moves by repeating the same thing over and over.  The teacher (Played here by Jackie Chan) had a tragic event in his life.  Instead of training at the ocean they train on the Great Wall Of China.  It even went so far as to have the tournament play out in the same way as the original. 

The main thing I didn't like about the movie was that Dre (Jaden Smith) was only 12 in the movie and he and the girl started to have a romantic involvement.  Nothing to terribly bad just a kiss and holding hands but I thought that 12 was a little young for this.

I thought that Jaden Smith did a really good job in the main role.  You can definitely tell that he is Will and Jada Smith's son.  I saw glimpses of both of them in him.

The fight scenes are quite violent at times.  There were some pretty young kids in the audience with us and I personally thought that it was probably too violent for them (but that is for their parents to decide)

It is rated PG but I would caution parents with younger children about the violence of the fight scenes.

Jaden does a video with Justin Bieber of the main song that I think has a pretty good message.  I love the line in his rap where he says " no pun intended but I was raised by the power of Will"  Cute.  I look forward to seeing him in more movies.