After kung fu prodigy Li Fong relocates to New York City, he attracts unwanted attention from a local karate champion and embarks on a journey to enter the ultimate karate competition with the help of Mr. Han and Daniel LaRusso.

It's no secret that franchises and nostalgia are all the rage today. Just last weekend, a live remake of Lilo & Stitch shattered the Memorial Day Weekend box office, breaking all kinds of records. The eighth and reportedly final entry in the Mission: Impossible film franchise released at the same time and debuted to a series best performance. So should it surprise any of us that, 41 years after the first movie's debut, we have the sixth entry into The Karate Kid series?

I grew up on the first two films - I'm not sure I ever saw Part III until recently - but I haven't followed the series and all of its spin-offs throughout the years. I skipped the 1994 reboot with Hilary Swank, The Next Karate Kid (rebooting it with a girl seems so 2016, doesn't it?), and I have not seen any of the hit streaming series, Cobra Kai. But I did kind of enjoy the 2010 remake starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan well enough, so I was intrigued to learn of the plan to merge the original three films with the 2010 timeline for this new movie, Karate Kid Legends. In this film, a young student of kung fu, Li Fong, travels from China to the states where he finds himself entering into a kung fu tournament to help save a new friend's business. And train the kid, his old teacher Mr. Han - played by Jackie Chan - enlists the help of his old friend, Mr. Miyagi's, prize pupil, Daniel LaRusso - reprised by Ralph Macchio. It's the ultimate union of the series' greats (sans Miyagi), taking a page out of the book of successful movies like Jurassic World or Star Wars.

Without bothering to ask if we ever needed a team-up like this, let's take a look at The Karate Kid films and how this movie relates. It's been decades since I've seen any of the Daniel & Mr. Miyagi entries, so I made sure to revisit the first three films before seeing Legends. My honest feelings are that none of the films are really all that good, but the first one is definitely the strongest of the three. Daniel and Mr. Miyagi remind me a little of that Marty and Doc mentee/mentor relationship from Back to the Future. It's very 80's, but it's a charming dynamic. I was also surprised to see how much of the original trilogy shows Daniel getting beaten up, and how little actual fighting there was. Each one offers a brand new love interest for Daniel, too, which suffers from that frustrating sequel trope where the love interest that was such an integral part of the previous story doesn't return for one reason or another. (It's likely that Elisabeth Shue chose a different path with her rise in stardom in the years following the first film.) By the time the third film involved Daniel being bullied and threatened into fighting the student of a mustache-twirling-level villain (He didn't have a mustache, but I swear he'd twirl it while laughing if he did), the franchise had clearly hit a series low.

Karate Kid Legends feels like a soft remake with a way to honor the fans of the original films, as well as include the star power of Jackie Chan again. It has a bit of a throwback feel to it, but also clearly has modern audiences in mind. For example, during some of the tournament fights, chalk-like graphics are scribbled onto the screen to denote points being won by either side. It helps the audience follow along better, but it also feels like it's done to appease fans of fighter style video games. It's kind of fun, but it borders on cheesy, too. Speaking of cheesy, there's a gag that is used in the film where the music slowly grinds to a halt like a tape deck or record player getting interrupted. It's usually done to kind of show something positive unexpectedly going awry in a comical way. It was amusing the first time, much less so the second time, but it full-on became overused and corny the couple times after that. I'm not quite sure how that idea made it out of the editing room.

To keep the modern feel going, the soundtrack is pretty heavily driven by hip hop and rap tracks, which work within the context of the film, but remind us it's not 1984 -- or 1986 with its power ballads. I kind of would have liked to see the movie lean more into a cinematic score instead, but I can understand why they went the rap song route.

The characters are what make Karate Kid Legends work as well as it does. Sure, the story isn't the strongest, or most realistic, but it feels like a Karate Kid movie when things are at their best. Legends follows the formula of the originals and has newcomer Li Fong (Ben Wang) getting cozy with the daughter of a local pizza shop owner named Mia (Sadie Stanley). The formula surprisingly then flips the script a bit and has Li training Mia's father Victor (Joshua Jackson) when the middle-aged pizza shop owner asks the Beijing native for some help getting ready for a boxing match. While, yes, it does have you wondering where on earth Chan and Macchio are (especially Macchio, since Chan is the first person you see when the film opens), it's an interesting twist on the story.

With that said, it does take a bit too long for Macchio to enter the picture -- especially with all the promos teasing and promising his appearance in the movie. He's used a little too sparingly, but it's certainly enjoyable to see him pair up with Jackie Chan to teach Li. There is one brief fight involving Chan and Macchio defending themselves when some street punks attack that should have been a film highlight. Instead, the camera is zoomed in way too tightly and it's hard to really see anything that's going on. There's also a fun fight scene involving Mr. Han and Li sparring in the dark, but it's so dimly lit and obscurred that one can't help but wonder if it's even Chan fighting in the scene at all.

The content is similar to the original films. Again, I was surprised at how little fighting was actually in the original movies, but while this movie feels as slowly paced as some of the 80's entries, there is more fighting action to behold. Part of Li's backstory involves his brother getting jumped after a match and stabbed to death. It's not graphic, but the camera focuses on a guy pulling a knife out and quickly sinking it into the brother's clothed side. It's all shown more so for emotional impact than anything else. There's also a sparring match shown where an opponent fights dirty and breaks the rules to hit the other fighter in the head with their elbow multiple times. We see blood on the victim's face and then see them getting wheeled into the hospital. It's a little surprising when it happens, but actually pretty common for this franchise (namely, when an opponent fights dirty). Language is similar to the original films, too, with about 3 uses of the "S" word and 7 uses of the "a" word. There are also a couple uses of "Oh my G-d" and "G-d" and a use of "d*ck" when Mia is talking about an ex-boyfriend. There isn't any sexual content, but one brief verbal exchange between Mia and Li kind of hints to her having had a physical relationship with her ex. She refers to it as making mistakes, which Li quickly waves off as something he doesn't want to hear anymore about.

While I can't say there was a need for Karate Kid Legends to exist, it's a nice surprise and a worthy entry into the series. Personally, I may have enjoyed it a little more than the original films, but there's something special about the Daniel LaRusso / Mr. Miyagi relationship that's hard to ignore... and easy to miss.