Review for The Karate Kid 2

The Karate Kid 2 is not as good as the first. Let's just get that out in the open to start. Sure, it has its moments and is certainly a nice film to watch, but if I'm honest, this is probably one of those films that I would not watch if I had a choice. One of the things that stifle this film is the recap of the original which takes up almost the first fifteen minutes. Rather than being a quick montage to cover the opening credits, it is almost the entire first film albeit in shortened form. I understand the creators wanting people to remember just how good the first film was, but really all you needed to show was the final stage of the tournament. Instead, we again see Daniel moving to California, being beaten up, meeting Ali, and training under Miyagi and so on and so on.

Once the film gets started properly, the story isn't so bad. Mr. Miyagi has received news that his father is dying and so he travels to Okanawa with Daniel to see him. Here we find that Miyagi left the country because of a fight with an old rival Sato, who was dishonored by Miyagi and vows to fight him until the death. This plot goes through the rest of the film and though it is almost the same as the first, with Sato, his nephew and his gang replacing the bullies it doesn't have the same impact. The actual ending is so stupid that unlike in the first where you understood exactly what Daniel learnt to defeat his enemy, in this one, I'm still not sure. All I know is it involves imitating a little drum toy. No that's not a joke.

A very short featurette from when the film was originally released. This is a little bizarre, with all the work that went into the original; you would have thought the cast and crew could have spared a few minutes to talk about the sequel. This one also includes the Blu-Pop feature which is a little like the 'Pop up Video' from MTV only this time it is just text comments that pop up and most of them refer back to the original film anyway.

It would be wrong to say The Karate Kid 2 is a bad film. It's not; it's just not as good as the original. It is more or less the same film, the story doesn't flow as well and unlike the first which did not feel like the two hour length, this one did. However, if you enjoyed the first film and the loved the characters this is an ok film to watch.