Hmmmm
Sequels are a tough gig. One out of ten sequels ends up good. Only a handful of sequels end up in the ‘great’ category. As much as George Lucas doesn’t want to hear it, The Empire Strikes Back was better than A New Hope. Lethal Weapon 2 was much better than Lethal Weapon. These are rarities and this type of pattern of success simply doesn’t apply to The Karate Kid II.
The story starts off where the first one ended; Daniel wins the tournament and moves on with his life. Instead of smoothly transitioning the story of Larusso’s life, the movie harshly cuts off the first movie by saying his mom is moving to a different city and Larusso’s girlfriend left him for a football player. That’s easy enough to cut off all original characters and focus the rest of the time on the main characters; Miyagi and Daniel. This time around the pair end up going back to Miyagi’s old stomping grounds in Okinawa to visit his ailing father. While there, Miyagi has to clean up a mess he left Okinawa with; the broken relationship between him and his best friend Sato. Their relationship was damaged because Miyagi loved Sato’s ‘almost’ arranged wife. Add to this Sato’s mean-ass student, Chozen, who immediately becomes the new ‘Johnny’ in the sequel and you have yourself a perfect setup.
While the movie goes light on the love story and focuses in on Miyagi’s own ghosts (he isn’t perfect in this one as he is in the first), it still is the same story as the first movie. Good wins over evil and the world is turned right thanks to the efforts of Daniel and Mr. Miyagi. There isn’t much here that makes you worry or makes you feel like the heroes aren’t going to win. Unlike the first, you know that without a doubt good is going to win no matter the cost. You get the same performance out of the pair and you get the same results at the end.
In short, it’s more of the same.
Now, outside of the story, the biggest difference between the first and second movies is the location. The budget seemed to bloom once the first movie was a riveting success. The location of the shoot makes the movie more majestic. Even the final fight location was gorgeous. Still, strip away all of these things, even the fancy Oscar nominated song “Glory of Love”, and what do you have? The same movie. That’s not to say that this movie isn’t good, it’s just not different enough to make it spectacular. It’s a good sequel, but not far above the original. It’s like Terminator 2: Judgment Day; it’s the same movie as the first, just with a HUGE budget.
With all of this said, the Blu-ray upgrade is gorgeous. Seeing the beautiful oceanfront views and the bright sunny island locations make this Blu-ray a must-have for Karate Kid fans. Much like the first, the audio and video are truly beautiful. I think to an extent they’re more beautiful than the original, but again that’s strictly because of the locations it was shot in.
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Blu-pop – Still good stuff.
– The Sequel Featurette
The Sequel Featurette is a rehash and not a good one at that. Old SD video that looks worn on a Blu-ray is never a good thing.