ONG-BAK 2 The Begining-2009
Director(s) : Tony Jaa, Panna Rittikrai
Writer : Panna Rittikrai
Genre : martail arts/action/adventure
Rating : R
Running Time : 98 mins
Cast : Tony Jaa, Sorapong Chatree, Sarunyu Wongkrachang, Dan Chupong, Santisuk Promsiri
"Ong Bak 2", which seemingly has no relation at all to the first movie, was a big disappointment for me. The original "Ong Bak" and Tony Jaa's next movie "The Protector aka Tom Yum Goong" are two of my favorite martial arts films . There's just nothing in the world better than seing some little fresh off the boat country boy laying the law of ass whooping down to the bad boy wannbeee', and then humbling some badass fighter who thinks he owns the world and can just f**k over anyone he wants to. Both of those movies showcased Jaa's amazing kickass Muay Thai fighting skills along with his incredible ability to do his own stunts. "Ong Bak 2" is Jaa's first attempt at Directing or co-directing and also an attempt to make an epic classical martial arts movie that is a homage for his country's martial arts of Muay Thai, but it really falls short of that goal. This movie is more of a prelude to the original Ong Bak, this film is a homage for his country's martial arts of Muay Thai gets very violent at times but the representation of his country through the perfect dance and music is was very enjoyable to me, however the storyline was so confusing at times and under-developed that most of the time I had very little idea about the plot even until the very end. The story which often switches between the past and the present can become somewhat confusing. (But this is a martial arts movie, so a good story is'nt really needed right?) Amazingly even the main character of Tiang is poorly developed, a massive part of this is the small amount of dialogue in the film. This is a period piece unlike the first film's modern setting, and the only stunts available for Jaa to do involve either running across the backs and flipping off of elephants. What set Jaa apart in his previous two movies was his badass acrobatic muay thai fighting style that featured incredible aerial kicks. Here Jaa seems focused on throwing every possible martial art that he can fit into one movie just to show you that he can do it. And he does pull most of them off pretty well, but at other times he looks a bit awkward.
There are a lot of weird and unusual creatures and people in this film, their is even scene with a fight with an alligator? And the sound gets awful thruout the movie. The final 20 minutes are pretty good and are almost on par with what we have come to expect from Tony Jaa. If you have seen the extended trailer that has been online for some time now, almost all the action contained in it is in that last 20 minutes of this movie. It has a few hard hitting fight scenes and here he displays incredible proficiency in several different weapons such as the three sectioned staff and the sword. Up until that point the action is very limited and the story just isn't nearly good enough to keep the viewer interested. In fact, there is a lot of silly stuff in the movie including a woman who growls like a tiger, a vampir looking chic, a guy dressed up as bird, and another guy wearing what appears to be a black wicker basket on his head. It's hard to take a movie with images like that seriously. I like Jaa's intentions here of showing off different martial arts styles but I kept waiting for those jaw dropping fight scenes that just didnt happen.
6/10 Stars