What a Stupid Film!

I just saw it for the first time.

What a joke. The direction is bad, the acting, even from Pat Morita and two-time-Oscar-winner Hilary Swank is *not* good, there's no plot, and the story makes no sense. Plus it all ends with a stupid "Don't fight, but if you must fight, win!" message, which feels like something out of the 80s (which is ironic, since the 1980s Karate Kid films were less macho and Darwinian in their politics). This makes Karate Kid 3 look like a masterpiece.

My main issue, apart from the lack of any real narrative (Karate Kid 1 and 3 built up to the tournament, and Karate Kid 2 mostly had a propulsive storyline that built-up to a reasonably logical payoff), is that none of it makes any sense.

Who is this Colonel Dugan, and why does the apparently nice guy principal allow him to rule the roost at the high school? Why does this psychopath, who, unlike previous Karate Kid villains, telegraphs his evil from the get-go (the great thing about KK3's Terry Silver, and that film's redeeming element, is how deliciously manipulative he is, and how credible he seems when he's initially pretending to be Daniel's 'friend'), have any kind of sway and influence? And what is the purpose of his Alpha Elite being allowed to bungee-jump through the middle of a high school prom? Once again, why does anyone connected with the school allow this, and considering how unpopular these assholes are, particularly after ruining a prom like that, whay does this 'Alpha Elite' believe they're the 'Big Men' on campus? Also, why does Colonel Dugan think that a burned-out car in the middle of a dockyard, with various witnesses who saw one of his boys bully Eric to drive to said dockyard, can be easily dismissed to the police as a 'car accident' (Eric has no injuries, the car hasn't crashed into anything, and surely a forensics team would immediately figure out that the car had been intentionally set alight)? Once again, what sway does Dugan have on the local police force?

And, no, Julie did *not* have to fight at the end, and Miyagi basically does a 180 degree about-turn from advocating pacifism in previous movies, to encouraging Julie to engage in a street-fight, for no good reason, especially since the Alpha Elite's beef was with Eric, not her.

Can anyone explain/justify this film to me?