Ong Bak 2
Its hard to put into words whether I like Tony Jaa's follow up to Ong Bak. On the one hand the movie looks great has a better story idea than either Tom Yum Goong or Ong Bak and delivers on the action. But at the other end of the spectrum from what I like there are the obvious problems.
The film as it is marked the troubled debut of Jaa as a director a task that was marked with him apparently suffering a breakdown running away from the set and apparently on finishing the movie with the original director of Ong Bak stepped in to help. Theres a lot I dig with the story even if its riffing on themes from Hollywood movies. The whole thing seems set up like an ode to Jaa's inspirations from the martial arts movies He cribs from to plot elements out of films like Conan and Empire Strikes Back. But the pacing feels sluggish in reality and never really captured my interest out of the action scenes. Theres a basic idea of a revenge story but the film spends maybe an hour focusing on Jaa's Tien training with bandits before rushing to a finale where He's avenging his parents murder at the hands of a ruthless conquerer. And the less said about the ending the better in my opinion.
Still like I said when the movies in action mode it delivers. Truthfully most of the times thats all I really watch a martial arts movie for even though a good story would help. When the movie dishes the action it does it well showing Jaa dishing out several forms of martial arts beatdowns in the opening. There are some amazingly good scenes throughout like at a slave camp featuring what looked to be a person fighting a real crocodile or the ensuing revenge where Jaa unleashes drunken kung fu to destroy the slavers. But nothing compares to the last fifteen mintues with Jaa taking on masked sword wielding assassins dishing out the punishment and going to a duel between two fighters with his signature mhuy thai of course before fighting Dan Chupong on the back of an elephant. One of my big issues with Tom Yum Goong was the lack of a great fight scene. This film certainly rectified this error presenting a scene that stands alongside the best modern martial arts action scenes in my opinion.
Look in the end the movie could have been better. But at ninety seven minutes with a so so story when it dishes out the action all my complaints are basically moot. Its not the best but what it does right it does it perfectly and provides this action fan what He wants.More detail ...
