The Karate Kid

Jaden Smith is no Ralph Macchio. Jackie Chan is no Pat Morita. This is a big part of the problem with the new version of the eighties classic "The Karate Kid". That isn't really that much of a knock on Smith and Chan. Movies that become classics do so for a reason and the first version owed a lot to its casting. Macchio was perfect in the role, played with a delicate balance of innocence and anger. Morita simply played the hell out of the role of a lifetime. Result? Icon status and an Oscar nomination. In my opinion, it really should have been an Oscar win. So Smith and Chan have a lot to live up to. And they both do okay, but just okay. Jaden Smith is talented and he physically dives into the role with feet flying. But he's like... twelve years old. He's a kid and he can't bring the kind of acting chops that Macchio had in his early twenties. That may seem like an unfair comparison, but that's what you get when you remake a classic. He's good. I won't go further.
Chan, on the other hand, has a different problem to contend with. When they rewrote this version, someone forgot to mention how funny the original character, Mr. Miyagi, was written. Chan has charm and charisma, but he doesn't have the one-liners. In the original, when Macchio needs a competition uniform, Mr. Myagi steals one. When Macchio asks where he got it, Mr. Miyagi deadpans "Buddha provides". Chan is stuck with the big emotional scenes that were handled so beautifully by Morita, but none of the humor. Chan, like Smith, doesn't quite have the chops.
The other huge problem is that every chance this film gets, it tries to milk emotion and melodrama from the script---mercilessly. Even the classic final battle seems forced and dishonest. The original, directed by John Avildson, handled that stuff masterfully. Remember, he's the guy who directed "Rocky". The gap in directorial skill level is obvious.
Here's what this film does have. China. The whole darn country. And boy does it use it. This film unveils a sense of everyday life in China that is rarely if ever captured in a non-Chinese film (even though the Chinese film office co-produced). You get a feel for how the modern Chinese actually live. At least the city-dwellers.
When Chan and Smith go to a mountain-top martial arts sanctuary, the visuals are just stunning. Breath-taking. And worth the price of admission. Combine the exotic local with really well done training sequences and you've almost got a movie. Unfortunately, there's the overlong opening, a silly juvenile love interest sub-plot and a corny and cliched ending. Too bad this two hour and twenty minute film wasn't forty minutes shorter. It's not, which means you may want to put it on your Netflix queue.