The Ultimate Ranking of The Karate Kid Movie Series

With the release of Karate Kid: Legends, I decided to watch through all of the Karate Kid films. The Karate Kid is another classic 80s sports franchise similar to that of Rocky. I have seen the original film and the 2012 reboot several times, but this was the first time for all of the sequel films. The one thing I noticed when watching the Karate Kid sequels is that there aren't very many good Karate Kid movies. The Karate Kid franchise has a fairly large following as it managed to produce a new film this year and maintain a well-received TV show in Cobra Kai. I have not seen Cobra Kai, so I won't be able to comment on any tie-ins to the TV show. With all that said, here are my thoughts and ranking of the six Karate Kid films.

5. The Next Karate Kid

The Next Karate Kid is easily the worst of the Karate Kid films. The movie loses the best part of the original three films, which is the relationship between Daniel and Mr. Miyagi, as it omits Daniel from the film. The relationship between Mr. Miyagi and Julie is decent enough, as we get to see a more fatherly relationship from Mr. Miyagi. However, it is just not the same as the relationship with Daniel. The Next Karate Kid also doesn't provide a compelling reason for Julie to learn Karate. There is no sense of conflict or purpose to the film other than Julie learning to control her anger. The movie also takes a page out of Rocky V's book and ends the movie with a random street fight instead of something more satisfying. The movie also has a bunch of subplots that don't add much to the story, like the whole story with the pet bird or Julie's relationship with Eric. Overall, while it was fun to see a young Hillary Swank as the next Karate Kid, the movie is largely a disappointment and doesn't need to be a part of the franchise.

Score: 4.5/10 Grade: C-

5. The Karate Kid Part III

The Karate Kid Part III is slightly better than The Next Karate Kid, but not by much. The movie has a bit of 80s cheesiness with an over-the-top plot and villain. It is watchable enough, but nothing to write home about. There are some interesting ideas with Daniel wanting to return to the Karate tournament, but the execution is not good. Much like the previous film, I feel like this movie doesn't go anywhere until the last 20 minutes of the movie. The idea of Daniel competing in the tournament again with a different trainer is interesting enough, but it is treated like an afterthought as the main plot line is about Daniel and Mr. Miyagi opening a Bonsai tree store, which is far less interesting. I think having the tournament plot at the forefront would have made a much more interesting movie. The Jessica character is also pretty pointless. She friend zones Daniel, hangs out with him in the middle act, and then leaves before the third act without leaving any sort of lasting impression on the story. In the end, while the general idea of the movie was interesting, the execution was not well done and didn't make for a fitting end to the Daniel-Miyagi story.

Score: 5/10 Grade: C

4. The Karate Kid (2012)

The Karate Kid (2012) is a reboot of the original film for a new generation of fans. I did appreciate that the movie chose to go to a new location for this film, having it be in China instead of the US. Doing this adds a new cultural perspective to the story. I also thought that Jayden Smith was fun enough as the lead. He has enough of his father's, Will Smith, personality that makes for an entertaining enough time. However, what keeps it down on the list is that the movie is essentially a carbon copy of the original film, taking away any real reason for it to exist. Most of the time, when a movie is rebooted, it adds in aspects of a more modern society and expands on aspects that lacked in the original film. This movie just copies the original film beat for beat. The biggest difference is the age of the kids, which I think was a negative for the film. In this film, the kids are aged around 12-13 instead of 17-18 in the original. This makes Mr. Han and his "evil" counterpart much less impressive characters, as when Mr. Han is rescuing Dre, he is just beating up on a bunch of 12-year-olds, or at the tournament when Mr. Li orders his 12-year-old student to break another 12-year-old's leg. Overall, while the film does have some entertainment value, it doesn't add anything to the story to justify its existence. Also, the movie is about Kung Fu not Karate.

Score: 6/10 Grade: C+

3. The Karate Kid Part II

The Karate Kid Part II is the best of the original Karate Kid sequels, but it is still not a great movie. I can appreciate that part II isn't just a carbon copy of the original film, like many sports movie sequels are. I like how the movie takes the characters to a new location and gives Mr. Miyagi more of a backstory and romance. However, what keeps this movie down is that it gives Daniel and Mr. Miyagi nothing to do. Daniel doesn't serve much of a purpose, as all he does is wander around the island with a new girl, but he is still treated as the center of the story. Mr. Miyagi has more of the central conflict and romance, but it is still treated like an afterthought. I also didn't like how the movie did Ali dirty. They set this nice relationship up with Daniel in the first movie, but then it gets tossed aside in favor of a lesser new romance that also goes nowhere after this movie. Both parts II and III prove that there wasn't enough of a compelling story to create sequels. In the end, while I can appreciate some of the ideas the movie goes for, it doesn't do anything interesting with them, leaving the movie a bit dull.

Score: 6/10 Grade: C+

2. Karate Kid: Legends

Karate Kid: Legends was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Superficially, it is a pretty entertaining movie. You can get a lot of what you want out of a Karate Kid movie. However, when you get down to the actual meat of the movie, it is not very good. For the positives, there is this fun novelty of seeing Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchino together on-screen training a new student. The big end fight was also pretty entertaining. The movie is also a bit faster-paced than the others in the franchise as well as quite a bit funnier. However, the whole inciting incident to get Li to join the tournament is a bit ridiculous. The movie starts as a rehash of the original Karate Kid but then jumps into this plot about a boxer pizza guy learning karate that is hidden from the trailer then jumps back into Karate Kid rehash. These two plots are not compatible and feel very weird put together in this movie. The trailer also makes it seem like Daniel LaRusso is a major part of the movie when in reality he is only in it for like 15 minutes. If you are going to get the whole marketing around the return of Daniel LaRusso, you should probably have him in the movie for more than 15 minutes. In the end, while on a surface level, the movie is quite entertaining, the actual plot structure is a bit too messy.

Score: 6/10 Grade: C+

1. The Karate Kid

The original Karate Kid is still easily the best in the franchise. This movie is just a classic 80s sports movie about the bond between a karate student and his teacher. This movie is so iconic for its unconventional training techniques (wax on, wax off). I think it is fun seeing these seemingly useless household chores turn into a movie to be used in karate. I think the movie does a great job of developing the relationship between Mr. Miyagi and Daniel as they grow from skeptical student and teacher to close friends. I also thought that the relationship between Ali and Daniel was well done, which is why it makes me so upset that they tossed it aside in the later films. I also thought the central conflict is the best in the series as it is just about Daniel trying to combat his bullies. The conflict isn't as stupid as in the later films. In the end, this is a great sports martial arts film and a classic from the 80s.

Score: 8/10 Grade: B+