Editorial
Front Page - Friday, June 18, 2010
The Critic's Corner
David Laprad
Before seeing “The Karate Kid,” I was going to write off this summer movie season as dead in the water.
Of the films I’d seen, “Iron Man 2” wasn’t as good as the original, “Robin Hood” was forgettable, “Shrek Forever After” proved it’s best to leave a good thing alone and “Prince of Persia” was only mildly entertaining. Of the movies I’d missed, many had received a sound thrashing from other critics, including “Marmaduke” and “Sex and the City 2.” And with the exception of “Iron Man 2,” all had underperformed at the box office, with some bombing in spectacular fashion.
The problem seemed clear: All of this summer’s big movies were either sequels or based on recognizable brands. Audiences had finally grown tired of Hollywood rehashing the same stories time and again, and the lackluster quality of this summer’s tent pole films suggested moviemakers were feeling the same way. Then I saw “The Karate Kid,” another remake.
And I had to admit the verdict on this summer at the movies is still out.
I’d read a few unenthusiastic reviews by critics who’d grown up in the ‘80s and still had deep rivers of nostalgia for the original “Karate Kid” running through them, but I’d never seen the original, so I was free of baggage as I settled into my seat. Two hours and 20 minutes later, I left the theater feeling that rare high that comes with having seen an exhilarating film.
As the journey begins, a young boy named Dre Parker and his mother, a widow, are seen moving to China so she can keep her job. Speaking of sound thrashings, a bully named Cheng gives Dre one almost immediately when the newcomer tries to make nice with a girl named Mei Ying, a violin prodigy. Played by 11-year-old Jaden Smith, Parker looks small, wiry and out of his league in the film’s first fight.
Through circumstances more interesting on the screen than explained in a review, Dre meets Mr. Han, the maintenance man for the building where he and his mother are living. Played by Jackie Chan, Han takes Dre under his capable wings and begins to train him for a kung fu tournament in which Cheng will be competing.
With the main characters and plot line established, the “Karate Kid” doesn’t rush to the finish line but takes its time to tell a good story. Characters develop, relationships grow and the camera takes every opportunity to capture the beauty and culture of China. From hundreds of kung fu students dressed in red uniforms performing moves in perfect unison, to the shantytown feel of the back streets of Beijing, to the majesty of the Great Wall of China, “Karate Kid” is a visually gratifying experience.
Thankfully, director Harald Zwart remembered he was making a summer movie and padded the “Karate Kid” with several hard-hitting fights. I breathed a
sigh of relief when I realized Zwart took care to actually show the film’s great kung fu choreography. Instead of shoving a camera in the faces of his actors, shaking it around and editing the footage into a nauseating succession of rapid fire clips, Zwart lets the audience see what’s going on, and does so without sacrificing any of the energy an action movie needs.
A few things in “The Karate Kid” don’t work, including the romance between Dre and Mei Ying. For starters, the movie was filmed when Smith was 12 and his character was 11, making him too young for the audience to give a hoot about his budding romance. Not only that, but the girl is at least a foot taller than him, which makes the scenes when they’re being playful look silly and awkward. A better approach would have been to develop their relationship as a special friendship rather than a gooey-eyed pre-teen romance. Also, some of their dialog is too wise and worldly, given how young they are.
But every time I would start to focus on these glaring gaffs, “The Karate Kid” would throw something powerful on the screen that would make me forget about nitpicking: the remarkable scene in which Dre watches a woman control the movements of a snake; the revelation of what Han was doing as he had Dre take off of his jacket, hang it up and put it back on for days on end; the profoundly moving scene in which Dre lifts an agonized Han out of a pit of despair; Chan’s emotionally nuanced performance; and what Dre says when Han asks him why he doesn’t want to quit the tournament.
These moments and more added up to the summer’s most satisfying movie and gave me hope for the weeks ahead. That “The Karate Kid” made twice as much money during its opening weekend as industry analysts had predicted it would was just icing on the cake.
Email David Laprad at dlaprad @hamiltoncountyherald.com.
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