YMMV / The Karate Kid (2010)

• Accidental Innuendo: "Jacket off."
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Neither film critics nor fans of the franchise were endeared when they heard about the remake, especially with Jaden Smith in the title role. After its release, although there were discussions about how exactly good the film is (and still are), especially in comparison to the original, most people were unanimous that it was at least a quite decent remake that also managed to be its own film at the same time. As noted under He Really Can Act (below), we also got a rare chance to see Jackie Chan venture outside of his usual schtick of crazy awesome fight scenes.
• Awesome Music:
  • About midway through the film, a Mandarin version of "Dirty Harry" by Gorillaz can be heard. Commence scooping up the pieces of your mind now.
  • The score is by James Horner, who scored Avatar, The Land Before Time, An American Tail, Titanic (1997), and Willow.
    • Especially Han's Kung Fu, during the EPIC Curb-Stomp Battle between Mr. Han and Master Li's Students. Also used in an equally epic Deleted Scene with Mr. Han going up against Master Li himself.
  • They snuck the Red Hot Chili Peppers' cover version of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" into the tournament montage.
  • "Never Say Never", sung by Justin Bieber and Jaden Smith together, is a kick ass song about never giving up and continuing to fight even when things get tough. Even people who dislike Bieber will admit to liking it.
• He Really Can Act: Jackie Chan reminds everyone that he's just as much an actor as he is a badass martial artist during his Heroic BSoD.
• Moe: Meiying is just so kind and sweet and always strives to do the right thing. She's the only one who really reaches out to Dre at school, and she has the cutest smile.
• Older Than They Think: A Karate Kid movie in an Asian setting was done before in The Karate Kid Part II.
• One-Scene Wonder: The unnamed opponent at the final tournament who combs his mohawk after every match managed to grab the attention of many viewers, despite having limited screen presence.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The opening tune of James Horner's Han's Kung Fu, sounds similar to Hans Zimmer's theme from The Dark Knight.
• So Okay, It's Average: It's pretty much a perfect parallel with the remake of RoboCop (2014), in that it's a decent movie in its own right and actually a fair bit better than the last installment of its predecessor series, but ultimately the original film is just too beloved and iconic to be unseated from its pop-culture throne (it probably doesn't help matters that "Jacket on, jacket off!" isn't nearly as quotable as the memorable Trope Namer Wax On, Wax Off).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Harry, the blond boy who briefly befriends Dre when he first moves to China. It would have been interesting to see the contrast with Harry being quite settled in his environment, compared to Dre who struggles to adjust. It might have been nice to see Dre with another friend to support him besides Mei Ling and Mr. Han, though Harry does care enough to show up to the tournament at the end. Harry also could have been the one to correct Dre when he applauded, since he would have been able to see the situation from both sides.
  • Liang, Cheng's second in command. He's clearly not as spiteful as the rest of his friends, he tells Cheng to stop hurting Dre when he gets slapped for showing mercy by Master Li, and while he's the one who hurts Dre's leg, he clearly feels awful about doing it. He could have been shown occasionally straying away from Cheng and his gang to help or warn Dre, or we could have seen further examples to show that he's not as bad as the rest of them.
• Toy Ship: Both Dre and his crush Meiying are around 12 years old.
• The Woobie:
  • Dre. He loses his father, ends up moving to a country where he can't speak the language, he's bullied and beaten up at school, he's prevented from seeing his only friend due to an innocent cultural misunderstanding on his part and he ends up having to face his main tormentor in a televised kung-fu tournament in order to get him off his back. Things do get better for Dre, but he has a rough time of it.
  • Mr. Han ended up accidentally killing his wife and son during an argument. He was driving, and ended up crashing the car while he was distracted. This is why he isolates himself from everyone, why he refuses to drive again, and why he spends so much time fixing up his car only to destroy it again in a fit of rage. He's even reluctant to get close to Dre, until he realizes how miserable the boy is.

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