I actually thought the fights were excellent. Yes some of the CGI looked half baked, but these arent Avenger-style budgets and overall, i thought was pretty good. Agree storyline was weak and its time for Tony to challenge himself, but i thought this was far from bad.
shareBut even the fights were, most of the time, unimaginative, badly edited and choreographed.
I'm not an expert on marial arts choreography, but I know I liked TYG 1, Ong-Bak and Kerd Ma Lui (Born to Fight, 2004) MUCH MUCH more than this.
www.youtube.com/user/AustrianFilmGeek
Yea, I agree with you. The negative reviews really scared me so I did go in with lowered expectations. I really didn't think the movie was as bad as some people make it out to be. Sure, it's not as good as Ong Bak or Tom yum Goong but some of these reviews people are giving it make it seem like it's a complete waste of time.
It had several good fight scenes in it (namely, the rooftop, and the two fight scenes between Tony Jaa and Marresse Crump). unfortunately, it also had some other fight scenes which didn't live up to the standard that I've come to expect from Tony Jaa.
Those that are saying Tony Jaa is washed up and done are really over-reacting. the guy just made some terrible business decisions which stalled his career. He just needs to do more movies so he can build his reputation and hopefully get to work with more accomplished directors. Good direction/choreographer can make even the *beep* fighter look good and I think Tony Jaa is young enough to rekindle the popularity he had when he made the original Ong Bak.. It's not like the guy is 50 years old.. I think he's only 35 or something....
Skin Trade does not look too promising as i'm not convinced the director will know how to utilize Tony Jaa effectively..
Fast / Furious will only be a small role as I imagine most of the screen time will be kept to the western actors.
I'm more excited about SPL2 because Tony should have ample screen time with some great HK fighters..
The problem is that his movies are getting worse. If he was going to be the next big thing it was going to happen right after Ong Bak and TYG 1 when his movies were at their peak. It didn't happen then, and now with his movies getting worse, the chances are going down with every film he does.
The CGI and fake 3D of this really ruins the entire point of his films. I dunno if this was any more entertaining that the STV Ninja 2 with Scott Adkins, they seem about equal. Which is a shame considering how much better ong bak and protector 1 are than 99% of action movies...
"What? Do you wanna just sit around and be wrong?" - Liz Lemon
Forget the CGI, As a martial arts movie fan, it's the fights in the movie that was the biggest let down.
share[deleted]
**SPOILER WARNING**I agree. It wasn't nearly as bad as i was lead to believe based on all the negative reviews. Especially when compared to the epic mess that was Ong Bak 3! Even before I came across people's reviews and comments, I was left scratching my head to the Plot description. Recycled story from Protector 1?? COME ON!!!! He lost his dang elephant again? GEEZ. lol. But, to me the action more than makes up for it. As always, Tony Jaa pours his heart and soul into the fights in this movie. There's no denying he is an awesome martial artist. The dude kicks as$. And he tried to incorporate and add a lot of new stuff and stunts you wouldn't see otherwise, bad cgi not withstanding, I was still left with some "Wow, and Whoa, and OOOOOH" moments.
A lot of the cool shots were made for 3D viewing you can tell. I can truly appreciate what they tried to do with this movie. The Sarge was entertaining and funny as always, I really like that guy :) The villains were pretty Brutal! Especially the bald one, man that guy threw the poor females around like they were rag dolls. Tough to watch sometimes hehe. Not to say they weren't super fast and kick as$ themselves. And Protector 2 even had a few surprises, like the glasses guy turned bad. Didn't see that coming. And when Tony Jaa actually "lost" and got whooped by the bald guy. But then, oh wait....He just had a poison needle in his neck, that's why! But still, to see someone you root and cheer for get beat down...not easy lol. Forget the story, tune out logic, and grab your favorite snacks, then just enjoy the action :) I think Tony Jaa needs some star writer to have his back. And who knows, maybe more opportunities will open up for him after working with Vin Diesel.
This movie was an atrocity.
Flaming feet for like 5 minutes in a fight scene...
Fighting against motorcycles on top of a rooftop in the cheesiest way possible.
Rail road electricity enough to kill a man with one jolt surging through their bodies for like a minute while they are fighting they are giving each other shocks... The scene where some big wheel thing randomly falls from the ceiling for no reasons whatsoever and then rolls over the guy on the box so that Tony can jump on top of it and defy the laws of physics, he's like 10 feet away from the guy and jumps vertically 90 degrees in the air to magically make his way 10 feet to the left of the screen to land a blow on the guy...
The elephant and Tony falling like 50 stories down a cliff into water only to emerge unarmed including the elephant...
The list goes on and on and on and on and on and on... Worst martial arts movie I have ever seen that was meant to be serious... It's a shame too because, the protector was one of the best martial arts movie I saw.
2/10 just because some of the parts in the fighting scenes (very very very few good ones)...
My guess is the emperor of Thailand wrote it and because they cannot say no to that dude therefore they had to make this super massive blackhole of stupidity.
Everything that was supposed to be heroic was beyond common sense. Beyond the insane things mentioned earlier I also didn't understand why RZA was trying to remove elephant's tusks when he was sure to die in this attempt and the dignitaries had already left.
Just finished watching it, and I have to agree. I went in with low expectations due to all the negative reviews I'd been hearing about this film, and I honestly didn't think it was THAT bad. Sure, not as good as Ong Bak or The Protector, but definitely better than Ong Bak 2 and 3, which were complete borefests.
I agree with the general consensus of complaints: CGI stood out like a sore thumb, plot felt recycled and became increasingly incoherent, RZA was a terrible villian, some of the fights weren't convincing and were rather cheesy.
But then there were some fights scenes that really impressed me. These occurred mostly in the beginning. Tony Jaa is still amazing to watch after all these years. It's also a pleasure to watch that actress from Chocolate in the same movie with Tony.
All in all, lots of things to hate in this movie, but if you come in with low expectations, you can still have a good time with this movie. The film moves at a good enough pace to keep you entertained throughout, unlike Ong Bak 2 and 3. The 5.5 rating on this site is quite accurate for this movie.
While I can agree this is not as good as TGY 1 or Ong Bak 1 or 2, it is an entertaining film and much, much better than Ong Bak 3.
Esta es mi firma