Review of Ong Bak 2 (2008) by Carlos Z — 12 Feb 2010

The new Jackie-Li is back in the prequel to his breakout starring role in a westren produced and directed movie shot over seas in alot of scenes, annnnyways. While Ong Bak was all about slow motiona nd double taked stunts involving no wires and no stunt doubles. The plot, whiule thin, was robably a bit more fleshed out then this disjointed visual feast.

The fighting is insane and that swings both bad and good, good in the sense that fist a cuffs are mind bogglingly fast and intense but alsoon the brink of casuing motion sickness. I have never seen fists and legs flying so fast just ridiculous stuff. While the fighting was out of the this world and stomach turning, the stunts I am on the fence about...

Ong Bak IS all about the crazy stunts, and while there was fighting aplenty here there wasnt much in the way of eye popping and dangeerous acrobatic maneuvers and cool stunts and crazy flips,. only a couple scenes displayed this and they involved a herd of running elephants which I o not know if it was cgi or actual real. IF it was real, then this would be some of the most impressive sunt work in motion picture history, and if it is cgi then at least it looked pretty cool and did the job of adding the always badass and potent mix of action + elephants.

The story, while drenched in "historical" story related detail and showcasing origins and other roots of cultures and ways of the ass-kicking, there was hardly any meat on this movies bones as far as an actual story was concerned. Some parts where quite disjointed and didnt fit where they were placed in the movie, and because of this the movies consistency is shot having lulls and dragging awkward moments especially near the last third of the movie.

Tony Jaa, the star and producer, also directed this movie and his young skills behind the cmamera are obvious, if not, he needs a new editor asap. But you can give him lots of credit for at least making this movie refreshingly increidble to look at. WQow the use ot dshadowed light and other effects and lighting technicues looked sooooo good. A beuatifully shot movie with some amazing use of lighting, bravo Tony - not abd for your first big directorial debut.

This movie didnt get near as wide of a release as the first Ong Bak but at least it looks trrific due to about 9 studios chipping in to help bring the budget up, so even though this is a direct to dvd prequel, don't be too hard on it and have some decent expectations cause theres alot of great looking action here, it's just the story doesnt equal up to and add enough substance or make clear enough sense. Highly recommend as a strong rental for Ong Bak/Tony Jaa fans, although to be hones tthis overall wasnot quite as good as Ong Bak and I would probably go so far as to say I wont be buying this movie, but am glad I got the chance to rent it.