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This is a nicely made film. It almost has more of a sensibility for a 40 something than for todays kids. Thankfully the directing style is mature, slow paced and not the modern headache-inducing Hollywood cut-cut-gloss-cut crapola churned out by almost every studio. The photography was beautiful with some interesting visuals. The kung fu was very creative -- no doubt with Jackie Chan's input.
Jaden Smith was much better than I would have imagined, given his prior history of one facial expression -- that of constipation. He's taken on many of his father's qualities and it appeared that he was blessed by a screenwriter who was trying to make his part sound like his father.
The emotional payoffs were not as great as in the original. The setting is unrelatable China, the relationship with the girl was just one of friendship and the bond between the master and student was not as powerfully father and son as the original.
They laced the story with humor, had a few powerful moments right out of the original and executed the finale very effectively. The villains were appropriately scary and I especially liked the evil kung fu master with the hair piece like hairdoo.
3 1/2 stars
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