Karate Kid: Legends - Two Branches, One Tree.

Mainstream blockbuster filmmaking has always been my biggest weakness as a cinephile, because I know it's the kind of filmmaking that takes the most skill. If you don't yet know this, now you know.

You're talking to the widest audience, and attempting to bring specific stories into the universal domain. Back in the day, the masters of the form, such as Spielberg and Lucas, built the genre of the blockbuster into a format and genre with conventions and expectations - which we take for granted today.

Somewhere in the time between now and the 80's, we lost what made blockbusters truly unique as a structure and art form – as audiences got smarter and more cynical, filmmakers turned toward subverting expectations and an unaffected ironic tone, and turned their backs against the feel-good blockbuster, with clear-cut heroes, antagonists, and clear stakes, that was always set to an awesome soundtrack.

I'm really, really happy to report that Karate Kid: Legends is some good old fashioned feel-good Blockbuster realness.

The stakes were kept high enough throughout for me to audibly root for our hero, Li "Stuffed Crust" Fong, as he stumbled his way into a brilliant coming of age, mentored by the memory of his brother, and a very entertaining (and talented) Jackie Chan as Mr. Han.

The refocus of the art of Karate and Kung-Fu back to the East, and showing an Chinese-American at the start of their immigration journey, felt particularly brilliant, welcome, and refreshing for the franchise. No longer a fish out of water, our hero now has deep roots in the culture he uses to win the day, and it means even more because it's about family and legacy.

However, of all the brilliant performances (including Ming-Na Wen!!! Give it up for Mother!), it's Chan's performance that glitters here – as a veteran of the genre, and blockbusters as a whole, he brings a confident swagger (and hardened Chinese Grandpa affect) to Mr. Han that is really good fun, and once he's truly in it by the end of Act 2, that's when the film gets it's wings.

With a clear and welcome references to the multimedia style of "Into the Spider-verse" throughout, the entire premise felt fresh again, merging multiple worlds - Karate and Kung-Fu, New York and Beijing, Old and Young - to create an entirely new language for the franchise.

A great time at the theatre, and a comfort rewatch if you're ever watching at home and need some honest and good company.