Viewed in
2013
Formats
HDTV
Premise
Tony Jaa dies, is reborn to fight a supernatural demon.
Liked
Aerial stunts, temple battle, eye candy in the form of camera and colors.
Disliked
Confusing story, typical action tropes.
Thoughts
Um, yeah, this was weird, not necessarily in a good way.
I had to wait for the second half, but then they unleashed Jaa and his exhilarating fury. His aerial stunts were fantastic, including a jaw-dropping fight on top of multiple moving elephants. I don't know who the antagonist was but, he/she had a super-entertaining scene, decimating an army and a stone temple simultaneously.
Obviously, there was a lot of style over substance, but here, the style nearly filled that void of substance. Visually, it was gorgeous in color and movement. The camera moved fluidly and gratuitous slow-motion shots gave the combat scenes a sense of physical poetry. The wonderful art designs, from lush forests to gold-laden costumes, combined with beautiful color-timing gave every frame a painting-like aesthetic. It didn't hurt that the female lead was cute too.
While I appreciated the effort to have a decent story to accompany the fights, it just was a confusing mush. Admittedly, I didn't watch Ong Bak 2, but even with the multiple flashbacks, I doubt I would've understood the plot nor had the emotional investment to care. It didn't help that Jaa was completely passive for a large chunk of the movie, and the story was filled with action-hero tropes (girl saves fallen hero's soul, old dude training montage, hero meditates to gain enlightenment). At least these stock moments were visually entertaining, and not littered with useless dialog.
I honestly don't know if I should've watched the first sequel, but Ong Bak 3 was very uneven. There was two brilliant fight scenes, and the color palette was stunning throughout. However, I was confused to the point of not caring. It's a tough call, but like many of his martial arts movie predecessors, Tony Jaa barely made the movie worth it.
