A Challenge He Never Imagined. A Teacher He Never Expected.
Long, but very good. The new film keeps to the same general plotline of the old film, with neat twists to the iconic moments. What's great about the storyline is that the main characters' stakes are strong and clear from the outset (except of course for the mystery about why Kung Fu master Chan is content to work as a handyman). There's a similar story arc, as I think the Spill Crew or maybe the Filmspotting guys said, as Rocky (1976): boy loses respect of peers, boy trains hard, boy gains respect of peers by excelling in competition. Or is it, more generally, boy is taken over by fear, boy trains to battle fear, boy battles and conquers fear.
In any case, the stakes are high: Smith must cope with bullies who have no mercy and can't be avoided.
Jackie Chan, in particular, is excellent, with real gravitas, a little like Beat Takeshi. Jaden Smith, in the lead role, also does very well; the girl, WenWen Han, is very cute, and the romantic sub-plot is well handled; the rest of the cast is good.
The action sequences are very well handled. As Mark Kermode (if I remember right) pointed out, however, the violence to Smith in the first and final reels is pretty extreme, and the script writer's have to stretch credulity to allow Chan and Smith's mother to permit Smith to fight on despite very serious injury.
In the end, does it matter if the martial art is not karate, but kung fu?
- Rating: Full price
- When seen: 15 Aug 2010
- Where seen: Cinema
- More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia
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Amendments: "As Mark Kermode (if remember right)" corrected to "As Mark Kermode (if I remember right)". Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.
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