The Protector 2 (2014)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Redundant and unnecessary.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

With the bad press surrounding poor Mr Tony Jaa after his breakdown and box office crashes of Ong Bak 2 & 3 (which I thought were a lot of fun and a hell of a lot better than this), the announcement of his return as the new king of action cinema came in the shape of this, TYG2 aka The Protector 2 aka Warrior King 2.Not only that but we had the added pleasure of Chocolate star JeeJa Yanin which got me most excited!Over the past few years, I have grown tired of Thai action cinema to be honest though. Its the same moves over and over, the same poor story lines, and maybe 1 or 2 exciting stunts that are used well in the trailers to show off the finer moments. But I finally got round to watching this one, and realised, nothing had changed.In fact, it took me over 3 nights to get through this boring rehash of Part 1, which at times I felt was actually just mocking the best parts of its predecessor. Most of it was in English with better Western actors, although the RZA was as expected.In regards to the acting, it looks like Tony Jaa was as bored as I was, ducking and dodging his way through long fights as if he were in slow motion. I have over 3000 kung fu movies in my collection, and seen a hell of a lot more, but only a few have ever bored me in terms of slow, boring choreography and poorly executed action scenes.Warrior King 2 joins that pile.In fact, the under-rated and very enjoyable Ong Bak sequels show Tony at his best compared to this! The editing and choreography were just ridiculous from the same people that gave us so many wow moments in action cinema.Thai comedy has always been hit or miss. In this, its very missed!Another annoyance was that JeeJa Yanin was just criminally underused! She looked like she was in a role that was just introducing her to the action film world, and never really got the fights she deserved, instead, becoming just a punch bag and fall girl for the most of the time.I am upset that it is such a let down. We all know we've seen better, so I can only hope that Tony Jaa's step into HK cinema will bring him up to scratch and put a fresh twist on the man we all used to love!

oh my god how bad was this, all the moves and set ups were so slow and obvious, everything was just really bad, the acting the script the characters and jaa seriously like all your moves just became boring as you just elbowed people in the head constantly its not a great move its boring to watch, jump elbow in the head. Jump on a dirt book, elbow him in the head, run at people slide through their legs turn them around slowly and then just hits them in the top of the head...oh my god what a waste of nearly 2 hours :( so bad you better be putting some effort into fast and furious 7 you really do...if you want to see action this is not the film that you want to go and see, it is rubbish, the big scenes with the main fighters I thought OK this could be the big fight scenes I want to see, and no they were also rubbish, at one point they use star wars lightsaber sounds when they kick each other its like what the hell.I can actually say this is the worst martial arts film ever made...

Tony Jaa pinged on our radars in 2003 in the Thai film Ong Bak that subsequently made him a worldwide name, of course not on the level of say George Clooney but he is one of Thai films major exports. This isn't surprising despite the fact that his films aren't known for their big story lines but more for the exceptional martial arts scenes. It did take 10 years but he's slowly coming up to the entrance of world stardom cause as of right now he is in Fast and the Furious 7 and Raid 3, but he didn't spend the last 10 years twiddling his thumbs. He was in a few sequels to his previous films with varying results. There are 3 Ong Baks and he was in Bodyguard and the first Protector. This second part was filmed last year and will be released now in preparation for his international carrier. Let's talk about the films story. Kham leaving behind his troubles finds himself on an elephant farm in Thailand. Everything is set for his soul to find peace. Strangers arrive and want to take one of the elephants who is Kham's friend… Kham of course doesn't want to let the elephant go so they steal it. Kham goes after the mysterious terrorists, but when he finds the bad guys he realizes that he is too late and someone has beaten the elephant to death. In the eyes of the mafia and the police he is the prime suspect but no one can find the elephant. We don't have to wait too long for RZA and a mysterious fighter to make their appearance who are really responsible for all the goings on. First of Tony Jaa's action films follow one style and he doesn't really want to stray from that. This is a classic Asian action film style. During most of the film the story fades into the background. Though it must be said that this silly story is even more frivolous than the usual stories in Asian films. Of course we all love elephants but for someone to kill for them or be coerced into crime to get them back is strange. Though I do know that in Thailand they relate differently to animals, but for it to be the main story of the whole film? And the weird female assassin twins felt out of place to me too, there whole appearance in the film is just pointless. So I think I can say that the whole story is below average. Usually in Asian films the acting style is exaggerated which takes some getting used to. This film was definitely made with an international market in mind, so Tony Jaa and most of the actors style is more digestible for westerners. This wouldn't be a bad thing if there weren't a bunch of people in the film who are incapable of this, so the film ends up emphasizing the difference in styles making it more noticeable. These mistakes are that important but they are distracting from the point the action that is perfectly choreographed and looks really good. Tony Jaa really is a very special fighter and he can show these really well on camera. If you like these types of films you won't be disappointed. Maybe just with the CGI in the few scenes where they use it might have been better to not bother with it, though I have to say it didn't really bother me that much. The director is okay, the script is a little hard to take, the cinematography and the music is good. In conclusion I think this is one of Tony Jaa's weakest films, though the film is weak in things that were never really the strong suit of any on his films, but he is good. So I give it a 4/10.

Great movie 10 out of 10 because I wouldn't want to get hit with a spinning kick, but I'd pay to see it. Wow though, just wow.. to me, the critics just sniffed a 2 year old full loaf of moldy bread and took a soccer kick to the groin 5 seconds later, laughing while they did it. Smart strong hearted people can ignore certain things, but the less informed tend to get kicked in the face. rza and tony jaa are no doubt gifted in the martial arts category, basically a bad fight choreographer makes a bad movie, not graphics or impossible odds. i've seen all of tony jaa's movies more then 10 times, i listen to Wu-tang clan, a lot, i don't know man, I liked this movie as it should be the the worlds greatest action film. You're cheering for the rapist if you think this movie is bad.