WHen I first heard about this movie being made it was called King Fu Kid and I was not impressed. I love 80s flicks and re-makes are simply too risky. I also thought casting Will Smith's kid was lame and I had no interest inseeing the movie.
I went to the drive-in to see Inception and Karakte Kid was on first so we watched it and I am pleased to say I was wrong about the movie. It was actually really amazing.
Jaden Smith as so good... he captured the emotional and attitude of scenes, he got ripped for his role, and he was not at all annoying.
The plot, though similar to the original in that boy moves to new place, gets bullied, gets trained, wins competition, has it's own story as well and it is really good.
Essentially "wax on, wax off" is replaced with putting his jacket on and off and hanging it up - which was kind of cheesey but it worked with the story.
We also get more history about Mr. Han, played by Jackie Chan, and why he has a car in his living room that he spends all his time fixing up. There is more of an emotional connection to the story and the two learn valuable lessons from each other.
Another fantastic change is that they don't just move to a new city, they move to CHINA which would make any child feel displaced, especially with the language barrier. The mother/son relationship is explored more deeply and is quite realistic.
There was more character development in this film than the original. I felt more of an attatchment to the characters and the story. It was simply more believable. THe bullies in this movie didn't seem as scary at first but after a chase scene and some wall jumping they were easily far more threatening than the punks in the original.
Overall this movie was cute and enjoyable and I completely misjudged it in assuming it would be a crappy remake.
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