Dre Parker’s (Jaden Smith) mom Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) has just been reassigned by her company to work in China, a move the Detroit native didn’t ask for and doesn’t want. Once there, even though he’s a student at a progressive school filled with kids from all over the world the 12-year-old has trouble making friends, only constantly practicing violinist Meiying (Wenwen Han) willing to make his acquaintance.

Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan in The Karate Kid © Sony Pictures

This does not sit well with many of the native Chinese students at the school, the constant bullying sending Dre into a state of depression even his mother can’t help him find a solution to. It is only when his apartment’s maintenance man Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) agrees to take the boy under his wing and teach him kung-fu that things begin to improve, the two forming a father-son bond improving both of their lives.

As far as remakes go, this new version The Karate Kid isn’t as tough to sit through as one might have originally expected. Director Harald Zwart’s (The Pink Panther 2, Agent Cody Banks) take on the 1984 Oscar-nominated winner is a confident and self-assured reinterpretation filled with some solid moments. It is also way too long and takes and eternity to get into the meat of Robert Mark Kamen (Taken) and Christopher Murphey’s screenplay, the first hour so leisurely paced I’m surprised I didn’t fall asleep.

Other than that, though, there isn’t a lot in regards to this one to chew on. Henson is largely wasted in a throwaway roll, but then so was Randee Heller in the original so that isn’t exactly a shock. The villains are mostly one dimensional, while the kung-fu master instructing them (veteran Chinese character actor Rongguang Yu, Little Big Soldier, Iron Monkey) is a moderately suitable substitute for Martin Kove. I really liked the pre-pubescent relationship blossoming between Smith and Han, while Chan gets arguably his best Hollywood role yet doing far more for the movie than the movie remotely does for him.

I will say that the climactic showdown at a kung-fu tournament, while certainly eye-popping, is a tad more insanely violent than I ever could have anticipated. The way these 12-year-olds beat on one another is a tiny bit disconcerting, and as fabulous as the martial arts on display are the sight of such virulent kid-on-kid pounding was a bit more than I could stand every now and then.

Additionally, it really does take forever to get to this point, the pacing of the film such a problem as thrilling (even if the outcome is a forgone conclusion) as the climax can be getting to that point takes an awful lot of work from the viewer. If the original was already too long at 126 minutes than this remake is even more so at 140. I swear it’s almost an hour before Mr. Han takes Dre under his wing, and it isn’t until the last 30 or so minutes of the picture we finally get to the training montage (there’s always a montage, after all) showing the youngster’s metamorphosis into a kung-fu star. You could easily strip away a third of the running time and not lose a single dramatic element, no reason on the face of the planet that it takes Zwart and company so much time to tell such a simplistic and straightforward story.

Still, as far as pointless remakes go (and this one admittedly barely qualifies as a remake in the first place) there are more plusses than minuses as far as The Karate Kid is concerned. The acting is solid and the story of self-discovery and emotional maturation in the face of adversity still resonates. Even though it was a tad excessive the climax is still suitably rousing, and I liked Chan’s Mr. Han quite a bit. If only it had been a lot tighter and tad more focused we’d have something wonderful to talk about here, but even with that being so I’d still award the film a couple of points even if I can’t quite give it the championship.

Film Rating: êê1/2 (out of 4) 

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