10 Movie Sequels Whose Titles No Longer Made Sense

6. The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid is a the uplifting story of a weedy kid who, through a training regime of repetitive waxing motions and power ballad backed montage, manages to win a martial arts competition through the use of an illegal move. Being basically a Rocky rip-off for children, the Karate Kid proved enough of a winning formula to spawn a set of sequels that had essentially the same plot. Because of this it is hard to say whether the 2010 installment, starring nonsense twitter favourite Jaden Smith and simply titled The Karate Kid, counts as a sequel or is a remake. One thing that is certain, however, is that it is one of the worst examples of franchise titling that there has yet been. The 2010 Karate Kid is a weedy, bullied kid who, through a training regime of repetitive jacket removal from a janitor who is also implausibly a martial arts master, is able to triumph against his bullies at a martial arts tournament. Giving it the same title may not immediately seem problematic. The only issue is that there is no karate in the 2010 Karate Kid. Karate has its origins in Okinawa, Japan and, as this film is set in Beijing, China, it is kung fu instead that Jackie Chan teaches this "karate" kid. Assuming that Chinese and Japanese people and culture are essentially interchangeable is not just culturally insensitive, it's full on racist. Hollywood managed to make a film where both leads aren't white and still ended up causing racial offensive. The film, titled The Kung Fu Dream in China, has been rumoured to spawn its own series, so the chances of this messed up title changing any time soon are slim.