Movie Review: “Ong Bak 2”

Seen on: October 21, 2009

The players: Directors: Tony Jaa, Panna Rittikrai, Writers: Tony Jaa, Panna Rittikrai, Cast: Tony Jaa, Santisuk Promsiri, Sarunyoo Wongkrachang

Facts of interest: Prequel to "Ong Bak."

The plot: After Tien sees his parents get murdered, he's picked up by a group of warriors who teach him martial arts.

Our thoughts: Tony Jaa returns to kicking major ass in “Ong Bak 2,” a film that boasts an impressive photography but eventually suffers from many overlong scenes and monotonous action. As expected, a story is pretty much nonexistent, and while the film is not entirely boring, it still failed to win me over.

Considering the action is overpowering in the film and I consequently stopped paying attention to plot and especially dialogue after the first 20 minutes, I’m not really in the position to speak in detail about what “Ong Bak 2” is really about. That said, I will try my best, even though I’ll make it short.

The film introduces us to Tien, a young boy whose life takes a drastic turn when he sees his parents getting murdered. Tien ends up on the street where he’s later picked up by some people who teach him all about martial arts and stuff, and before he knows it, he finds himself on a mission to avenge his family’s murder.

Or something along those lines. In case I missed something major here, please enlighten me, but then again, I’m not sure it really matters. The follow-up to “Ong Bak” is all about the fighting, and there’s more of that in the film than you can possibly handle. Too bad it’s a little too repetitive at times.

Cinemagoers who enjoy watching a tough guy destroying hundreds of mean folks will certainly have a blast watching Jaa in “Ong Bak 2.” I generally enjoy films like this one as well, but this sequel totally overdoes it in my book. In other words, there’s just way too much of the same exact thing going on here.

While some of the big battle scenes work in terms of entertainment value, others aren’t impressive at all. Jaa is a master at what he does and delivers some awesome moves here and there, but many of his fights are simply too long. I mean, does it really make sense to continuously punch just one guy for an entire five minutes?

“Ong Bak 2” also includes a series of quieter, calmer scenes, and while some of them are definitely shot beautifully, they really drag along for no reason. The filmmakers surely picked gorgeous locations and stuffed this adventure with huge production values, but I wish they had put more effort into writing a decent script. 

At this point, that’s all I can think about. The film suffers from battling overkill, and watching Jaa kicking bad guy after bad guy in endless action sequences eventually made me laugh more than it captured my attention. This could’ve turned into a way better film if Jaa and his pals hadn’t sacrificed good storytelling for all the battles.

Freaky quote: I can't remember any dialogue...

The final word: Awesome technical aspects put aside, “Ong Bak 2” fails to deliver the goods. It’s an unnecessary prequel that jumps around in time for no reason, creating more confusion than suspense. It’s a much emptier film than its superior predecessor, and I can only recommend this one to the diehard Jaa fans.

Article by Franck Tabouring