For the second time in as many weeks, I’m forced to put my status as a movie lover into question. This time, it’s for confessing to no prior knowledge of the Karate Kid franchise. I only know that The Next Karate Kid sucked, and that knowledge came to me second-hand. To that end, I can only judge this remake on its own merit, and I judge it to be “mixed.”

Make no mistake: This movie very stringently follows the formula set by its namesake. The story has beats you could set your watch to (including a handful of training montages), the love interest is cardboard and the antagonist is a one-dimensional bully whose teacher is one-dimensionally evil. Oh, and there’s a “best friend” character who takes our hero under his wing early on… and is strangely never seen again.

And yet, when the script isn’t being implausible, cliched or predictable, it actually has some pretty good dialogue. There are a lot of scenes here in which the kids actually talk like kids. Unfortunately, this is often a difficult thing to tell, as the kids in this movie simply can’t act. Except for Jaden Smith.

The movie’s star is clearly his father’s son. Smith has action chops, he’s pretty good at comedy, he’s got charisma and he has his dad’s knack for charm through slight self-deprecation. He’s also a solid actor for so young an age, though he really needs to work on his crying.

Taraji P. Henson also turns in some fine work as Smith’s mom. The two have great chemistry and their parent/child dynamic is just perfect. Henson brings a mom who’s clearly very concerned about her kid and loves him deeply, but also isn’t willing to put up with his shit. In a genre where parents usually play the antagonist role and a movie that allows for absolutely zero gray area between hero and villain, it’s refreshing to see a mother who’s supportive yet balanced. On a different note, there were a few brief moments in which I thought that the movie was going to try and sell us a love subplot between Henson and Jackie Chan’s character. Thankfully, the movie veered from that path pretty quick.

And that clever segue brings me to this movie’s true surprise: Jackie Chan. In this movie, Chan brings something that’s been strangely lacking for the past decade: EFFORT. Seriously, just when he seemed resigned to his reputation as a washed-up punchline, he does this. Chan actually works to craft a character who’s mysterious and deceptively strong, and then gradually peels back the layers to reveal the cliched, tortured past behind the standard omniscient adviser. Nevertheless, he turns in a good performance and it marks the first time I’ve seen Jackie Chan implicitly embrace the fact that he’s getting on in years. That brought a lot to this role and I’d like to see him do it more often.

Visually, the film presents China as an absolutely beautiful and exotic place, totally whitewashing the communism, human rights violations and subpar health conditions over there. Aside from that, the camera work is pretty bland and the music is even more so. The songs are the same kind of crap that you’ve likely heard on the radio day in and day out. The score, meanwhile, is total schlock and only really works during the film’s emotional high notes. In the context of the movie, the score is hit-and-miss. Outside the movie, this score would be totally worthless. But the fight scenes? AWESOME. The acrobatics and choreography are phenomenal and the impacts are visibly felt. Truly amazing stuff, especially considering how young the combatants are.

In short, The Karate Kid is totally inconsequential. It’s predictable and shallow as movies get, but the fight scenes kick ass, the lead performances are solid and there are some cute moments to be found. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not many shades above mediocre, either. If you’re looking for a movie to go in one ear and out the other, this is the one for you.