It's somewhat fascinating that a movie franchise like The Karate Kid even exists, never mind has remained so popular over the years. A fairly simple film about a kid trying to stand up to bullies has now spawned, with the release of Karate Kid: Legends, six movies, six seasons of a TV series, and a pretty remarkable popcorn bucket.
Maybe I shouldn’t be quite so shocked. I’m certainly a fan of the franchise. The first Karate Kid movie is one of my earliest memories of seeing a movie in a movie theater. I would then go on to see both sequels that way as well, and I think The Karate Kid Part II is actually my favorite in the series. With the new movie coming out, it seemed like as good a time as ever to revisit a movie I hadn’t seen in decades. Not either of the first two films, but the third one, which holds a dubious place in my personal film history.
The Karate Kid Part III Was The “First” Bad Movie I Ever Saw
We all have those movies that have a significant impact on us. For most of us, it’s the great movies that do that. We see something that is so special that it changes us in some way. I certainly have those movies too, I remember the first time I saw Star Wars, but I also have a very clear memory of the first time I saw a really bad movie in theaters.
When you’re a kid, you tend not to distinguish much between good and bad movies. It’s often said that “kids’ movies” don’t need to be good because kids can’t tell the difference. While my own daughter is shaping up to be quite the movie critic, this is generally true. When you’re a kid, all movies are good.
And maybe that’s why I remember The Karate Kid Part III so distinctly. I remember the experience of seeing it in a theater at 11 years old. It was showing at a theater out of town, as it had been out for a while and was no longer screening locally. But I wanted to see it in the theater, as I had seen the other two movies. But what I remember most about The Karate Kid Part III was walking out of the theater and having a thought I’d never had before after seeing a movie for the first time, “Man, that movie wasn’t very good.”
Looking back, of course, a lot of the movies that I liked as a kid weren’t actually very good, but this was the first time that I realized it while watching the film. I’ve never forgotten that experience, and as a result, while I still revisit the first two Karate Kid movies from time to time, I’m pretty sure I never watched Part III ever again.
How Is The Karate Kid Part III Even Worse Than I Remember?
Just because I knew at 11 years old that Karate Kid III was bad, it didn’t mean the movie was all that bad. I sat down to rewatch it, open to the idea that the movie might be better than I remember. God, how I wish that had been the case.
My recollection of seeing the movie the first time was that I didn’t understand why certain plot elements were introduced, only to be seemingly forgotten. There’s a whole set of scenes that have Daniel concerned with learning leg sweeps that go on for multiple scenes, only for it to end with Daniel having a sore foot, and then sweeps are never mentioned again. The same thing happens with Robin Lively's entire character, who vanishes before the end of the movie for no discernible reason.
Rewatching the movie recently, I realize this may have been the least important of the film’s various issues. Katate Kid villains aren't exactly the most well-rounded characters, but Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) and Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan) are basically cartoon characters. This wouldn't be a problem except that nobody else is approaching the film that way. Ralph Macchio doesn’t want to be there, his wooden performance makes that clear. The result is one character with too much energy playing against another with none.
The plot itself is incredibly contrived. The villains' plot to destroy Daniel would have had nowhere to go if Mr. Miyagi had decided he wanted to train Daniel to compete in the karate tournament up front. The fact that he doesn’t want to do that isn’t caused or influenced by the villains. Miyagi's own reasons are vague at best. The real reason is that the plot requires it.
Contrivances in films aren’t exactly unusual, and I’d argue they aren’t even a bad thing on their own. The issue is that you have to make the rest of your movie interesting enough that the audience doesn’t stop to consider the contrivances. That doesn’t happen here because the first half of The Karate Kid Part III is incredibly boring.
The Karate Kid Part III Seemed As Bored As I Was
We’re 40 minutes into a two-hour movie before Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi meet Terry Silver, the man who has hatched a plot to punish them with all the subtlety of a supervillain. Until then, the only drama in the story has been around whether or not Daniel will compete in the next karate tournament.
At first, Daniel wants to compete, but then he comes around to Mr. Miyagi's way of thinking. We don't see the reason Daniel changed his mind; he just did, mere minutes after he was angry that his mentor wouldn't train him.
Instead, the first half of the movie is more concerned with Mr. Miyagi's new bonsai business. The business itself isn't important, however, it's just a location for some of the action.
As a result of nearly half the movie being largely wasted, the rest has to move at double speed. Daniel’s “training” is rushed. What passes for a character arc for Daniel takes all of about 10 minutes to get set up and then resolve.
The Karate Kid Part III Needed Another Draft (Or Two) Of The Script
The thing is that some of the ideas in Karate Kid Part III aren’t bad. A version of Daniel that “goes bad” because he falls in with the wrong sensei after Mr. Miyagi refuses to train him isn’t a terrible idea. But the movie is clearly afraid to make Daniel the least bit unlikable.
Nobody in The Karate Kid III has a decent character arc, and without getting invested in characters, there's no emotional payoff. Daniel winning at the end doesn't feel nearly as special as it did the first time around because nothing that's come before it has invested you in the story. Cobra Kai may have found the good in Karate Kid Part III, but that doesn't change the movie itself.
The first two Karate Kid movies aren’t exactly Oscar caliber, but they certainly feel like it when compared to The Karate Kid Part III. It’s as bad as I remember, if not worse. I think it may be another 35 years before I try this one again.
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