Stale Popcorn

I remember when, only a couple of years ago, Tony Jaa exploded onto the martial arts movie scene with Ong Bak – the big selling point of which was that it was “real” – no CG, no wires, just spectacular martial arts performed by Jaa & the rest of the cast. Such feats that, to us mere mortals seemed superhuman. And I loved it!

So hearing that Jaa was returning to make Ong Bak 2 after he made The Warrior King to say I was interested would be an understatement. But now I’ve watched it, I’m really not sure if it’s a good movie or not!

The Plot

Tony Jaa plays Tien, the only survivor of the brutal murders of his family. Captured by vicious slavers, Tien is forced to fight for his young life in a crocodile pit, a fight that is witnessed by the King of the Outlaws of White Gaurung cliff.

Surviving the crocodile pit, Tien is taken by the outlaws and given a choice – stay with them & learn how to fight or continue on his way alone. Tien decides to stay and, over the years, learns all the secrets of the outlaws fighting skills until he is one of the most feared members of the community.

After leading a number of raids, Tien re-encounters the slavers from his childhood & finally remembers what happened to him & his family. Now hell bent on revenge on the corrupt Crown Prince of the land, Tien sets off to avenge himself and his family.

Review

To be perfectly honest with you, there isn’t that much to review plotwise. The story, what there is of it, is servicible at best. There really isn’t a great deal of plot, and for the most part the story really feels like it’s only there to fill the few gaps between fights.

Tony Jaa, meanwhile, may be a fantastic fighter & acrobat, but he really isn’t a great actor. His expressions during the movie can basically be classified as ”surly” and….oh, no, wait a second, that’s it.

The rest of the cast are your typical one dimensional characters that you would find in pretty much any martial arts movie from over the years.

But, and it has to be said, the story & acting are probably not the reason why you’d be interested in watching this movie – no, the reason you will want to watch this is because of the fights. And it has to be said, they are fantastic, visceral, bloody, fast paced & exciting.

While I don’t fully believe the whole “no wires” thing (there’s at least one point in the movie that I’m pretty sure one of the fighters, but not Jaa it has to be said, has wires attached as I don’t think the jump he performs is possible, but never mind) but for pretty much all of the fight scenes there is a real edge to them that you don’t get in movies like The Matrix, for example.

So, for the most part, the fairly poor acting & frankly incomprehensible story is easily counterbalanced by the superb fight scenes but then something happens………..and the movie just ends.

It seemed very strange to me, especially with the final coda which obviously pointed to a sequel so I had a look online today and discovered that the movie had originally been conceived as a three hour epic instead of the one & a half hours that we get. I just think that this is a movie that will probably not really be able to be appreciated until we get to see the sequel as it really does just feel like the first half of a story and not a complete tale in it’s own right.

The Video

While I may have been left feeling slightly let down by the story & acting, I have no such misgivings about the video presentation. The flawless HD transfer on the disc really is fantastic. The colours are full, with skin tones realistically reproduced and the blacks of the night scenes deeply contrasting with the light, and the stunning shots of the lush Thai jungles are jaw dropping.

The Audio

The 5.1 audio track is also of high quality, with full use of the rear speakers during night scenes adding to the ambience of the scenes and the hits and cracks of people hitting each other come pounding out of the speakers.

The Extras

Behind The Scenes Footage: (25 min, SD) This is an interesting, if slightly puzzling, look behind the scenes at the filming of the movie, which includes footage of the filming, people being injured, practicing & Jaa directing. Like I said, interesting, but it could have done with an English voiceover or subtitles to fully explain what we were seeing.

Press Interview Clips:

Photo Gallery:

Trailers

All in all, this is a technically impressive, visually stunning martial arts movie that is let down by the badly executed story & some poor acting.

I do feel that this may well be a better movie, or more enjoyable, once we can see Part 3 but, taken as it is, it’s a mildly diverting martial arts movie which isn’t as good as the first Ong Bak. Which is a real shame, as the mystical nsture that Jaa has attempted is nearly there, but the story needed to be refined more to make it the equal of the fantastic martial arts. Hopefully the third part, released lagtr this year, will finish the story properly & make this feel like the complete “epic” that Tony Jaa obviously wanted to make.

If you were a fan of the original Ong Bak, then you’ll undoubtedly enjoy this movie for the superb fights, but if you want a great story to go along with your fighting then this, I’m afraid, is the wrong place to look.

So here’s my rating of the movie, and following the rating is an explanation, which I think you might need:

So let me breakdown my review score, as it might seem a little odd after reading the review. Yes, I gave a movie that disappointed me three and a half Corns, which usually means it’s a good movie.

There’s a reason for this score.

Half a corn for the acting/story/directing.

One & a half corns for the superb fight scenes.

One and a half corns for the stunning HD transfer, because it truly is that good.

Posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 12:28 pm under Blu-Ray Reviews by Gareth.

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