'Karate Kid: Legends' review: Ralph Macchio returns in this enjoyable entry

If you’re a fan of "The Karate Kid," from 1984 — and who isn’t? — then you’ve probably seen it a dozen times. There was magic in the casting of Huntington’s Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso, a bullied high schooler, and Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, an aging sensei who teaches the boy not only karate but confidence and self-respect. The real reason it worked, though, is that it sold us a fantasy, one so pleasurable that we never wanted it to end. Every sequel since then has tried, with mixed success, to retell that story in a new way.

Enter "Karate Kid: Legends." Capably directed by British television veteran Jonathan Entwistle, the sixth film in the franchise presents a new hero (of Asian descent, a first for these movies), brings back a couple of familiar characters and adds a subplot that slightly muddies the waters. The magic of the original may be lacking, but by keeping its goals modest the movie manages to give us exactly what we want: the same thing, but different.

An appealing Ben Wang plays Li Fong, a Shanghai teenager who moves to New York City with his mother, a doctor (Ming-Na Wen). Li has baggage: a dead older brother, a promise to his mom to avoid violence and a beloved kung-fu teacher (Jackie Chan as Mr. Han, first introduced in the 2010 reboot). It doesn’t take long for trouble to find Li: He meets Mia (Sadie Stanley, of "Kim Possible"), a cool girl who works at her dad’s pizza joint, then runs afoul of her possessive ex, Connor Day (Aramis Knight), a ruthless karate expert. Connor is the kind of guy who says he'll whup you with no hands, and then does so, resoundingly.

It'll all end with Li and Connor squaring off at the Five Boroughs Tournament, but to get there the story zigs and zags a bit. (Shoreham's Rob Lieber wrote the screenplay, based on the original by Robert Mark Kamen.) First, Mia’s father (Joshua Jackson as Victor), reveals that he owes money to a loan shark and, despite his age, trains under young Li to enter his own boxing tournament. Later, Han flies in from China to train Li — and then Macchio’s LaRusso flies in from California to help Han. It’s all a bit much, but Macchio’s presence provides some welcome connective tissue to the original film (and, of course, to his streaming spinoff series, "Cobra Kai").

Entwistle keeps the tone breezy, poppy and very "teen," almost as if he’s directing a dance-competition film like "Step Up" or "Bring it On." The likable cast helps sell the wobbly material. If you can overlook the fact that this city is quite clearly not New York — it’s actually a much-too-tidy Montreal — then the fantasy that "Karate Kid: Legends" is selling will be complete.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com