Director - Jonathan Entwistle
Writers - Rob Lieber, Robert Mark Kamen
Stars - Jackie Chan, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen
Running Time- 1h 34m
 
Let’s get this out of the way: Karate Kid: Legends is not the worst reboot we’ve seen, but it might be the most indecisive. It’s like someone tried to make a smoothie using every fruit in the kitchen—and then added ramen. You can kind of taste the original ingredients, but mostly you’re just wondering, “Wait… why is this happening?”
 
In this latest spin-kick down memory lane, we meet Li (played earnestly by Ben Wang), a martial arts student from Beijing who’s yanked out of his familiar world and dropped into New York City. Classic fish-out-of-water setup, right? Wrong. The fish isn’t just out of water—it’s suddenly in a boxing ring, coaching someone else how to swim.
 
Li’s journey detours when he ends up training Mia’s dad (Joshua Jackson), a middle-aged guy entering a boxing tournament to pay off debts to—plot twist!—a thug who also happens to be a karate instructor. You still following? Cool. Because by the time we get to actual karate, there are two tournaments, multiple teacher-student pairings, and a sudden entrance by Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio that feels less like a heroic return and more like they wandered in from another movie.
 
Now, Jackie Chan is still a joy to watch, even when the material gives him little to do beyond tossing out cryptic wisdom and well-timed punches. And Macchio? He brings a surprising emotional weight in the few quiet moments he remembers Mr. Miyagi—ghosts of a better, simpler story flicker to life, if only briefly.
 
But the movie? It's sprinting in three directions at once. One minute it’s a gritty street-level drama, the next it’s a teen romance, then suddenly we’re in a video game-style fight sequence with training montages stitched together like a TikTok recap of the entire franchise.
 
What Legends really wants is to be everything: a reboot, a sequel, a crossover, a tribute, and a launchpad for the next generation. But it ends up feeling like an overstuffed suitcase that just won’t zip shut. It forgets what made the original Karate Kid so lasting—its smallness, its sincerity. There’s heart here, buried under the layers of legacy character cameos and awkward storytelling shortcuts. It just gets drowned out by the noise.