Will smith simply did not pass his oozing screen presence to his son please quit acting Jaden stick to modelling for women's clothes lol!!!

This should not be named Karate Kid. However, since I really like Will Smith, this was actually not a bad remake. I agree with the other user below, it's Kung fu and not actually karate. There will NEVER be an actual remake or copy cat of Daniel Larusso...aka Ralph Macchio. Not much action in it, except Jackie Chan, and Jaden Smith being taught how to fight against the bullies and winning in the end. The only move that was done remotely close to the original movie was when he attempted the Crane Technique...Good Try though.

Covered bullying, self-defense, the difference between a good and a bad teacher, honor, respect, keeping a promise, how to study, different cultures (even... opposing cultures), hard work, ethic, perseverance, character development through suffering. The main character has a lot of reason to complain, and yet it's not the predominant theme of the movie. Instead, he rises again and again, copes with defeat, and you watch him get progressively stronger through the whole story, climaxing with the scene where we see his motives no longer are trying to punish his bullies, or be able to boast in his own strength, but he desires to press on because he's still afraid and doesn't want to be imprisoned by his fear. This driving motivation enables him to exhibit the most self control yet, and he emerges fearless.

I don't know why this Beijing-set remake was successful. It's inferior to the original in several respects. It's longer and there are a lot of boring scenes. The acting is much worse. The protagonist is twelve (as opposed to seventeen) which makes the theme and storyline less believable. He lacks the likability of the original film's protagonist. The martial art here is kung fu, which makes the film's title nonsensical.