_"Get him a body bag! Yeah!"_

Yeah, this was a decent film. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, it was decent, but I didn't know what to expect. In a way, I guess that may have backfired on me a bit. It subtly slithered in expectations to where I got thrown off balance. It was all good in the end, though.

I went in with some things at the back of my head: the moment in HIMYM with Barney Stinson believing Johnny Lawrence's the real Karate Kid, bits and pieces from _Cobra Kai_ that I've seen where Johnny's shown in a different light, and how some people think or ended up thinking, more recently, that Daniel wasn't so innocent, either.

That made me think Johnny would have more depth, as well as being super cruel, and Daniel would be similar, to a lesser extent: or that he would be a typical bully-victim, super scared and taking it, defenseless, making Johnny more "evil." And I guess that was true, somewhat. But not in the way I was expecting. Johnny wasn't _that_ horrible, just your average bully. But the writer didn't seem to do much with his character, depth-wise. And Daniel wasn't this weak person who garnered even more sympathy when evil Johnny got into the picture; he was headstrong/revengeful and happened to encounter trouble with no proper means to defend himself.

The focus didn't seem to be on highlighting Johnny as this evil guy nor Daniel as this good guy you should undoubtedly be cheering on; you end up doing that yourself without any push towards it by the writer, or that's how it seemed. If anything, it seemed like the writer subtly painted John Kreese (through himself, but especially his teachings) as the "evil guy." But even that came across as a back-burner focus. The real focus/message was the relationship between Daniel and Mr. Miyagi and the latter's life lessons/wisdom, or at least that's what I think.

This film was undoubtedly a film from/of its time, that's for sure. Everything about it was screaming that out. That wasn't necessarily a problem in and of itself. It's just that it was somewhat average. The story was simple, maybe too simple, but that could've been more on the direction and pacing; not much did seem to happen. The other aspects didn't seem as "vibrant" as I thought they would be, which is probably on me for having certain expectations. But maybe that's the case with loads of films back then. The soundtrack, as well as the score composed by Bill Conti, was decent, though. And the fight choreography, while 80's-esque, was done well.

Don't get me wrong: that was fine. I feel like the "disconnect," in a sense, is the nostalgia factor attached to this film. I think that elevated it higher than it was when people refer to it. Because, when peeling that back, what's left is a fairly average (not bad, just average) film.

At the same time, there's something about it. That could come from three elements: sincerity, genuinity, and a general sense of heartfeltness; they seemed prominent. Despite being an average film, it seemed to have more of an effect than it realistically "should've." That almost feels like a proper explanation of most films from this film's time, even though I wouldn't know anything about that. And it's not nostalgia, as this is my first time watching it. It just seems to have succeeded against all odds, like an underdog, like Daniel LaRusso.