The Karate Kid (2010) (Spoilers)

Welcome to  Bring on the Reviews!

This week we're reviewing the 2010 version of The Karate Kid.

Director- Harald Zwart

Producer- Jada and Will Smith

Starring- Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan with Taraji P. Henson

Short Synopsis:

Sherry (Henson), a single mother from Detroit, receives a job transfer  at her car factory and takes her 12 year-old son, Dre (Smith), with her to China. Dre is finding it hard to adjust to life in China and ends up becoming a target of a school bully. Surprisingly he gains help from the maintenance man, Han (Chan), in his path to overcoming his difficult adjustment to his surroundings.

** Warning, Possible Spoilers !!! **

The Good: 

This movie had a good cast. They all played well off of each other. You can find yourself connecting to this story and their world. They even had a few moments that made you think of the original Karate Kid.

• Jaden Smith gave a good performance as the Karate "Kung-Fu" kid. His growth within the movie made you believe he could be a future action star. One of the best messages of this movie came when he gave the lines "Because I'm still scared. And no matter what happens, tonight, when I leave, I don't want to be scared anymore." (Quote off of IMDB.com)
• Taraji P. Henson played a concerned mother. Each time she told Smith's character to pick up his jacket I could understand her frustration. Everything about her portrayal as a single mother was top notch. You could see her concern when she found out Smith's character had a black eye.
• Jackie Chan did an amazing job. He played as a great mentor and delivered perfectly with his comic relief. 

The Bad: 

Given that they landed the extremely talented Jackie Chan in this movie they didn't use him enough. His character, Mr. Han, received 5 minutes of actual background story. They should have worked out a way to include more of his story in the mix.

The fighting scenes in the tournament gave off a shaky camera action feel to it. It looked weird each time it happened.

The Hypothetical:

It would have been awesome if Smith's character did a spinning round house kick instead of the flipping kick he did at the end.

The whole thing about the main character learning Kung Fu instead of Karate makes a slight difference. They could have made a joke or something that connects it to the Karate Kid. It could have involved Smith's character complaining about not learning Karate and Chan's character could say "Fine, I can teach you one Karate move."

Just picture this movie with Jet Li as Han and Tyler James Williams as The main protagonist. It would turn into a completely different movie all together. Mini Chris Rock learns Karate, it's gold!

Questions of the week: If you could cast anyone else to play the main protagonist, and his two supporting characters, who would you pick?

See you next week readers!