If I were making the new Karate Kid movie...

I feel like maybe I'm alone in my enthusiasm for the new Karate Kid remake. Hey, I was just as skeptical as everyone else when I first heard they were making a new one, and that they were casting Will Smith's son as the kid and Jackie Chan as Mr. Han, the Mr. Miyagi role. But I'll be darned. Personally, I think everything I see from the film looks great. There's so much to like about it. I love the casting. Gotta say, Jaden Smith looks awesome in this. So does Jackie Chan. When in the trailer there's that great shot that pushes in on him with the sun over his shoulder and he says "Everything... is kung fu," man, all I can think is "I'll follow you anywhere, Jackie Chan!" Taraji P. Henson (the only good thing about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? Discuss.) is eeeaaasssyyy on the eyes. I love that the Cobra Kai are basically a giant army in this movie. I love the look and scope of the film.

But okay, here it is. If I were the one making the new Karate Kid movie, here's what I'd have done:

Jaden Smith plays Dre Parker, a kid in LA being taunted by bullies. None of this moving to China business. He is taken under the wing of a master karate instructor named... wait for it... Daniel LaRusso. Yes, Mr. Miyagi's old student is himself now a badass karate teacher. Or maybe he's still running his bonsai tree shop from Karate Kid III and offers to teach young Dre because Dre reminds him so much of himself. So he begins to train Dre just as Miyagi taught him, in preparation for a final tournament in which Dre will face off against the head bully, just as Danielsan once did.

That way it basically does what the newest Star Trek movie did. It would be both a sequel and a reboot. Younger audiences wouldn't have to have seen the originals for it to make sense to them, but everything would have this whole other level of meaning, like, when Danielsan teaches the kid the crane kick. That cool shot in the new movie where Jackie Chan is holding the kid over the side of the dock? Imagine that with Macchio holding the kid instead of Chan. I don't mean to wax on poetic, but just imagine that awesome shot where Chan says "Everything... is kung fu" with the sun behind him.... but imagine it with Macchio. "Everything... is karate." Or when Dre says his line from the trailer "I don't want to be scared anymore," Danielsan can respond with that great Miyagi line from Karate Kid III: "It's okay to lose to an opponent, but you must not lose to fear!" I get chills just thinking about it. And having Macchio in the film would pretty much justify using Bill Conti's amazing Karate Kid theme that you know will be absent from the new Jackie Chan movie.

But here's where it gets interesting. Because the bully that Dre has to face off against is also being trained by a master sensei. And her name is Julie Pierce, who, in case you don't remember, was the character played by Hilary Swank in The Next Karate Kid.

So we have two students of Miyagi, each prepping their own pupil. And in the end the pupils go up against each other in the tournament. And, of course, the rival instructors (Macchio and Swank) have a romantic history. Because, you see, maybe they were introduced to each other by Mr. Miyagi back in the day. Maybe they got married. Maybe they split up. There's all this history between them. And now they're using their pupils as a way to work out their issues with each other and try to outdo each other. But, of course, they were both taught by the same man, Mr. Miyagi. So each already knows what the other knows.

But this is all just in the B story. Because the A story is still focused on Jaden Smith and his defeat of the bullies and winning his own girl. THAT'S the main story of the film. So in that sense it IS a remake, and no one HAS to have seen the other movies before seeing this one. The B story, about Daniel and Julie's history and rivalry and their shared discipleship of Mr. Miyagi, that's all in the background. Subplots. Glances across the room. Maybe a scene or two where they talk about it. That's there and it's self contained. You'd understand what's going on without any prior knowledge of the characters. But if you HAVE seen the other movies, everything takes on a deeper meaning. Then maybe by the end Daniel and Julie have seen the error of their ways. Realized that their behavior has gone against the teachings of Miyagi. There is reconciliation. Lessons learned. Romance rekindled. Etcetera, etcetera. Maybe Dre, wiser now, lets the other kid win the tournament. Audiences would never see that coming.

Fudge. Now I wanna see THIS movie. Now the new Karate Kid with Jackie Chan is sounding lamer and lamer to me. Oh, sigh.