Summary
- Mortal Kombat movie franchise has stayed true to the popular video games and brought the flair of Hong Kong action movies to the big screen.
- The Karate Kid franchise has been a modern culture phenomenon, with its story of the master-student relationship resonating with audiences.
- The Ip Man franchise, led by Donnie Yen, has become the greatest martial arts movie franchise of all time, blending epic fight scenes with the life story of a martial arts master.
Both East and the West have produced long lists of martial arts movie franchises, some of which being significantly better than their contemporaries. Like any other genre, the storytelling of martial arts films can often be encapsulated very well in just one movie, as seen in Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury, the John Carpenter's '80s classic Big Trouble in Little China, or Iko Uwais' debut movie Merantau. However, the popularity of their characters and the style of their action can lead to them continuing as a franchise of multiple movies.
To properly qualify as a martial arts movie franchise, the series in question must have a minimum of three entries, which unfortunately rules out such classics as the Drunken Master and The Raid films. Nonetheless, many great martial arts movies have continued as a series well beyond their individual part threes, with some even becoming legendary sagas among martial arts fans.
10 Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat is one of the most acclaimed video game franchises of all time, and despite its 1997 low-point of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, the Mortal Kombat movie franchise has largely done the games justice. 1995's Mortal Kombat brought the flair of a Hong Kong action movie to what is widely regarded as the first great video game movie. The two-season web-series Mortal Kombat: Legacy and 2021's Mortal Kombat also delivered the goods on the game's famous Fatalities. With Mortal Kombat 2 on the way, the Mortal Kombat movie series has done its supernatural, Enter the Dragon-inspired namesake proud.
9 The Karate Kid
1984's The Karate Kid set the foundation of the master-student relationship in American martial arts films, and the movie remains rightly revered as an all-time '80s classic. The Karate Kid franchise continued its story through three increasingly intense sequels, along with its eponymous 2010 reboot, which swapped karate for kung fu and brought in Jackie Chan to share his martial arts wisdom to great effect. With its biggest weak point being 1994's The Next Karate Kid, the franchise has since become a modern culture phenomenon again through the highly acclaimed Netflix series Cobra Kai, showing just how powerful the franchise's energy really is.
8 Bloodsport
The tale of the mysterious tournament known as the Kumite put forth by Frank Dux might be disputed (to put it lightly), but 1988's Bloodsport is nonetheless a timeless cult classic that helped set the template for martial arts tournament movies. Bloodsport was also the breakout movie for Jean-Claude Van Damme as Frank Dux, while Daniel Bernhardt later took over as Alex Cardo in the surprisingly worthy follow-ups Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite and Bloodsport III. Though Bloodsport IV: The Dark Kumite was a letdown, the 2017 female-centric reboot Lady Bloodfight carries on the tradition of the Kumite with plenty of action-packed flair.
7 Ong Bak
2003's Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior introduced Tony Jaa as the first new martial arts star of the 21st century, with the movie's Muay Thai-based fight scenes becoming the next big evolution of fight choreography. The movie's two prequels Ong Bak 2: The Beginning and Ong Bak 3 pushed it even further, with Jaa blending martial arts disciplines into even wilder fight scenes. Altogether, the Ong Bak trilogy truly stands as the greatest martial arts movie series from Thailand.
6 Police Story
Jackie Chan's combination of comedic martial arts and serious-as-a-heart-attack stuntwork is seen in its purest form in the Police Story franchise. The original Police Story trilogy is full of hard-hitting action and Chan's goofy comedy hijinks, while New Police Story and Police Story 2013 both reboot the franchise into much dark stories. What is a constant throughout the Police Story franchise is its classic Hong Kong-style action and fight choreography, with Jackie Chan surviving no shortage of pain and daunting stunts to get the job done.
5 Best of the Best
The Best of the Best franchise is nothing if not a love letter to Korean martial arts. Phillip Rhee's Tommy Lee is the heart of the Best of the Best franchise, competing in a tournament against the South Korean team in the first film before he and Eric Roberts's Alex Grady enter an exhilarating underground MMA showdown to the death in Best of the Best 2. With more great fight scenes a-plenty in Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back and Best of the Best: Without Warning (both directed by Rhee), the Best of the Best movies are an immortal martial arts movie hallmark.
4 Once Upon A Time In China
Wong Fei-hung is arguably the biggest kung fu legend in China, and the six-movie Once Upon A Time in China franchise captures his mythical heroism with epic storytelling and top-of-the-line Hong Kong-style fight scenes. Jet Li's stalwart and physically astounding portrayal of Wong Fei-hung cemented him as a Hong Kong star, while Vincent Zhao also delivered some committed performances of Wong himself in the franchise's fourth and fifth chapters. All in all, the Once Upon A Time in China series is among the most impressive, as each installment provides an entertaining experience.
3 Undisputed
Straight-to-DVD rebounds of theatrical misses have become increasingly common, and they owe a major debt to the Undisputed franchise for leading the way. After the relatively unseen Undisputed in 2002, Isaac Florentine's sequel Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing swapped boxing for MMA and brought in the still fresh Scott Adkins as the electrifying fighting machine Yuri Boyka. Undisputed 3: Redemption and Boyka: Undisputed up the ante on the franchise's amazing fight scenes, and with Adkins's series co-stars including fellow martial arts extraordinaires Michael Jai White, Marko Zaror, and Lateef Crowder dos Santos, the Undisputed franchise is nothing but martial arts movie glory.
2 John Wick
The John Wick franchise has all but become the standard for modern action movies, and that's due in no small part to the meticulous care put into the franchise's fight choreography. Keanu Reeves trained tirelessly to bring John Wick's fighting and assassin skills to life, with his efforts showing in every frame of the series. The John Wick franchise has also become a martial arts ensemble of stars such as Mark Dacascos, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Donnie Yen, just to name a few. Combined with its perfection of gun-fu, the John Wick franchise never disappoints when it comes to martial arts action.
1 Ip Man
Kicking off in 2008, the Ip Man franchise follows the saga of a sagely kung fu master with fists as furious as those of his most famous pupil, Bruce Lee. Through the Ip Man movies, Donnie Yen made Ip Man into his signature role and created a worldwide Wing Chun renaissance. Indeed, the Ip Man movies became so popular that, belying the title of Ip Man 4: The Finale, Ip Man 5 is also in the works. Blending powerful, epic fight scenes with the legend of a martial arts master in a changing world, the Ip Man series stands as the greatest martial arts movie franchise of all time.
